In my preschool classroom, we have our favorite Christmas books that we have been reading over and over again. Some are based on the traditional meaning of Christmas and some are just for modern day fun. All are well loved.
And I just love watching my preschoolers read their own versions of the stories to each other! Our plastic egg baby Jesus ornament was inspired by the book, Silent Night: My First Nativity Story by Julie Fletcher. It has simplified the story of baby Jesus being born to a preschool level, and the illustrations are perfect!
Baby Jesus Ornament
- plastic Easter egg
- brown lunch bag
- construction paper
- coffee filter
- ribbon or yarn
- glue
Putting this adorable baby Jesus laying the manger was so simple! Creating anything with preschoolers needs to be simple, or the adult ends up doing everything. There were only a few steps that I had to help with, but this ornament is easy enough for a preschooler and special enough to keep it forever!
We used the bottom of a larger sized plastic Easter egg as the manger. The shape of the bottom made it easy to add the hay and baby Jesus to the ornament.
We used the brown lunch bag as the hay in the manger. Part of the bag was torn into small pieces resembling shredded paper. This also helped sneak in some fine motor skills!
I had nice brown string that was thick like yarn and used that to hang the ornament. Thread the string or yarn through the wholes at the bottom of the plastic egg. This allows the string to stay attached.
Baby Jesus was created by cutting out circles from the light tan colored construction paper. If you do not have this exact color, use white, and color it with crayons or paint it the desired color!
Cut the circle for the head small enough that it will fit partially in the blanket and still fit in the manger.
We played around with the blanket for baby Jesus. We created a few different versions. Some of our baby Jesus’ had felt blankets, but it was easier to wrap up a coffee filter for the ornament. We folded the coffee filter in half and then cut a square shape out of it. Wrap the square around the circle that you are using for the head and glue it to stay closed.
Now put the ornament together!
We added a layer of glue and then a few pieces of the lunch bag (hay), then more glue and more hay.
Add glue to the back of baby Jesus and add it gently onto the hay in the ornament. When dry, tie the string.
When everything was dry, we hung the baby Jesus ornament on the Christmas tree.
We have a few more mangers to make still! My preschooler has been on a baby Jesus making mission all afternoon!
This ornament is based on a Christmas book and part of the 10 Days of Kid-Made Christmas series!
Check out the other blogger who are sharing their book inspired ornaments today:
Wood Slice String Ornaments from Happy Brown House
Jingle Bell Ornament from Mosswood Connections
Harry Potter Potion Ornaments from Lemon Lime Adventures
Swim Swim Ornament from Sunshine Whispers
Yarn Tree Ornaments from Babble Dabble Do
Percy Jackson Nectar & Ambrosia Ornament from Lemon Lime Adventures
Handmade Stocking Ornament from Edventures with Kids
Snowflake Ornaments from Preschool Powol Packets
Faux Stained Glass Dinosaur Ornaments from Glittering Mufins
Looking for other Christmas activities?
What a sweet idea!
We do love book inspired crafts. Your ornament is very sweet!
Such a cute idea with the re-purposed egg!! Love it!
This is a very sweet Baby Jesus!!
The coffee filter gives it such a precious look!