Nativity Scene Box

We are not a religious family, but I think that it is important to educate children about the meaning of Christmas, and this is what today's activity was about. Whether one is a believer or not, the nativity is very much part of our culture. Making a nativity box together allowed us to discuss the story of the birth of Jesus. Ju clearly linked this to what he had learnt at nursery and sang "Away in a Manger" on a loop.

We started by making a starry sky scene using leftover glow-in-the-dark stars and blue tissue paper. The boys enjoyed sticking the stars on the paper.

Ju glues glow-in-the-dark stars on the sky

I prepared a cardboard box by cutting out three of the side flaps and gluing them onto the remaining long side flap to keep it upright. I also cut out a bit at the bottom of the opposite long side so the boys could play more easily with the nativity scene.

Our nativity scene set box

We glued the sky scene on the big vertical part.

A beautiful starry sky

 We glued gold tissue paper on the bottom of the box and made the paper cover the sides.

Ju is spreading glue onto the bottom of the box

 Then we made a shelter using the lid of an egg box and cut-up sections of the central tube from a cling film roll to make it. We stuck brown tissue paper on those and stuck the structure on the nativity scene box.

Rolling the pillars of the barn into tissue paper to cover them

The barn in its place in the nativity box

We then got some shredded paper and stuck it down in the shelter to make hay.

Ju puts the "hay" in the barn

Our small Playmobil Nativity Scene set came out and we used baby Jesus in his crib/manger, Joseph and Mary characters as well as the animals and the Christmas tree, to populate our nativity scene.

The little people and animals from the Playmobil nativity are placed in the scene

We also had a donkey from a farm animal set, which found his way into the barn. As soon as we find the cow, I'm sure she will go in too.

We are quite pleased with our nativity scene

Our nativity scene is now on top of our mantelpiece. We are looking forward to completing it with an angel, some shepherds and more sheep, and the three wise men when the time comes. But this will be for another crafting day.