Children can model their own Nativity scene!

       Below are a few nativity sketches that children may work from while sculpting their own religious figures from paper clay or even salt dough. Included in these sketches are Mary, the baby Jesus, a flower, Sarah mother of John the baptist, the three wise men with gifts, and two baby lambs one standing and the other reclining.  Use either watercolors or acrylics to paint figures like these and then seal them with three clear coats of acrylic spray or Mod Podge. Let the figures dry completely between coating. Store them in cookie tins to prevent mice or insects from chewing on figures for nesting materials.

Arrange the figures on a wooden platform. Add clay trees and plants. Construct
 the barn from a cardboard box or scrap wood. Use the illustration above as a guide.

Mini Demonstration of sculpting a simple clay 

nativity by YAS ClayCommunity.

 

 Once you've played around with clay to make a little nativity scene,

 try drawing a Christmas camel or even an entire caravan!

Left, "Let's use a triangle this time, cut by some straight and slanting lines."
 Center, "A hump up here, two legs below, and up on top a figure---so!"
Right, "Then if you draw your lines quite true, a Christmas camel comes in view."

animated Nativity

       Did You Know? 

       The accounts of the Nativity of Jesus in the New Testament appear in two of the four Canonical Gospels, namely the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Matthew. Luke's story takes place mostly before the birth of Jesus and centers on Mary, while Matthew's story takes place mostly after the birth of Jesus and centers on Joseph. The two other canonical gospels, the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of John, begin their narratives of Jesus' life in his adulthood; both mention him coming out of Galilee, and John mentions the name of Jesus' father, but neither John nor Mark gives any other details of his life prior to adulthood.

       The betrothal of Joseph and Mary, and the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem appear in both Matthew and Luke. Many events in the Luke account are not in the Gospel of Matthew, - for example, the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem - and others appear only in Matthew, such as the Flight to Egypt.

       The Nativity accounts in the New Testament are generally viewed as ending with finding Jesus in the temple several years later, after the family has returned to Galilee.