At Phase, we’re incredibly blessed to be able to deliver Christmas Unwrapped workshops to hundreds of year 6 students around Hitchin. Now, despite what the name may suggest, no wrapping paper is harmed in the making of these workshops. Instead, we unwrap the Christmas story, figuratively speaking. 

As a team, we begin the workshop by sharing our favourite thing about Christmas. Our answers tend to range from shopping and decorations to Boxing Day football. Sharing this helps us connect with students, showing them that when it comes to Christmas, we get excited about the same things they do! This helps us to collectively question: as great as these things are, what are we really celebrating at Christmas?

We have a couple of fun quizzes - one about waiting for Christmas and another about the Christmas story. We realise in the first quiz that the Jews waited hundreds of years to receive the hope and light we celebrate at Christmas. That would be one giant advent calendar! In the second quiz, we learn about all the ways we’ve modernised the nativity story. We’ve made it familiar to us instead of retaining the historical narrative.

Near the end, we read the Christmas story in small groups, giving the students a chance to reflect on the meaning of key events as they write them in their own words. Finally we watch a brilliant video called ‘Retooning the Nativity’ to summarise all that we’ve thought about in a fun and memorable way. And, there’s a chance for a Christmas Q&A with the Phase team before we leave them with a small gift! Each student receives a booklet about the Christmas story and a mini chocolate angel. 

If you enjoyed this blog, get in touch and let us know your favourite thing about Christmas! You can stay up to date by following @phasehitchin on Instagram and Facebook. 

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