When I was a child, I went to “Junior Church.” We didn’t run
around the gym or have a snack every 30 minutes – no, we had our very own
church service. We all sat in chairs and listened to the “program leader”
announce each hymn (and we would sing every stanza!) before hearing our teacher
give the lesson and ending with the song, “Come into my heart, Lord Jesus.” We
had several Christmas traditions in Junior Church too – we always lit an Advent
candle each week, there would always be a birthday cake for Jesus, and… we
would always sing this version of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” that would
tell the nativity story.
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| a 4th grade mini-me with Mr. Yates (December birthday buddies!) and the birthday cake for Jesus in Junior Church, Christmas 1996 |
I wanted to pass on this song to my 4-year-old class a few
years ago, so in preparation for Christmas we made a simple page every day
leading up to our Christmas break. Then I bound them in books for each child to take home and teach the song to their families!
