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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Heaven: We have come to see the little baby cheeses
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kankucho
Shipmate
# 14318
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Posted
A thread to share experiences and anecdotes of the school Nativity Play...
What were you cast as? Did you drop the holy infant? Did you have a wee in the manger? Did this kindergarten foray into am-dram affect your subsequent life and career?
Yours Truly started out as a very peeved Three Wise Man, inwardly knowing he was cut out for greater things. But then Joseph was relegated to the ranks for delivering his lines in a staccato monotone (the fool had only just learned to read, for heaven's sake!) and I got the call to step forward and eloquently pronounce the pivotal plot-hinger line: "Is there any room at the inn?". Oh yes! Those pre-school days at my mother's knee wrestling with Janet and John had paid handsome dividends.
My Mary and I were classmates all through our school careers and, years after our star performances (How many years? Mind your own business), I lost my own virginity to her. Though whether that was a mutual rite of passage, she wouldn't say, and we parted company soon afterwards.
[ 02. July 2010, 18:46: Message edited by: Belisarius ]
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"We are a way for the cosmos to know itself" – Dr. Carl Sagan
Kankucho Bird Blues
Posts: 1262 | From: Kuon-ganjo, E17 | Registered: Nov 2008
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rabcpresbyterian
Shipmate
# 12060
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by kankucho:
I lost my own virginity to her [Mary]
Surely this is blasphemy. Not to mention it's ruined Nativity plays for me now.
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Any man's death diminishes me, for I am part of mankinde - John Donne
Posts: 894 | From: here be dragons | Registered: Nov 2006
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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
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Posted
"mutual rite of passage" is quite a nice double entendre, too...
I was narrator, which with a veeerrrryyyy sssllloooowwww high-pitched adenoidal voice must have been quite something. ![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif)
AG
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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
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Bob Two-Owls
Shipmate
# 9680
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Posted
The only Nativity play I was in was a sunday school one when I was about six or seven. Every good part was taken by someone related to the minister so everyone else played sheep, camels etc.
Our Jesus, Mary and Joseph were all brothers and sisters. The perceived injustice led to a hatred of nepotism from that day and it took me decades to go back to church as well.
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kentishmaid
Shipmate
# 4767
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Izzybee:
I always had to be the narrator, which is why it sucks to be a Good Reader™ as a child.
This was the case in many of my school plays for me, too, despite the fact I could actually act. However, I was cast as an angel in the school nativity play (it was always done by Class 7 - the bottom class in the school). In the church one, I was Mary, which I was very pleased about. Not least because my sister was cast as the donkey...
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"Who'll be the lady, who'll be the lord, when we are ruled by the love of one another?"
Posts: 2063 | From: Huddersfield | Registered: Jul 2003
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Flausa
Mad Woman
# 3466
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Posted
Bob Two-Owls, I was similarly a victim of nepotism during a Christmas Musical. The choir director selected her son to take the lead role (which was supposed to be a part for a girl), in spite of the fact that her son couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. Meanwhile I got stuck with the role of the ever-so-charming part of Grumpy Bell (which was supposed to be a part for a boy). The play (The Little Bell that Wouldn't Stop Ringing) was so dire, but the worst bit was the homemade costumes that made us all look like lampshades. It was the last Christmas play that our school performed. From there on out we only did Christmas sings.
Posts: 4610 | From: bonny Scotland | Registered: Oct 2002
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climbgirl
Shipmate
# 5855
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Posted
i never participated in one as either a child or as an adult. for us it was always choral concerts and, being the shortest child in the class, i somehow always got placed front and center.
also being the child with the best vocal projection, i was also given the job of 'announcing' each song with a little script that a teacher would write out for me to memorize (fortunately i was also literate at a very young age)
the closest i've come to being in a Nativity play was a few years ago when our church had the Children's department perform a skit using characters from the Wednesday night program (a 'Christianized' version of Sesame Street) since there weren't a lot of us in town, a special skit was written using some of the "bad example" characters. thus, i got to sashay onto stage in a blonde wig, black filmy dress, black fishnet stockings, black go-go boots and my thickest "Joisy" accent and have a puppet tell me the real meaning of Christmas
the congregation was MOST amused and several of my friends who had been in the audience told me that they didn't even recognize me.
to me, the funniest thing was, that for the second service that night (the 'adult' service as opposed to the 'children's ' service) i had to clean off all the make-up and change into my black velvet skirt and tom (and regular black tights) to perform 'O Magnum Mysterium' with the choral ensemble
such a change from one service to tne next!
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nj
Posts: 206 | From: Seattle | Registered: May 2004
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Zappa
Ship's Wake
# 8433
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Posted
After kankucho's outstanding OP I feel anything I can say will flounder like a - well a flounder, really. But that's never stopped me in the past ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif) so ...
A few years back kuruman and I watched in wry amusement when at our chaotic "crib mass" one of the wise men arrived dressed as Peter Pan (and why not you might well ask), and then a sheep reclaimed her dolly and fled the church with Peter Pan running out screaming "she's stolen Baby Cheeses".
We tend not to do too much solemnity at that event, fortunately (that comes later at smells n bells midnight mass).
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shameless self promotion - because I think it's worth it
and mayhap this too: http://broken-moments.blogspot.co.nz/
Posts: 18917 | From: "Central" is all they call it | Registered: Sep 2004
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Graven Image
Shipmate
# 8755
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Posted
In the grade school Christmas plays I was always an angel in the choir sitting off to the side of the main action. Never mind that I could not sing on key. This was where all the little girls went who were not blond. The blond girls were chosen as Mary or special angels on stage. The boys had all the other parts except for Mary. Am I bitter sixty years later? You bet. When I got to choose Mary for the Sunday School Christmas Play many years later she had brown hair and freckles to boot. Revenge is sweet. ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
Posts: 2641 | From: Third planet from the sun. USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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Left at the Altar
Ship's Siren
# 5077
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Posted
I was invariably some sort of animal, which peeved me no end. My mother would make some ridiculous costume, supposed to make me look like a cow, or sheep or kangaroo (yes, there were kangaroos at the birth of Jesus, I'll have you know), but I usually ended up looking more like ET (technically, my mother's sewing is excellent - but her creative juices overflow sometimes and she gets carried away).
I aspired to be Mary, in the plays and in real life. For months when I was about 7 or 8, I gave up eating oranges in the mistaken belief that (a) it was an orange that caused all the grief in the garden of Eden and (b) if I, LATA, showed God my piety by shunning oranges for ever, I'd be the next Mother of God. Eventually my mother explained where I was going wrong. I never did get to play Mary.
My sister would usually get some slightly more major role than me (like a sheet-draped shepherd), although our family never made Holy Family status. That honour always went to Certain Families who ruled the local Methodist Sunday School we attended. Jesus was always played by a doll with painted on hair and freaky eyes.
My mother got jack of us being relegated to extras status and moved us to a nice Anglican church. I got animal parts there too.
Probably why my siblings and I are all heathens these days. There's only so many times a person wants to dress in bovine costume.
[ 11. December 2008, 19:34: Message edited by: Left at the Altar ]
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Still pretty Amazing, but no longer Mavis.
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Bullfrog.
Prophetic Amphibian
# 11014
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Posted
I was a sheep when I was really little.
When I was somewhat older, I was a shepherd.
I think my dad was one of the wise men one year...
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Some say that man is the root of all evil
Others say God's a drunkard for pain
Me, I believe that the Garden of Eden
Was burned to make way for a train. --Josh Ritter, Harrisburg
Posts: 7522 | From: Chicago | Registered: Feb 2006
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Aravis
Shipmate
# 13824
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Posted
A few years ago I was sitting next to a Japanese friend (recently arrived in Wales) as we waited for our children's nativity play to start. After studying the programme intently she leaned over to me and whispered, "So, story of Bossy Christmas Fairy, this is traditional story from Bible?"
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
I noticed the programme included "Come and join the celebration" and wondered whether all the Muslim children would be happy to sing "Gaze in wonder/At the Son of God who lay before them", but evidently I needn't have worried because the two Muslim boys in the front row were happily (and very clearly) shouting out the words as "the Santa God who lay before them", which very fairly reduced the words to heresy for everyone.
Posts: 689 | From: S Wales | Registered: Jun 2008
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Thurible
Shipmate
# 3206
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Izzybee:
I always had to be the narrator, which is why it sucks to be a Good Reader™ as a child.
Yup. Going to a "sink school" primary and being the only person in the infants able to read fluently when I was five meant that I was 'relegated' to narrator for the next six years.
At the (nursery) nativity play I went to today, Mary and one of the wise men took their clothes off; one (who refused to wear his costume at all) went and sat in the audience with his mum. Mary also decided to overturn the 'manger' and, when it was suggested to her that she turn it back, shrieked "NO!"
Thurible
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"I've been baptised not lobotomised."
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
When I was very little, I have been a sheep as well. I decided to become a cave-dwelling sheep, crawling back and forth under the stage, much to the embarassment of my mother and to the amusement of the rest of the congregation.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Cottontail
Shipmate
# 12234
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sister Mary Precious:
In the grade school Christmas plays I was always an angel in the choir sitting off to the side of the main action. Never mind that I could not sing on key. This was where all the little girls went who were not blond. The blond girls were chosen as Mary or special angels on stage. The boys had all the other parts except for Mary. Am I bitter sixty years later? You bet. When I got to choose Mary for the Sunday School Christmas Play many years later she had brown hair and freckles to boot. Revenge is sweet.
Weird. In my primary school, only those with dark hair got to be Mary. I spend years praying for my blonde-then-mousy locks to be suitably brown by the time I reached P.7. Then when I finally got there (hair now a kind of mid-mouse) they had a carol concert that year instead.
![[Mad]](angryfire.gif)
Like you, I am bitter, I am twisted by this.
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"I don't think you ought to read so much theology," said Lord Peter. "It has a brutalizing influence."
Posts: 2377 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jan 2007
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Mamacita
Lakefront liberal
# 3659
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Posted
I vaguely recall being in some kind of Christmas program at age four. I remember standing in the sanctuary with the other children, singing carols. But mostly, I remember the wonderful angel costume. (My mom was an excellent seamstress.) It was made of soft yellow flannel and felt luscious to wear. It also had wings, covered with silver glitter, but to my disappointment, they weren't ethereal at all. They were starched enough to stand up by themselves and weighed a freakin' ton. In the weeks after the performance, I would wear the yellow angel nightie (sans wings) and dance around the house.
I have no other recollections of Christmas pageants of any kind. My dad was transferred several times, which meant a new town (and church) almost every Christmas, so if there was ever a pageant, I was clueless. Given some of the stories here, maybe that's a good thing.
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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
Posts: 20761 | From: where the purple line ends | Registered: Dec 2002
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Gill H
Shipmate
# 68
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Izzybee:
I always had to be the narrator, which is why it sucks to be a Good Reader™ as a child.
Preach it, Izzybee. Me too.
I'm getting my revenge next week though. Our church is putting on a live semi-improvised Nativity play in the market place. Everyone in the area can come as whoever they wish and take part. (In reality, it means they get to move from A to B when the appropriate bit in the story is read - not quite so anarchic as I'd thought!)
But this time I'm being the ultimate panto baddy, King Herod. Now, where can I get an eeeeevil moustache?
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*sigh* We can’t all be Alan Cresswell.
- Lyda Rose
Posts: 9313 | From: London | Registered: May 2001
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Lots of Yay
Cookies enabled
# 2790
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Posted
When I was in primary school, kindergarten were the nativity play actors. Year one was the choir and year 2 was the... bell people...
In kindergarten I played the inn-keeper's wife (I think this involved standing next to the inn-keeper and shaking my head when he said there was no room at the inn). Tim Rogers threw up - I think he was a shepherd. Nothing else of note happened.
In year one I fainted during the rehearsal for the choir. That was memorable.
I have no memory of being one of the bell people...
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Current status: idle
Tales of Variable Yayness
Photos of stuff. Including Pooka!
Posts: 2006 | From: the plasticine room | Registered: May 2002
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Thurible:
quote:
Originally posted by Izzybee:
I always had to be the narrator, which is why it sucks to be a Good Reader™ as a child.
Yup. Going to a "sink school" primary and being the only person in the infants able to read fluently when I was five meant that I was 'relegated' to narrator for the next six years.
Me too. I always felt like it was a punishment for being good at the thing that school is supposed to teach you to do... I'm consoled that it's more common than I had realised
A different story - my Mum (who just retired as a primary school teacher) had a friend working in a school for children with learning / behavioural difficulties. One little boy was due to play Joseph but he was too naughty and was therefore busted down to innkeeper. The little love was plotting sweet revenge, though, and when his replacement knocked at the door of the inn and asked if there was any room, he smiled and replied "Yeah, there's loads of room. Come right in", rather flummoxing the rest of the cast ![[Snigger]](graemlins/snigger.gif)
[ 12. December 2008, 08:28: Message edited by: lady in red ]
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Rent my holiday home in the South of France
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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kankucho
Shipmate
# 14318
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Posted
Excuse me, could all you poor traumatised ex-narrators actually just stop whinging, please?
Being the narrator is a very responsible job. It's like being the voice of God. You have an advance overview of the plot, and you get to reveal it to the assembled mortals, some of whom are like really old and wise and have taken the morning off work specially to hear your glad tidings.
Plus, you don't have to get all dressed up in a silly costume like everyone else.
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"We are a way for the cosmos to know itself" – Dr. Carl Sagan
Kankucho Bird Blues
Posts: 1262 | From: Kuon-ganjo, E17 | Registered: Nov 2008
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Presbyopic
Shipmate
# 10596
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Posted
I can't recall any recent (my kids) or ancient (me) Nativity disasters but may I step out of season to relay a little Palm Sunday event involving my now 13 year old when he was 3.
All the children are marching down the aisle singing "Hosanna Hallelujah" All except my son who was enthusiastically singing "Lasagna Hallelujah" at the top of his lungs. On that same day when praised for his singing job by another parishioner he declared to her that "Dr Seuss died to save us from our sins" For some reason "Seuss" and "Jesus" sounded the same to his little ears.
Posts: 699 | From: USA | Registered: Oct 2005
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Thurible
Shipmate
# 3206
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by kankucho:
Plus, you don't have to get all dressed up in a silly costume like everyone else.
No silly costumes? In year 2 (so I was 6/7, I think), I had to wear an umbrella. Yes, the stick was taken out but my 'costume' was a red and yellow umbrella.
Thurible
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"I've been baptised not lobotomised."
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by kankucho:
Excuse me, could all you poor traumatised ex-narrators actually just stop whinging, please?
8< snip 8<
you don't have to get all dressed up in a silly costume like everyone else.
Exactly. From whence the searing sense of injustice. Little kids like dressing up. And while the cute-but-not-very-bright kids get to dress up in pretty costumes as angels and the Virgin Mary and the like, the poor narrators miss out on all the fun.
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Rent my holiday home in the South of France
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Mili
Shipmate
# 3254
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Posted
I loved nativity plays when I was small. At kindergarten I was one of the angels - I preferred that to Mary as the costumes were prettier and we took turns holding a big glittery star on a staff, representing the star the wise men followed. In church nativity plays I was usually an angel or occasionally a shepherd.
The worst nativity play I was in, was at age 13 when I was self conscious and hated acting. Usually the nativity play only involved the primary school children but this year we had a grander production involving the teenagers too. It was set in medieval times (or thereabouts) and included identical twin monks among the narrators and villagers visiting the stable. I was a village mother and had to wear a long skirt, blouse and a horrible lacy cap. The day of the play was very hot and humid and there was no air conditioning in the church. My 'children' were visiting grandchildren I had never met and who had not been there for the rehearsals, and who I had to keep calm and happy as the play dragged on. The only light relief was provided by my four year old brother and his friend, who were angels, sword fighting with their paper and cellophane candles.
My Dad's side of the family staged family nativity plays for a few years until I was about 8. We used to rotate roles each year so no-one got jealous about not playing Mary. One year my sports mad brother (different brother from the one above) insisted on playing the wicket keeper.
Posts: 1015 | From: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: Aug 2002
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Frozen Flowers
Shipmate
# 12726
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Posted
I was in a school nativity play when I was five. It had an extra part at the beginning, where children would dress up as modern day shoppers and complain about how annoying and stressful Christmas is. Only one of the shoppers had a speaking part - Mrs Grumbles, who complained in rhyme. The actual play was then performed to teach her a lesson.
I was a Good Reader™ at school. So I got to be "Mrs Grumbles" - the Selfish, Miserable Woman Who Doesn't Understand the True Meaning of Christmas.
It was 16 years ago and I don't think I've recovered from wearing the bobble hat yet.
Posts: 87 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2007
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philip99a
Shipmate
# 13799
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Posted
I played a mouse.
I now weigh 19 stone!
This same topic was on the Radio 5 Breakfast Programme yesterday. One caller had played a camp fire (cue for nonPC jokes about limp wrists etc..)
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We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time T. S. Elliot (Four Quartets)
Posts: 1300 | From: Leicester (UK) | Registered: Jun 2008
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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by kankucho:
Excuse me, could all you poor traumatised ex-narrators actually just stop whinging, please?
*snip*
Plus, you don't have to get all dressed up in a silly costume like everyone else.
I had to dress as a roman centurion - very snazzy! Anyway, I wasn't whinging. It was the people who had to listen to me droning on I felt sorry for. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
Incidentally, at the start of the week, the school was closed for three days following a blizzard. The nativity play was on the day it re-opened, snow still lying, and everybody assumed that it would be cancelled and didn't send their anklebiters to school with their gym shoes. As a result Joseph and Mary stomped up the aisle wearing moon boots!
AG
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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
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The Great Gumby
Ship's Brain Surgeon
# 10989
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Posted
Another traumatised narrator here. I never realised there were so many of us!
Our school, being a bit posh (only a bit, mind), would put on an evening extravaganza with 2 performances on successive nights with the junior class doing a nativity and everyone else finding other ways of marking the festival. To this end, the school provided tea to keep the little dears from starving before their big moment.
This worked well until one year, while the nativity was forming a tableau, the silent night was rudely broken by a series of trumpeting farts from the assembled shepherds that really ought to have woken the baby Jesus and scared their sheep all the way to Jerusalem. Think of that scene in Blazing Saddles, and double it. In the rueful words of one teacher, "We'll know not to give them beans next year!"
Some of these stories remind me of the brilliant Flint Street Nativity. If you haven't seen it, you really should. But I understand that everything in the programme was based on true stories, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised.
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The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman
A letter to my son about death
Posts: 5382 | From: Home for shot clergy spouses | Registered: Feb 2006
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luvanddaisies
the'fun'in'fundie'™
# 5761
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lady in red:
quote:
Originally posted by kankucho:
Excuse me, could all you poor traumatised ex-narrators actually just stop whinging, please?
8< snip 8<
you don't have to get all dressed up in a silly costume like everyone else.
Exactly. From whence the searing sense of injustice. Little kids like dressing up. And while the cute-but-not-very-bright kids get to dress up in pretty costumes as angels and the Virgin Mary and the like, the poor narrators miss out on all the fun.
Another perennial narrator checking in. I was pleased to get the part where I didn't need to dress up in a stupid costume though - and it got even better when I got good enough at violin / recorders / general musicianship to become an accompanying musician offstage. That meant one got to hide offstage with the grown-ups and listen to said adults chuckling at how stupid the other kids looked in their costumes. Most satisfying
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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." (Mark Twain)
Posts: 3711 | From: all at sea. | Registered: Apr 2004
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Keren-Happuch
Ship's Eyeshadow
# 9818
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Posted
I got to play Mary twice - once at school and once at church. At church it was probably from being the vicar's daughter... Nepotism again! I was also a theologically dubious Archangel Gabriel on at least one occasion, and baby Jesus was usually played by my Tiny Tears doll.
In later years I got to supervise the Sunday School as a helper. We had an interesting year when Power Rangers were all the rage and most of the rehearsals were spent stopping Mary and Joseph kick-boxing each other. Another time one of the shepherds (aged about 3) had been awake all night with the excitement and I had to spend the whole play sitting behind him and stopping him falling off the chair as he got sleepier and sleepier. ![[Snore]](graemlins/snore.gif)
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Travesty, treachery, betrayal!
EXCESS - The Art of Treason
Nea Fox
Posts: 2407 | From: A Fine City | Registered: Jul 2005
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
I was helping out at a Christmas Fair today, and we had a nativity set for sale, all neatly contained in a cloth bag. One little girl was fascinated, and said "I was Mary last year." She found two of the Three Kings, and added slightly accusingly "Our play had shepherds in it."
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Trudy Scrumptious
BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647
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Posted
I realize since we're all grownups now everyone may realize this, but the minister or Sunday School teacher or director casting their own child in a key role is not always solely the result of nepotism ... it's because that's the one child (or two, or three, however many that adult has) that you can be sure will show up, both for practices and performances. I just gave my own children key roles in the church nativity play and felt bad about it but I really can't handle the stress of wondering whether Unreliable But Enthusiastic Child #1 (or, more likely, Enthusiastic Child of Unreliable Parents #1) will actually be there on the day or not.
Likewise, I've always felt it's vaguely wrong that at school (where I don't work, and have no nepotistic involvement) my son has always been Joseph and my daughter Mary in the years their classes have done nativity plays, and the other key roles have also been taken by the children of educated, professional, involved parents, leaving the kids from the public housing families singing in the chorus. It seems absolutely horrible and the worst kind of classist favouritism -- and it is -- but it also reflects the teachers' expectation of which parents will take the time to learn their lines for the play and get them there on time to perform. Sadly, Christmas isn't always a time for equal opportunity.
My own worst Christmas play experience did not involve a nativity, but an elementary school play in which I confidently expected (because I was the best speaker and best actress, and also an insufferable little snot) to play the lead role of a little girl named Alice who had to choose between three Christmas trees. Imagine my shame and horror when someone else was chosen for Alice because I was too tall, and I was forced to play the Tall Tree.
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Books and things.
I lied. There are no things. Just books.
Posts: 7428 | From: Closer to Paris than I am to Vancouver | Registered: Mar 2004
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SusanDoris
Incurable Optimist
# 12618
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Posted
What a lovely set of stories! I was one of the good reader brigade, but I had to be the Angel Gabriel (wings and all, plus National Health round glasses) because I was the only one who could remember all the words.
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I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
Posts: 3083 | From: UK | Registered: May 2007
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Roseofsharon
Shipmate
# 9657
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Eigon:
I was helping out at a Christmas Fair today, and we had a nativity set for sale, all neatly contained in a cloth bag. One little girl was fascinated, and said "I was Mary last year." She found two of the Three Kings, and added slightly accusingly "Our play had shepherds in it."
She's quite right!
I have been quite peeved by all the nativity sets that come with just Jesus, Mary, Joseph and Three Kings - I mean, those three never made it to the stable, they shouldn't be there at all!
I only want nativity scenes with shepherds. The Kings can be there, but not ahead of the shepherds.
However, I don't mind nativity plays having shepherds, angels, kings and a whole barnyard of animals - in fact he whole of the infant school can join in!
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Posts: 3060 | From: Sussex By The Sea | Registered: Jun 2005
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Eigon
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# 4917
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Posted
Oh, there were shepherds - she just hadn't found any at that point. And Baby Jesus was lurking right at the very bottom with a small sheep.
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Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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Boopy
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# 4738
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Posted
Another narrator here. I rebelled though, the year I was six. The teacher was looking for something a bit different and I'd recently been given a book with a playscript in - something about fairies. I offered the loan of the book, the teacher liked the play, rehearsals started and I was offered the part of the narrator yet again.
I threatened to take away my book if the teacher didn't let me be the Violet Fairy. I must have been a particularly stroppy little madam, because she gave in. My mother made me a splendid costume out of an old sheet and some crepe paper. It was the only time I wasn't the narrator, I think, in all my primary school years.
Posts: 1170 | From: UK | Registered: Jul 2003
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georgiaboy
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# 11294
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Eigon:
And Baby Jesus was lurking right at the very bottom with a small sheep.
And doing what??? Never mind.
In my own far past growing up years in a small town Methodist church, the narrator was always an adult, usually my best friend's mother (who was very good). I can't recall who got the 'prime' parts, but I always had to sing, and almost always had to do 'Away in a Manger' as a solo, since I had a carrying treble voice, and my mother (who was the organist) could be depended on to make sure I knew the tune and all the words. There must have been costumes, as our choir didn't have robes, but the only one I remember was a sort of heraldic tabard over tights and a cap with a feather -- not sure how that fit in to the Nativity.
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Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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