Waiting for Journey to Bethlehem to come out has been a whole event over here. My 7 year-old is obsessed with Milo Manheim after seeing him in a few Disney flicks. I love thecomedy of Rizwan Manji. And can we all agree that it is a gift to our generation to picture Gabriel the Archangel as Lecrae! #blessed.
We jumped at the opportunity to go watch this film when it first came out. So much hype, and some of our favorite actors, you better believe we showed up. And we loved it! Mind you, the creators for sure took some creative liberties with the story. It’s basically Musical Bible Fan Fiction. But it provided an avenue for everyone in our family to contemplate the story a new. And provided opportunity for us to discuss the Christmas story with our kids. What they were thinking about. What misconceptions we may need to unpack. But more than anything to share the wonder of God incarnate. Emmanuel, God with us.
We had a watch party over here to celebrate getting to see this flick. However, now that it’s streaming all of these ideas would work for a family movie night! Come see our shenanigans for using this movie to celebrate the birth of Christ. Below you’ll find directions for making Baby Jesus bread, more food ideas to make a full menu, and activities for making this movie night an experience.
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Baby Jesus Pan Dulce (Sweet Bread)
My kids are obsessed with pan dulce. (Me too, I am also obsessed). So when I saw this baby Jesus loaf, I couldn’t help but be inspired to whip up our own version of baby Jesus. This seemed like the perfect occasion. Making Santa Conchas has become a yearly tradition over here. It’s been a lovely way for our multicultural family to celebrate the holidays. So when I mentioned making Baby Jesus bread, my 7 year-old had the genius idea to make Baby Jesus Conchas.
What you need:
-A good Concha recipe (We used Isabel Eats Concha Recipe, she also has a fantastic tip of using a tortilla press to flatten your concha crust).
What you do:
- Make Pan dulce recipe according to directions, but after the 2nd rise pause. We’re going to wrap them a little different.
- Flatten your concha crust using a tortilla press. It should form a circle. Cut or tear one of the edges away from the circle, giving one straight edge, and the rest round. It should look similar to a waning gibbious moon.
- Drape your concha crust over your bread dough, leaving about an inch unexposed along the straight edge of the crust (this is baby Jesus’ face).
- Fold the rest of the concha crust under the bottom of the bread dough (like tucking baby Jesus into his swaddling clothes). Repeat until all of the rolls are wrapped.
- Bake at 325°F for 20 minutes. The dough should come out golden brown. Let cool.
- Once the rolls are cool to touch, take your food marker and draw a little face in the exposed part of the concha. I made a simple sleeping face, but you can choose your own adventure on this part.
- Finally, enjoy during or after watching Journey to Bethlehem.
Other food ideas
- Hot Chocolate: hot chocolate is a perfect accompaniment for pan dulce. We are big fans of Ibarra Hot Chocolate, but you can use your hot chocolate of choice.
- Orange slice stars: have you ever noticed that orange slices have a little star shape in the middle. Slice up an orange to serve so vitamin C- packed ‘stars’ at your movie night.
- Nativity Snack Mix: This is the snack mix we ate on our ‘The Star’ Family Movie Night, but would also be a fantastic pairing with this movie, especially for those who don’t feel movie night is complete without popcorn.
- Nativity Cookies: Roll this Nativity cookie stamp over some pre-made cookie dough and bake for a treat that looks like it took hours, but actually took seconds.
- Palestinian foods: the whole movie is about going to Bethlehem, so let’s explore this part of the world. Check out Palestinian Foods 101 for some recipes to get started.
Fun and Games
– Journey to Bethlehem Family Resources: The Journey to Bethlehem official website has a great selection of family activities. They have an Advent Activity guide for families, a separate discussion guide, and coloring pages all available for free on their English Resource Page . They also have posters and postcards in both Spanish and English you can use to make a full movie theater experience for your littles.
–Gingerbread Nativities: The Journey to Bethlehem Advent Guide for families suggest making a gingerbread nativity with Graham crackers. This could be such a fun activity for discussing the movie. Follow the directions in the guide, or Buy a Gingerbread Nativity Kit.
–Karaoke Dance Party: This movie is a musical! My best musical movie hack, is to turn-on the subtitles grab some toy microphones and sing-a-long!
Baby Devotions 