The Mossman Uniting Church’s Nativity Sheep Trail will be launched on Monday in an effort to encourage people to shop local.

The Nativity Sheep Trail will see small toy sheep hidden in participating businesses across Mossman.

Nativity Sheep Trail Co-ordinator, Janelle Shrimpton, said the idea is for families to follow the trail of sheep through town, recording the names of the sheep written on each one.

“The Nativity Sheep Trail is designed to bring people into local businesses and to share the Christmas story,” she said.

Families can collect an entry form from participating businesses, once they have filled out the form with all the sheep’s names, they can deposit it into a box at the Bartolos Store in the Sugarland Arcade.

“All entries that have the correct sheep names will go into the draw to win a family Christmas Hamper.

“Come and support your local community and see if you can find all the sheep,” Ms Shrimpton said.

All participating stores will have a poster displayed in their front window.

The Nativity Sheep Trail will run from Monday 11 November to Friday 6 December and the draw will take place on Saturday 7 December at the Messy Christmas Family Fun Afternoon and BBQ held at the Mossman Uniting Church from 4.00pm-6.00pm.