An Advent film may have been shot inside the homes of children, but it has since expanded past walls to share the good news of Jesus's birth.

Meadowwood United Church's Christian Education Co-ordinator and Children's Programing leader Bonnie Gautier knew that she wanted to make Christmas as special as she could. After seeing the losses the children suffered, she knows she could not take away their Advent pageant, but needed a way to do it safely.

"The joy that I had hoped it would spread, I feel that it just spread that much further and that makes me happy."

Film begins at 31:04

Working with Megan Dufrat, the church's accompanist, Gautier created a script for a version of Little Drummer Boy, calling it Little Drummer Girl. Gautier then purchased a large number of percussion instruments, costumes, and Home Depot buckets to hand out. 

"My husband and I picked an evening and we drove all over the south side of Winnipeg and we dropped off the buckets."

During their Zooming into Children's Church, Dufrat joined to teach the children drumming skills for the upcoming film.

"I am sure that was an extra challenge for the parents to have all that noise for a few months," laughs Gautier. "The kids just loved it."

While Gautier was busy creating careful plans to have the children come to the church in pairs to film, the province then moved to Level Red. This meant the church needed to close its doors for Christmas. Quickly pivoting, Gautier then asked parents to be their faithful camera people and film their children's scenes in front of a homemade fort.

"One of the kids made a tent fort an out sting up star lights inside of the tent fort so it was all lit up."

One family got fresh air and filmed at Birds Hill Park in front of the barn, as their daughter played the innkeeper.

meadownwood child inkeeperThe innkeeper from Little Drummer Girl shot her scenes on location. (Screenshot: The United Church in Meadowood/Facebook)

Typically the Advent pageant is viewed by the parents of the children, but by taking it online, Gautier has learned their depiction is bringing joy to more people than you could have guessed.

"There were so many more people that were exposed to it that got a chance to see it."

She has received emails from parents thanking her for her hard work, noting that they were sharing the video with family far away.

kdis as cow(Screenshot: The United Church in Meadowood/Facebook)

Gautier is proud to see their hard work pay off.

"It was such a good experience. The kids just completely blew me away."

Since August, she has been working as the Christian Education Co-ordinator but has been volunteering in the position for much longer. While coordinating programming online has been a learning curve, she is seeing the children enjoy their church services.