DIY Christmas Nativity scene templates. Do-it-yourself Christmas nativity scene: a master class. How to make Christmas characters for a nativity scene with your own hands from paper
In Kyiv, until recently it was hot, but now it's getting colder. We got winter clothes, and with it our dreams and New Year and Christmas mood. So I decided to make a mini puppet theater for the kids to tell them a Christmas story and learn carols with them. I also thought that it would be nice to make large coloring pages of Christmas characters so that the little ones, when coloring them, would better remember the names and the story itself. Well, for older children, small characters and a nativity scene for coloring, creating their own crafts or a mini-theater. In general, there is a lot of room for imagination and good Christmas creativity.
By the way, for older children we have on the blog :)
Our mini puppet theater “Christmas Story”
To make it, I glued the sheet with the figurines and the sheet with the nativity scene onto cardboard, then cut out all the elements. The nativity scene was bent in half so that it stood like a postcard. I glued the figures with double-sided tape to children's pencils.
It is convenient to store figurines in cups.
On the seventh of January we will celebrate the Nativity of Christ. How toto touch the miracle of Christmas? On the eve of this holiday at the family table, tell the child the legend of the birth of Christ, and then offer to make a nativity scene with your own hands (from the Latin praesepe- "crèche", "cattle feeder").
There are no strictly established sizes of the nativity scene and the number of characters, but it must necessarily contain a manger where the newborn Jesus lies, the figures of Joseph and the Virgin Mary, bent over the manger, sheep, an ox and a donkey. These characters were not just figurines-dolls (they were not played with) - they were symbols of Christmas.
Traditionally, they were made three-dimensional, from wood, fabric, or flat from cardboard, in one or more levels. The figures could move, depicting thematic scenes.
We will need a medium-sized box that can be pasted over with colored paper, and preferably with a cloth. For the outside, choose dark blue, for the inside - red, for the floor - brown.
In the depths of the box we will place our heroes - a manger (a small box with dry grass or straw), on the right - Mary, on the left - Joseph, around the manger - animals, in the foreground - shepherds with staffs in their hands. We will place an angel next to or above under the roof. We blind the heroes from plasticine or salt dough.
The figurine of the Virgin Mary will be in red clothes, kneeling (smaller) - in a green veil. The figurines of Joseph and the shepherds will be larger, we will give the shepherds a staff (from a stick, a tube of suitable thickness), and roll a tourniquet over the head over the cover.
A manger can be made not only from a box, but also from plasticine, a recess in a manger - with a phalanx of a finger. The figures of the Three Kings should be in bright clothes, and the harnesses on their heads are also bright, made of plasticine balls and "sausages". Let's make a lighter angel out of paper.
The nativity scene can also be made from a cardboard rectangle, which is bent so that the bottom is larger than the top. Round the upper part, glue a cardboard sky strip to it with hot glue or adhesive tape. The firmament should be dark blue, we will glue yellow stars on it.
The basis for the figures of characters will be a paper cone with a cut off top. For the head we use large wooden beads, we will also cut out the hands from cardboard. For the cover you will need pieces of fabric, for animals - sticks, threads, beads.
We will make a nativity scene from cardboard according to a pattern-template. We will print the barn and heroes on a printer, stick it on thick paper and color it.
If you glue a rectangle to the base of each figure, they will be able to stand on their own.
If you find a color printer, the nativity scene will immediately turn out in color. It will only be necessary to cut out all the elements.
Another Christmas nativity scene can be made from felt, fleece, gingerbread, ready-made sets of figurines.
The "vytynanka" nativity scene will also be original - cut out of thick paper with a mock-up knife. Figures can also be embroidered and covered with a cardboard base or knitted using the amigurumi technique.
For lighting, we use a small light bulb or a Christmas tree garland, which we will turn on in the evenings.
It will be nice to get together by the light of the lights with the whole family together with the children and tell them about the Great Feast of Christmas!
On the eve of the Nativity of Christ, according to pious tradition, Orthodox churches are decorated with nativity scenes.
The word "nativity scene" corresponds to the Latin term "praesepe", which means "manger, feeder for livestock" in translation. In Christian perception, this term has received a generalized meaning as the place of the Nativity of Christ. The nativity scene has no standards either in size, or in the number of characters, or even in time (its main plot can be transferred to the present). The only constant over the centuries is the scene at the manger, where the newborn baby Jesus lies. In addition, theatrical performances on Christmas themes are called nativity scenes.
In Russia, the nativity scene has been known since the 17th century. However, the origins of the puppet Christmas theater are much older. In Ukraine, this theater has been known since the 16th century. It was Little Russia that gave Russia such a unique tradition. The Ukrainian nativity scene, in turn, became the successor to the Polish tradition. And the Christmas puppet theater came to Poland from the Catholic culture of Europe.
At the beginning of the tenth century, there was a tradition in Rome to present scenes from the life of Christ in the temple. This performance lasted several days. But the scene of the Nativity of Christ was never played out in a live plan. She was present in the temple throughout the entire action from the birth to the death of the Savior. The Virgin, Joseph and the Christ Child were depicted by dolls made by famous sculptors. Puppets who had the honor of playing the Virgin Mary were called puppets in Italy.
This is where the tradition of arranging Christmas nativity scenes in Catholic churches came from. Then they began to make nativity scenes of a smaller size. They were placed in boxes made in the form of a temple. So the nativity scene left the temple and came to the man's house. Western nativity scenes were mechanical, the figures in them moved in a circle.
Nativity device
What was the Christmas nativity scene? The nativity scene was a simple wooden box with slots. The peasants, free from their summer agricultural labor, made this theater on long winter evenings. The crib box itself was a two-storey house. The upper tier of this house, in fact, represented the cave of the Nativity. It housed a small manger in which the swaddled Infant Christ lay; figurines of Joseph and the Virgin Mary, bent over mangers; an ox and a donkey warming the Savior with their breath.
These figures could not be called just dolls: they were never played with like dolls, no speeches were made for them. They depicted a nativity scene and were signs, symbols of Christmas. Sometimes, instead of figurines, an icon of the Christmas holiday was placed in the upper tier.
Accordingly, the entire upper tier of the house was designed according to this Christmas scene. It was pasted over with blue paper or painted blue. The Christmas Star of Bethlehem was carved on the roof of the house, announcing to the whole world about the miraculous birth of the Son of God. This Star was through. From the inside of the house it was illuminated with a candle. And she really shone with a shimmering light during the Christmas performance.
From the inside, the box was pasted over with a white hare skin. The white color symbolized purity. At the same time, the hare skin hid the slots in the box through which the figures moved.
The owner of the den usually spoke the text himself and led the puppets. Several choristers - boys who sang in the service, sang Christmas carols. And if the troupe included a musician, then he accompanied the singing and dancing by playing his instrument.
Earthly and heavenly
The tiers divided the house into two spaces. The upper tier denoted the space of heaven. After all, the Christ Child descends from heaven to earth. And the lower tier is the earthly one, in which we, sinful people, live, with all our passions, joys and hopes.
Here, on the lower tier, the theater will present the puppet action itself, which will tell what happened in the year of the birth of Jesus Christ in the city of Bethlehem, a folk mystery drama about the cruel King Herod. It is King Herod and his warriors that the people will bring out as puppet characters and will speak for them. It also implies the third, lower, tier - the underworld, where the devil Herod dragged. So a simple dollhouse grew to the size of the universe.
For several centuries in Moscow, a week before Christmas, the history of the "Stove Action" was played out publicly. It was one of the favorite plots of theatrical performances in Russia in the 16th-17th centuries and before Igor Stravinsky's Petrushka. The rite of the "Stove Action" is an ancient and now completely forgotten tradition of the Church. It takes place on the day of the memory of the prophet Daniel and the three holy youths, that is, December 18 according to the old style and December 30 according to the new one. And if the crib theater was staged mainly for children, then the "Stove Action" did not get tired of watching from year to year, from young to old. The performers of these Christmas performances were not professionals; they provided income for those who remained unemployed for the winter. In the villages they were peasants, in the cities they were amateurs from the middle class.
But the staginess of the puppet action will not become the main thing in the den. Nativity figures will remain an illustration of the spiritual content of the texts. Texts in nativity scenes in the folk tradition were presented in a detached way. They were either sung in spiritual verses, or said, or simply pronounced without any intonation.
The crib theater was a favorite entertainment for children, who in pre-revolutionary Russia were practically not taken to secular theaters. During the year, Christmas theater boxes, along with sets of dolls, were stored somewhere in the attic or in the barn. They went with them from December 25 during Christmas week, and sometimes until Great Lent itself, but after Christmas week it was forbidden to show the spiritual part, only the secular part remained.
Not a game, but an action
What material were crib dolls made of? There were no clear instructions. In the Russian folk tradition, dolls were made both voluminous, from rags, wooden chocks, and flat cardboard figures. But it was impossible to play puppets the way they are now controlled in modern puppet theaters. Folk Orthodox ethics forbade bringing individual, acting figurative play into the nativity scene. The Nativity nativity scene represented the faithful, Orthodox people. The individual actor's craft carried the concept of insincerity and lies. The crying of Rachel, whose baby is killed, cannot be depicted in a den and, finally, it is simply impossible.
All figurines in the nativity scene made of any material were static, moving along the slots with the help of a wooden rod, on which the figurine was attached. The mechanism for driving the figures was hidden in a drawer with a secret bottom. However, during the action itself, the audience had a feeling of a miracle: as if the figures themselves floated out of the doors of the house and, smoothly sliding, spun along the slots in the wooden box.
The texts for the nativity scenes were written by the clergy on the basis of the Holy Scriptures. And the nativity scenes were presented at Christmas time and at Christmas by schoolchildren. So in the old days the pupils of theological seminaries were called. Since the wooden doll house-nativity scene was heavy, the schoolchildren dragged it on a stretcher. And he seemed to be floating in the frosty Christmas night over the village road, like a saving ark, protecting the earth from everything disturbing and dangerous that is happening in the world.
However, in the detachment of the presentation of the text and the driving of the figures, complete harmony of the integral artistic impression was achieved. It is also necessary to mention that the nativity scenes were performed late at night with lit candles. And the burning candle was a composite image of a puppet Christmas show.
How to touch the miracle of Christmas - especially if there are small children in the house? One possible solution is to make a nativity scene. Working together with children and other household members in any case will bring joy.
“A nursery,” one child dreamed so, “
Can be glued from colored cardboard,
Make paper gold
Shepherds with a Christmas star.
Donkey, ox - what a beauty! -
Stand next to the manger of Christ,
And the Holy Child at this hour,
He is in the hearts of all of us...
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Making a nativity scene (various options)
To make a nativity scene, you will need a medium-sized box. The decoration can be pasted over with colored paper or foil. For this case, it is appropriate to drape the structure with a fabric. In this case, a dark blue festive material is well suited for the outside, red for the inside, gray or brown for the ground, floor.
In the depths of the den, in the middle, place a manger with a Baby, made from a small box and strewn with straw or dry grass.
To the right of the manger, seat Mary, well in a red or blue robe, on the left Joseph in brown. There are animals around the nursery. In the foreground are shepherds in gray robes and with staves in their hands. If the nativity scene is made in the form of a house, the Angel can be hung on a string from the roof of the structure to create the impression of floating in the air. If the manger does not have a roof, it can be placed near the shepherds.
In the evenings, a small lamp is lit in the den, and the characters come to life... New Year's garlands are suitable for lighting. In the evening, having turned off the light, it will be possible, sitting comfortably near the nativity scene, to tell Christmas stories to children ...
Nativity scene characters
Mary, Joseph, Baby, angels, shepherds, animals (donkey, lambs, lambs, cow, bull - not everything that can be found (if the toys are purchased), the main thing is that it fits the meaning). The three magi, or "three kings," never appear one at a time.
We will need: salt dough (although these crafts can also be made from plasticine or plastic), a straw, a rolling pin, a teaspoon, a pencil.
Maria
1. Roll up a short, thick sausage for the torso to make it look kneeling.
2. Make the arms and head, mark the mouth and eyes. Roll out a ball of dough for the cover.
3. Throw the cover over the head and torso so that it lies in folds at the back.
Joseph and the shepherd
Make their body a little longer. For the shepherd, roll a tourniquet over your head.
nursery
Roll up a thick sausage. Press deeply into the center with the knuckle of your finger. Roll up a thin sausage for crosses at both ends.
Three kings
Brightly paint their clothes. Roll a tourniquet on your head from balls or twisted sausages.
baby christ
Make the baby Christ.
Roll up a ball for the head and a sausage for the body. Connect. Scratch with a fork at the joints.
Mark the eyes with the tip of a pencil. Roll up a small nose.
For the bedspread, roll out the dough over the film. Make marks with the tip of a pencil.
Remove the film and wrap the baby in a blanket.
Bake in the oven, and then paint the doll. Draw a mouth with a felt-tip pen.
Place the baby in the nursery.
Sheep
Roll up a thick sausage for the body.
Attach four ball-legs to the body.
Roll up the sausage-head and attach it to the body.
Flatten two small sausages to make ears.
Mark the nostrils and eyes with a pencil. Mark the fur with a fork.
For gifts, make bars of thickly rolled dough and decorate them with patterns.
Nativity scene decoration
The nativity scene can be decorated with spruce branches or cones, artificial flowers. You can hang a Christmas star on the edge of the nativity scene. The outer sides of the nativity scene can be decorated with yellow paper or foil stars.
The Christmas nativity scene creates a special atmosphere in the house: it is both a sense of a fairy tale, but at the same time an awareness of the greatness of the event, the anniversary of which the whole world celebrates on Christmas night.
Do-it-yourself den making options
So, we need:
- cardboard and colored paper
- glue, scissors
- Double-sided tape
- gouache, brush
- quail eggs
- pieces of fabric, narrow ribbon
- cardboard box
- white and brown yarn
- toothpicks.
Using a needle, we extract the yolk and protein from three quail eggs. We paint one in white, and the other two in flesh. Skin color will turn out if you add a drop of red and ocher to white. For the convenience of staining, I used sticks. So the color lies more evenly, and the testicle dries evenly.
Cut out circles with a diameter of 15 cm from brown and blue cardboard. Cut out a segment from the circle and roll the cone.
We cut off the top from the cone so that the head-testicle is held more securely. We attach the testicle to the cone with a narrow strip of adhesive tape. We glue the handles cut out of colored cardboard.
From the blue cone, a figurine of the Virgin Mary is obtained. We fix a cape from a piece of fabric on the head. We tie a thin “belt” around the figure - a strip of sequins. We draw eyes. The figurine is ready.
We make a figurine of Joseph from a brown cone. We make hair and a beard from brown yarn. Attach with double sided tape. (you can also use PVA, but it seemed to me that it is more convenient to work with adhesive tape). We tie a piece of fabric around the body and add a belt. The figurine is ready.
From white yarn we wind a ball - the body of a lamb. We fasten the head with a toothpick to the body - a white testicle. Insert toothpicks. Glue a bang of yarn to the head. We draw eyes. The lamb is ready.
We make a nursery. From a rectangular piece of plasticine we make the base. We insert the halves of the toothpicks around the perimeter. Pour some sawdust inside the manger.
The baby Jesus is depicted with a piece of cotton wool wrapped in cloth.
Put the shoebox on its side. Paste the background with blue paper. Glue the "curtain" and the Christmas star.
It remains only to arrange the figures, and sprinkle a little sawdust on the bottom of the box.
Christmas nativity scene is ready!
P.S. I used a similar pattern for making figurines for the Christmas Angel. The same cardboard cone, a chicken egg, a piece of fabric for a raincoat. The wings are made of cardboard pasted over with cotton pads. Hair - New Year's "rain".
Several centuries ago, a wonderful Christmas tradition appeared in Russia - a puppet show that tells about the birth of the baby Jesus. In those days, people enjoyed watching actors act out scenes from the Bible, and rejoiced at the great miracle all together. If you want to arrange an unforgettable holiday for the kids, then hurry up to make a small home theater, or nativity scene, with your own hands. With it, you can not only decorate your apartment and fill it with magic, but also introduce children to the history of Christmas.
What is a vertep?
Ancient nativity scenes were a large wooden box, made in the form of a two-story house. In the upper part of this building were figures of Mary, Joseph and the baby. On the lower tier, an action took place that told about the evil King Herod and his minions. The heroes of such stories often became contemporaries of the actors: a soldier, a priest, a gypsy, a peasant, and many other characters. In our time, a wonderful tradition of playing such performances is only being revived. You can make a nativity scene with your own hands with the whole family, and then gather at it in the evenings, talk, read books and admire beautiful pictures. These gatherings will remain in the memory of your child for many years and will warm him even in the most difficult times.
There are many ways to create a home. But for all performances, you will need a large box, which will serve as a stage. It is absolutely not necessary to make it from wood or other heavy materials - shoe or from under household appliances are perfect. Paste the future scene inside and out with foil and decorate with foil stars. You can create decorations from natural or waste material, colored paper and Christmas decorations. Figurines of heroes for such a theater are made in various ways. For example, they can be made from paper, clay, or ready-made toys. Some craftsmen create shadow theater, which is very popular with both children and adults. In our article we will tell you how to make a nativity scene with your own hands out of paper. The process of creating such a theater will be no less exciting than watching the performance itself. And if the rest of the family members join the work, then everyone will remember the fun pastime for a long time.
To make the main characters of the home theater, you will need the following materials:
Thin cardboard and paper for drawing.
Scissors and glue.
Paints, colored pencils, felt-tip pens and plasticine.
From cardboard, make small cones that will serve as the basis for the figures of the mother of Jesus, Righteous Joseph and the Magi. Draw faces on paper, cut them out and carefully glue them on the front side. Now you can start coloring. Depict the costumes, make an applique, add plasticine details. The hands of the heroes can also be drawn separately and glued to the body. Remember that a do-it-yourself nativity scene is not an exam in fine art, which means that you do not need to strive for ideal shapes and colors. Make this process a pleasure and enjoy the work that unites and brings your whole family together.
Animal figurines
Remember who surrounded the divine infant in the first hours of his life. Figures of sheep and donkeys can be drawn on paper and placed on a stable stand so that they can be easily moved. If you know how to sculpt from clay or dough, then make animals from these materials.
baby figurine
Doing it with your own hands, do not forget about the main hero of the occasion - the newborn Jesus. To depict a manger, you will need a small box of perfume or matches. Paste the cradle with colored film, cut straw from brown paper and stick it on top in random order. Draw a baby figure on paper, color it in and glue it to the box. Install a manger in the most honorable place, and hang over them, which two thousand years ago announced a great miracle to all the peoples of our planet.
Other ways to make a paper crib
A Christmas composition made according to templates will greatly facilitate your work. It is enough just to save the pictures to your computer, print and transfer them to thick cardboard. Be sure to give the silhouettes of the holy family stability by using coasters made of the same material. To decorate the frame, take a cardboard box, remove one wall and bottom. The roof of the future nativity scene can be made curved, and transparent plastic can be used for the back wall. Glue openwork tape or braid around the perimeter of the front part to close the uneven edges of the box. After that, you can glue the figures to the bottom of the box, and place a star on the roof. Since our work looks somewhat schematic, it will look best in Place a candle or a small flashlight behind the composition and turn off the light. Now the picture looks mysterious and evokes thoughts of the most beautiful days in the life of mankind.
How to put on a show
After you have made a Christmas nativity scene with your own hands, be sure to come up with several scenarios for the puppet show. If you want to comply with all the canons of old Russian ideas, then you will have to make a few additional characters. You might want to see an angel in a makeshift cave announcing the birth of Jesus. Or maybe you will draw the evil King Herod, who will order to kill all the babies in the country. In ancient times, children were shown scenes in which a cruel ruler meets death. She appears to the king in the form of a terrible skeleton and throws him into the underworld. The performance may be accompanied by singing, poetry reading, and after its completion there may be a game of questions and answers. Your little ones will enjoy repeating what they have learned this evening and look forward to the next performances.
May this bright holiday give all adults and children real joy, which comes only from childhood! And let it be with us not only on holidays!
Merry Christmas!
I really love Christmas and everything connected with it: carols, family gatherings, small Christmas cribs with tiny figures, delicious kutya, funny people dressed up, Christmas stories ... I also love more modern things related to Christmas: cartoons and good films based on Christmas stories, Christmas wreaths and decor, a finger theater about the birth of a little God.
For several years now I have been dreaming of buying a beautiful table nativity scene, but I still don’t find it the way I imagine. So that there are a lot of figurines that can be played with, so that the figurines are made in a childishly naive and at the same time restrained (without smirks and bulging eyes - I came across those too :)
But recently I thought about a drawing of a nativity scene - a Christmas picture that each kid can color in his own way. Parents will help him cut and glue everything correctly. And now a beautiful table nativity scene with your own hands is ready!
Having searched, I, of course, found interesting samples, but still decided to draw my own. Unfortunately, due to my growing tummy and my daughter, who manages my time without permission, my idea was postponed. Just today, my husband and I finally finished our Christmas nativity scene. We hope that at Christmas time he will still have time to please the kids.
Blank-coloring of the scene of the Nativity of Christ
The barn and 14 figurines can be printed, colored, glued onto thick paper, cut and glued in the right places. You get characters that stand on their own.
With such a nativity scene, you can arrange a table performance about the Nativity of Jesus Christ. It seems to me that making a nativity scene together with a child is a great opportunity to tell him about sacred events, about the birth of an unusual Baby, about who the Magi are and why the star shone so brightly. In addition, by coloring the figures, it will be easier for the child to remember who is where, and what role he played in this story.
A few words about gluing:
The figures must be folded along the dotted lines so that the rectangle is at the base - the figure will stand on it. Fix on top with a little glue. Cut out three parts with the image of a barn along continuous lines, stick them on thick paper, bend the edges along the dotted lines, and glue them together. Get a big house. To make it stand steadily, you need to bend it along the dotted lines along the beams.