When The Shepherd’s Treasure was released a couple of years ago, I was intrigued. A friend of mine had purchased one and as I watched her take her kiddos on various Christmas adventures, I thought it was a great way to keep them focused on the real reason for Christmas.

The Shepherd’s Treasure is a Christian version of Elf on the Shelf. It’s designed as a family advent activity beginning the first day of December and ending December 25th. Each day the child search’s for their shepherd to find out what he has planned for them to see or do.

When our shepherd arrived, the following items were in the box:

• The shepherd and his staff
• Baby Jesus in a manger
• Advent Cards
• The Shepherd’s Treasure book

The Shepherd and His Staff

The shepherd is a moldable and bendable doll that has his hand wrapped around a staff. You can set up the shepherd in whatever scenario you need too because you can manipulate him any way you need too. You can hang him from things using his staff or it’s removable so you can have him hold onto other things also.

Baby Jesus in a Manger

You will also find Baby Jesus in a manger which is a part of the reveal on December 25th. The entire premise of this advent activity is that your children will be seeking Jesus alongside their shepherd throughout the holiday season. It is very exciting when they finally find him on Christmas Day.

Advent Cards

There are 25 pre-printed advent cards and 5 blank ones so you can customize them to whatever you need for your family. Some of the advent cards have suggested activities for the kids to do while some just have props for the parent to set up to emphasize a bible verse.

On a side note, I use a small dry erase board to write most of the shepherd’s messages to my family. This is a simple way for me to be creative without a lot of extra work.

There is a second set of advent cards sold separately if you use all the advent cards in your first year. The kiddos enjoy repeating some of the cards but others need to be new every year.

The Shepherd’s Treasure Book

The book introduces the idea of the shepherd to your family by explaining that he is there to take them on a journey about the real reason for the season. The book asks them to name their shepherd, (ours is named Mr. Jospeph Wackypants) explains that he travels around during the night and when he is found he can’t be touched or moved. Then it reads on to tell the story of how the shepherd was called on this journey and now he wants to include your family. Finally, he explains that the goal is to search until we find the baby Jesus.

At the end of the book, it explains the plan of salvation in a very sweet and understandable way for the child. He reminds us that Jesus is calling every one of us on a journey of our own to seek Him.

Personalize Your Family’s Journey

For us, the Shepherd leads us through all of our planned Christmas activities. The advent cards come with twenty-five pre-planned ideas so you could do just what they said or you can make it into whatever you would like using the blank cards.

As I mentioned above, I use a dry erase board that I write the clue or activity on and set it near our shepherd. Our family has several traditions we do every year and so I coordinate those with finding our shepherd.

How to do it simply

In a previous post, Making Holiday Family Memories Without Going Crazy, I talked about doing things simply so you can enjoy the holidays with as little stress as possible. If I don’t plan ahead, for our Shepherd, then this can cause some panic at nine o’clock every night when I have no idea what to do. I don’t know about you all but I am not especially creative late at night.

Organizing It

When I’m putting my December calendar together, I am planning the shepherd around everything else we have to do by having him send the kiddos on specific missions they need to accomplish. However, on some days, it may be just a simple treat with a bible verse.

After I have decided what I am going to do and have written it in my calendar for each day, I head to the dollar store for inspiration. You can get little treats and goodies there without breaking your budget.

When I get home, I sneak all my goodies into the house and hide them in a tub so no one stumbles upon my loot. This way when nine o’clock rolls around I don’t have to think, I just need to execute my plan.

CrewTip: The Concept Behind My Crazy

Last year I enlisted the help of my teenager when it came to some of the activities for Mr. Wackypants. I told him how many days he needed to come up with and gave him a budget to work with. He went into the dollar store with me and purchased his needed supplies. I noted on our calendar what days he was responsible for Mr. Wackypants. For the days he planned, before he went to bed, he would set it up for the next day.

Examples of What We Have Done

Shopping for Foster Kids

Last year, we shopped for two foster children for Christmas. When the kiddos got up on the day we intended to shop, they found the sign where I had written “Good morning! I need your help… We have two foster kiddos who need some Christmas gifts. Will you go shop for them? Remember God has blessed us with so much that we are to share what we have.”

I set up our shepherd beside the dry erase sign and the foster kids’ shopping list. When the kiddos got up, they searched for him and were absolutely thrilled to go on the mission he was sending them on.

Performing in the Christmas Play

Obviously, the morning of our church Christmas play, we don’t have a lot of time to do much of anything but get ready and get to church on time. These are the days I plan something quick. I love to do “play on words” and I thought this was cute.

They woke up to find our shepherd holding some root beer hard candy and a sign that said: “I’m rooting for you today.” Get it, rooting! Ha! Ha!

Board Games

I love to incorporate a game into it if we have the time to play that particular day. As a part of the Christmas budget last year, I purchased some games and gave them one at a time throughout the month. This way they had time to enjoy playing each game without being bombarded on Christmas morning.

Our shepherd was sitting beside the game Ned’s Head and sign which read “Do you know that God cares what’s in your head? Look at Philippians 4:8 and see what we are supposed to put in our heads.”

Our Christmas Family Traditions

Our shepherd was set up on display with some pancake mix, the book, and a sign that read “Today we will learn about St. Nick, sharing what we have is a cool trick! So as you eat your pancakes and read, think about what others need! Today, is there something you can do? That will make someone say Wa-hoo!”

We read the story of the Legend of St. Nicholas and made Santa pancakes with cherries and whip cream.

Christmas Day

On the final day, I set up the shepherd with the baby Jesus and the Advent card for Christmas Day. I also include a book called “What Does God Want For Christmas?”

It is a great resource for telling the story of Jesus’ birth. It has the entire nativity scene in cute little numbered boxes. As the story is read, a box is opened and the nativity figure takes its rightful place in the nativity scene.

As you can see, The Shepherd’s Treasure is an excellent way to provide a daily reminder for everyone what this season is truly about… Seeking Jesus and finding Him! It creates mystery and excitement around our house and the kiddos start requesting him in November. It’s the perfect opportunity to create a teachable moment where you can reach the heart of your child.

Thank YOU for reading!