This is the story of Christmas like you’ve never heard it before.
Southland Christian Church in Kentucky asked kids to tell the story of Jesus’s birth. Did you know the three wise men brought diapers, wipes and Air Jordans? Or maybe it was gold and Frankenstein, according to another child. Just what Mary wanted, we’re sure. The video, which has since gone viral, shows adult actors dressed as biblical characters, sheep and even stars, acting out the kids’ funny retelling of the iconic tale.
“She was just doing laundry and then the angel just appeared and she was really scared,” one child says as Mary is visited by Gabriel with news of her baby-to-be.
Later, Mary and Joseph ride into “Bethle-ha-ha-ham” in search of lodging, only to be turned away.
When the wise men and shepherds arrive to visit the new arrival, Jesus is gifted with stuffed animals, diapers, wipes, milk and Air Jordans. And with, “Gold, Frankenstein, and myrrh,” according to one child.
“I don’t know how it would survive in that barn,” a child comments about the baby Jesus. “Too stinky. Too crowded.”
Hanna Wahlbrink was creative director at Southland Christian Church when she and her team produced the video for the church’s Christmas Eve service in 2015. Years later, the video is filling people across the world with holiday spirit.
“We didn’t ask them to say anything specific,” Wahlbrink said of her adorable cast. “We really wanted the kids to take the lead.”
Another child says she believes the new baby will “change the world,” while another comments that she thinks Joseph looked at his son and exclaimed, “I love you, and you’re the best baby I’ve ever seen. There. I said it.”
It’s cute comments like these that Neil Gregory, a video producer for the church, said they were secretly hoping to get.
“We really didn’t want to script it because we knew the kids would give us better sound bites than anything we could come up with on our own,” said Gregory. “And they did.”
Wahlbrink said Southland Christian Church has been contacted by people from all over the U.S., as well as Canada and Australia — who said that the video warmed their hearts and made them smile, regardless of their religious affiliation.
“We’re reaching people in a different way that we ever expected,” Wahlbrink told TODAY Parents.