What did the shepherds do in the christmas story?

Well if you are talking about the Shepard's in the christian bibles story of Jesus' birth, that did not happen on December 25. The Shepard's was outside tending to their flock, in Bethlehem, Jerusalem. This day would have been far to cold to be outside at night watching you flock. If it had really happened on December 25, the Shepard's flock would have been in stables for the cold months. The sheer fact that religious today still hold December 25 as a christian holiday is beyond me. They do that with all pagan celebrations so that their kids will not want to celebrate in the pagan holidays and they will not feel left out. What's really funny is it was the very man that they honor that said "be no part of this world". You can take that statement to mean make up celebrations that the rest of the world is doing so that you and your children will not be left out, or you could actually do what he told you to do and celebrate his last supper and remember his teachings.