The Southland Christian Church used adults to recreate children’s versions of the reason for the season.
The hilarious film was posted to YouTube Christmas Eve last year.
The three-minute short features adults lip-syncing to children’s’ voices as the kids explain what Christmas is all about.
Keeping in character, the actors and actresses use the appropriate facial expressions and body motions to match the way their “voices” are speaking.
Southland Creative Director Hanna Wahlbrink spoke with Today to share the Christmas video was completely unscripted.
“We didn’t ask them to say anything specific,” Wahlbrink explained. “We really wanted the kids to take the lead.”
The church simply asked a few kids to share their versions of Christ’s immaculate conception and birth, then edited the different versions to best fit the comical nature of the video.
Neil Gregory, a video producer for the church, admitted they were all hoping for adorable commentary from the kids – which they delivered beautifully.
“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. And they did.”
“We’re reaching people in a different way that [sic] we ever expected,” Wahlbrink shared.
Gregory believes the real stars of the film are the children who shared their versions of the Christmas story with the production team.
“When you put something together like this, you never think it will go beyond your church. But it’s really encouraging to see what’s happening and how many people are enjoying the video.”
The Southland Christian Church received messages from people in the United States, Canada and Australia – all of whom expressed their joy at watching the short, regardless of their religions.
The short has received over 248,000 views, many of which came recently, with comments including: “I’m not even religious, and I absolutely loved this. Good job guys. Super cute and hilarious.”
The viral video is not the first of its kind – the Southland Christian Church also released a short called, “Easter According to Kids. Whether it will gain more momentum next Easter remains to be seen.
By Kenya Sinclair
