We created this idea for our Park Church gathering. You could use it in your park, garden or churchyard. Alternatively, you could hide these doors around a church building.

The idea is to combine the opening of Advent calendar doors with a kind of treasure hunt to tell the Christmas story. We made our doors out of cardboard (about A5 in size) and decorated them in different styles. Preparing the doors was a lot of fun! You could make your doors any way you like - simple cardboard like ours, or something more elaborate such as wooden doors would also be great.

Each door has a part of the Christmas story printed inside. Download these texts from the link provided. We hid the doors around the woods where we meet.

Give everyone a sheet (also downloadable) printed with the Christmas story - but many of the words are missing. The activity involves people finding the doors to fill in the blanks (if you are outside, make sure children stay with their carers). Once everyone had done this, we gathered back together to read the story aloud.

Thanks to Louise Williams for writing the texts based on Matthew and Luke's accounts.