Shared by Holly Christensen
(December 2008) This year we decided on a *Storybook Christmas* theme for our ward Christmas Party. We made 4 giant sized books out of cardboard pallets (you can use boxes and just fold them like books) and covered them with colored butcher paper and made them look like books with a title and the author*s name on the front. The book were *The Polar Express*, *The Christmas Carol* and *The Grinch Who Stole Christmas*. We set up the books as decoration on our stage. They were probably about 4-5 feet tall, so they were really visible. We then served a dinner for our ward, and stuffed Santa hats (we bought at a local dollar store) with newspaper so they*ll stand up for the centerpieces (very cheap!). We then had 2 storybook rooms where the kids could go and listen to a story told by *real live* characters from each book. The two stories we chose were The Birth of Christ and we had the room decorated like a stable, and had someone dress up as a shepherd tell the story while the kids sat on blankets on the floor. The 2nd story in another room was the Polar Express, we set up the chairs like they were on a train and handed them each a ticket to board the train. We dressed up someone to look like the train conductor and he acted like the movie character while he told the story of the Polar Express (from a book with pictures). We wanted to add a service project into the night, so we had ward members bring used or new *children*s* book that we ended up donating to a local charity. It also fit right along with our book theme too. We had the children sing some Christmas songs too *Where are you Christmas?* from the Grinch story, and *Away in the Manger*. It turned out to be a really fun theme to work with and the giant sized books made great inexpensive decorations! Some of the young women ended up taking the large books home, they wanted to keep them!
