A prayer for those involved in nativity plays

For both the children and the adults organising it.

 

Thank you for sending Jesus at Christmas.

Thank you that we can do this play.

Help us to do our best. 

Help us to remember we’re not doing it to make ourselves look great, but to make Jesus look great.

Please use it to help other people understand more about Jesus and why he came.

Amen.

Bethlehem pasttimes

As well as worshipping Jesus and giving him gifts, a couple of the wise men spent some time in Bethlehem playing pelmanism with Mary and Joseph.

Waiting to be called for filming our Nativity video.

Don't buy walking sticks in Pound shops

Fortunately it was bought to be a shepherd 's crook, not a prop for old age.

You don't make the handle of a walking stick by just cutting out a handle shape across the grain :-D

(Wood glue sorted it)

Perspective

God did not become a human being so I could worry about the length of shepherd costumes or whether I've got enough matching tinsel :-)

How to make 12 swords in under 20 minutes

We were filming a scene for our nativity play yesterday - angels, to appear up in the 'sky' (i.e. on screen).

I wanted the angels to have swords, and previously I have used newspaper and tinfoil. But I really wanted something that would take less time to make, since it seems unreasonable to give a child a sword and then forbid him to use it, which means they would likely get destroyed beyond repair. Also, it was past my bedtime!

So this is what I did.
I used gold and silver card which I had bought for something else but it was really poor quality - however it was fine to be viewed from a distance.

For 12 swords:

• 3 sheets A4 silver card (letter size would work too).
• 2 sheets A4 gold card - brown or a colour would be good if it wasn't for angels.
• 12 staples (glue would have been better).

What to do:

1. Cut the silver sheets into 4 strips (for A4, mark at approx 5.25cm, 10.5cm, 15.75cm - accuracy's not that important)
2. Cut the gold sheets in half long-ways (approx 10.5cm), then in thirds (approx 9.9cm and 19.8cm)
   
3. Fold silver strips longways - easiest if you draw a heavy line with a ballpoint pen on the back where you want to fold. Cut off the point at an angle.
4. Fold gold pieces in half. Cut out a sort of L-shape from the non-folded side. 
   
5. Overlap hilt on blade an inch or so, and attach. I used a single staple on the fold so it didn't show - glue would have been better.

Top: the swords.
Middle: as worn for filming.
Bottom: The heavenly host engage in some post-filming combat practise.

By the way, the swords are really for display purposes only. They were not handed out until the camera was ready to roll, and after filming they probably lasted less than 5 minutes in action!

Boy angel costumes

It's that time of year again when we look out the tea towels and dressing gowns* and dress up little girls as fairy princesses angels.

But why the little girls? Despite all the costumes and cards, angels in the Bible are not fairies. Or Disney princesses. Or even gently inspirational people.

In the Bible, angels are men**. God's messengers and warriors. Sometimes they ride in chariots of fire. And they're definitely not twee & sissy. 

If we believe the account of Jesus' birth is true, not just a traditional seasonal story, should we not be portraying what the Bible actually says - and therefore have the angels acted by boys?

This, of course, causes a problem. I want the wee boys in my Sunday School class to think being an angel in the nativity is a privilege - not an insult! 

So you need to teach them what an angel is. Last year our Sunday School had just been learning about Elijah and Elisha and the chariots of fire, which was ideal, as I could really play up the 'some angels are God's warriors' thing even before we started talking about Christmas. Make sure they know the angels that appeared above Bethlehem were the heavenly army (that's what 'host' means.)

You also need to have a costume that your nativity angels can be proud to wear, so they (and their parents) don't feel they're playing a 'girl's part'. 


Here's our boy angel costumes from last year. They were very popular!

Gabriel and the angel that came to the shepherds.

• Tunic - Large white man's T-shirt. 
• Breastplate - metallic bubble wrap. I got the gold years ago. Silver is easier to get - it's sold as insulation! Better than cardboard as it will last for years and won't crease.
• Gold/silver elastic for breastplate straps.
• Flame (optional) cut from orange opalescent sticky plastic. 
• Belt and headband - For the two main angels I used shiny flame-coloured dress fabric I couldn't resist! To avoid sewing, shiny ribbon works well too - I used gift wrap ribbon for the heavenly host.
• Sword - main angels had swords from a £ shop - heavenly host had newspaper swords wrapped in foil. (edit - see here for another sword idea)

For speed (when dressing large numbers of hyper children in minimal time), tunic & breastplate are designed to be put on all at once: 

Beforehand, breastplate is safety-pinned to T-shirt, then gold elastic tied to pins and crossed at back. Elastic is pinned on shoulders and under arms. 

Then only the belt and headband need tied on separately, and the sword stuck in the belt. They were strictly instructed not to remove the swords during the play, with promises of being allowed to play with them afterwards :-) 

Boy angel extras, with view of crossed over elastic on back.

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*Not if I can help it, but that's a whole other post on what first century people actually wore. 

** At least, when appearing in human form they appear as men whenever gender is specified. That's not to say there might not be female ones we don't know about (but we know Gabriel appears as a man). They may of course be genderless in reality - certainly they're asexual.