This year in the lead up to Christmas, we watched The Nativity Story as a family. While there are some bits that have been embellished, and some scenes included that aren't in the Biblical accounts, we thought it was generally pretty well done and worth watching. Even the scenes that had been added weren't inconsistent with the message, they just included facts we can't know, but were mostly quite plausible possibilities anyway. Dave and I watched it with the kids and pointed out the bits that aren't in the Bible and answered any questions they had. It was interesting that seeing it on screen did bring up a few more questions and ponderings which were really helpful.
I think we all found it helped us to really meditate on the reality of Jesus' birth, think a bit about the details of the story and its context, and empathise with those involved. Often when we tell children the story of Jesus' birth it becomes a cartoon-like version with little depth. This helped to reinforce the idea that these events really occurred. Details like understanding how far Mary and Joseph would have had to travel, how an engagement worked in those days, a little bit of background on life under the Herods, and so on, helped to put the story in context. For me, the film helped me to reflect on the fact Jesus was a real baby who was born in the same way and had the same needs as my own babies. The fact that the Son of God could be born into such humble beginnings reminded me of the enormity of what He has done for us in coming to earth as a baby and made me even more thankful and amazed at his incarnation.
We did fast forward through a couple of scenes (the births of John the Baptist and Jesus and the soldiers coming for the boys under Herod's orders) and I felt it really was the sort of movie we had to watch with the kids. Doing that, it really worked as a pre-Christmas family acitivity which pointed the kids towards Jesus. I'm planning on adding it to our growing list of family traditions!
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