Children's Christmas Party

Having a party around Christmas at our home for Mongolian children to attend has become an annual event for us. This year's party was held on December 15. Although we invited about a dozen children including children from families at our church and neighbor children, only five of those showed up along with two toddlers that were too young to really enjoy the party - or so we thought.

This year we added teaching the Biblical story of Christmas which gave us an opportunity to be a witness for our Savior. (Last year we gave out tracts for the children to take home.) I taught the story extemporaneously - that is, without notes. The children seemed to understand. I used some flash cards but maybe will not do that in the future. At the end of the story one Mongolian child asked if Jesus was hot when he was born. I was stumped by the question because I could not comprehend why he would think Jesus was hot as a baby. As I tried to inquire further about his question one of the other Mongolian children told me that Jesus must have been hot because his face was "red" in the picture. I wonder if the pictures distracted more than added to the account of Jesus' birth.

Along with the Biblical story of Christmas, we decorated sugar cookies again at this year's party. That always seems to be a big draw. Our neighbor's children will often ask as Christmas approaches, "When are you going to have the party where we decorate cookies?" Mongolians do not have any baked item that they spend time decorating. Some families make a type of hard cake with a decorative shape that Mongolians jokingly call sole cake because they say the decoration looks as if someone stepped on it with his shoe and left the imprint of a sole on it. But as far as putting on sprinkles or cutting cookies out in shapes - these things are unknown to the Mongolian children. Strangely enough, the Mongolian children seemed to tire of the cookie decoration time more quickly this year than in past years. Perhaps they are getting too used to making sugar cookies.

The children also exchanged gifts. Like all children that I know, Mongolian children enjoy opening gifts. We concluded the party with a game of musical chairs which the children also seemed to enjoy. The two little toddlers who came did not play musical chairs but would get excited when the music stopped and cheer. I guess they liked the excitement. As the other children were packing up their cookies and preparing to leave, the two toddlers started pretending to shoot each other and everyone else and laughing. I think perhaps they had as much fun as anyone else even though they really could not participate in most of what the other children did.