11.12.2023
Christmas Unwrapped – Nativity Escape Rooms at Rathmichael Church
Families flocked to Rathmichael Church at the weekend for the third of what is now an annual event at Rathmichael Parish Church – Christmas Unwrapped. The family event took place on Saturday December 9. This year the theme was ‘Nativity Escape Rooms’, drawing on the increasingly popular phenomenon of escape rooms, in which participants solve various puzzles and challenges in order to ‘escape’ and get to the awaiting prize.
The idea for this year’s event came from Cherith Hanily, who explained: “The Christmas Story is an amazing story unlike any other, of God sending His Son to be amongst us – the long awaited, promised Saviour coming down to earth and being born in a lowly stable because there was no room at the Inn.
“How can we tell this amazing story to the children of our parish in a way that will capture their attention and really make them think? How can we express the unique, special and life changing moment that happened 2000 years ago?”
Last Christmas many families from Rathmichael area came together to interact with actors dressed as Nativity characters and heard the story told from their perspective as they travelled along a trail. This year the parish wanted to do something equally special but completely different.
Cherith explains: “As a child, I loved code breaking and encoding and decoding messages. When I was googling ideas a few months ago, I came across a Christmas Escape Room. With the help of Caoimhe Morgan, a graphic designer in our parish, and the Canva app, we wrote and designed our own Escape Room trail.”
There was great excitement on the day as children read the Christmas story on scrolls, looked for angels on a tree, opened the doors of the inn, picked up sheep from a field, examined Herod’s jewels and looked at the Wise Men’s gifts. At each stop the children were asked a question by a Nativity character and successful answers earned them a decoder. Each stop had its own separate decoder and code to crack and when all six codes were decoded, the children earned a key and could ‘escape’ into the adjoining Erck Hall, where crafts, activities, games and refreshments brought the hall to life following the Escape Room challenge. Families left with their hands laden with crafts, treats and a little Christmas story to read at home and be reminded about the wonder of Christmas.
The cast and volunteers were delighted to be joined by Archbishop Michael Jackson, who experienced the event in the company of the Rector, the Revd Sean Hanily, and some children from Rathmichael Parish National School. Speaking afterwards, the Archbishop said: “It was so exciting to take part in the Nativity Escape Rooms in Rathmichael today. The church and the halls were buzzing with life as children cracked codes and collected stickers and by this means learned the story of the birth of Jesus. This is an initiative of Sean and Cherith Hanily along with lots of willing volunteers. Congratulations to everyone involved.”
Rathmichael Parish would love to see this, and previous trails they have run, being undertaken by any church who would like to run them. Please contact the parish directly if you would like to receive the resource packs.