The Best Primary Christmas Program EVER

Today was finally the day of our Primary Program in our little branch at church. What preparation went into it! When we moved in, the primary program had been delayed indefinitely. And honestly, who can do a program with a few kids? Long story short, we ended up doing one after all and the only open Sunday was Dec. 19th! The challenge was to have the approximately 10 Primary kids sing a few songs from the general program that they knew really well, and then tie it all up with a nice Christmas ribbon to make it festive. It was a tall order!

So I wrote a program. I had never done that before! Calvin wrote narration for it that tied the songs into a Christmas theme (the gift of prophets- Follow the Prophet, the gift of the Savior's love- I Know That My Savior Loves Me, etc). When I first learned that we would be doing the program the Sunday before Christmas I tried to cancel it! Seriously. Who needs added stress of trying to do a Primary Program the week before Christmas when there are already so many other things going on! But we have some pretty amazing people in this branch and despite crazy setbacks here and there, the program came together beautifully.

So today we had 9 beautiful children bearing their testimony in song, scripture parts, and talks (that they mostly wrote themselves). I was so proud of them! I prayed before we left this morning that the spirit would be there as the kids performed and that we would all feel the Savior's love, no matter how things turned out. I think it is safe to say that it was one of the MOST spirit-filled primary programs I have ever seen!

And while I initially thought it was CRAZY to try and tie a Christmas theme into the program, it turned out to be so sweet! The kids talked about the Holy Ghost, Joseph Smith and the Savior's love. When they finished it up by singing 'Away in a Manger' (with Calvin accompanying on the guitar), I had to fight my tears back- it was so tender! The Relief Society President could hardly make it through her closing prayer, she was so choked up.

We put a lot hours of preparation into this program. My friend in the primary even made amazing invitations to take to around to less active families to invite them to church and we spent 2 hrs on Sat driving the missionaries around to drop them off. It was a lot of work! So while I spent this last month wishing the program were over so I could focus on Christmas, it turns out that this program helped me focus on the true meaning of Christmas after all! And even though there were maybe 50 people in attendance today (including the primary kids), it was worth every bit of preparation to hear their testimonies and feel the Savior's love through these kids. What an unique experience we are having here in Gulfport, FL!

After the program we had a big party for the kids for the rest of church. (You get to be unconventional in a branch, ha ha). At the request of one of the kids, it was a birthday party for Jesus. :) We watched 'Joy to the World,' had snacks on a blanket, popped balloons w/messages, read a few Christmas stories, then had activity stations of decorating cupcakes, making thank yous to people in the branch, writing letters to missionaries, doing coloring pages, and decorating a 'sunday tote bag' they got as a gift from the primary. (Next year the stake is giving them their own paperback Books of Mormon and a red pencil for them to mark when they've 'red the Book of Mormon,' so we got bags for them to bring their scriptures in). It was exhausting, but so fun! My hat is off to my friend Jodie (who is attending night law school and has 3 kids!) for all the details that make everything come together.

Next year we'll have an entire year to prepare, and I'm pretty sure it won't be at Christmas time again, but I can say with confidence that it was

The Best Christmas Primary Program EVER!