Questions Kids Have About Christmas

This past Sunday in one of our elementary kids’ small groups, a kindergartner sweetly asked his leader, “Mr. Paul, were there toilets in your house when you were a kid?” The wonder that was found in Mr. Paul sharing that toilets were in fact around even 40 years ago when he was a kid made us all laugh and smile. The question was genuine, and isn’t that the beauty of the curiosity of kids.

Sure, some questions they ask are hard, and as a leader or parent you may feel like you’re fumbling your way through, but when we pause to reflect on the questions, they often hold the potential to grow our own faith as well. I recently saw the movie “The Best Christmas Pageant ever” and it lives up to its name. It’s a beautiful tale of a group of unlikely kids signing up to be in the re-telling of the Christmas story- and as each detail of scripture is read- they can’t help but ask question after question after question. “Why would the wise men bring such odd gifts to a king?” My favorite part of the pageant is their modified gift when the play takes place! (I won’t ruin the surprise if you haven’t seen it or read it, and simply encourage you to go do so).

Kids ask all kinds of questions (though don’t we as adults too, we just don’t ask them all out loud). Why was Jesus placed in a manger? What does that tell us about where he was born? Was Jesus born in a barn? It’s interesting to think of how we portray Christmas in our nativity scenes and pictures- and then to read the account of Jesus’ birth in Luke 2.

Luke 2:4-7 “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”

This is all we know of the description of where Jesus was born- it doesn’t tell us it was a barn or stable, simply that he was placed in a manger after there was no room in the inn. We don’t read of cattle lowing or even know if any were present. It’s interesting to me how questions like “was Jesus born in a barn” call us back to scripture- to read the account as the Bible tells it (not any other picture or song) and we find the minimal details to know it was a humble birth that has sent many scholars into research mode to identify where this may have been.

I think there is a lot of beauty in the questions that kids will ask around the Christmas story. At the end of the day, we have all we need in God’s word. In both the telling of Jesus’ birth in Matthew and Luke, we see prophecies fulfilled through the virgin birth, through Jesus being born in Bethlehem, and his family’s exodus to Egypt to avoid King Herod. As you or the kids around you ask questions this Christmas season, may we turn to scripture and keep it as our focus this Christmas season. And if you’ve got a moment to spare, let us know in the comments any of the silliest, hardest or best questions you’ve ever been asked by a kid.