Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Nativity Set for the Kids




Every Christmas, I have a birthday party for Jesus in my home. We tell the Christmas story gathered around a birthday cake, sing Happy Birthday, and each child gets a candle to blow out on the cake. Since having grand kids, this celebration has become more special to us all.  As the kids have grown older, they have begun to join in with the story telling. This year I wanted to include the kids even more. I decided I would make a nativity for them to use in the story telling. Since there are a lot of cardboard tube "people" made out of empty toilet paper and paper towels rolls around Pinterest, I decided to try to make a nativity using empty toilet paper/paper towel rolls.



I began by trying to draw the figures on paper that would then fit around the empty rolls. Then I stopped myself because as I like to say, "why reinvent the wheel" and Googled to see if anyone else had a good nativity set template I could download. There are not that many and I almost decided to try my own again because I wasn't happy with what was out there. Then I found these and I love how it came out! There are still more pieces to make but I ran out of time before posting this.



I had the two older girls over to help me color and make the nativity; soon each one decided they also wanted to make a for themselves to have at home. So, I ran out of card board tubes but it didn't matter a lot, as the figures will stand up on their own. They could also be printed out onto card stock to make them sturdier. 

To make these yourself, go to this site and print out a set of templates; please say thank you to your host there for the template. Then color and cut them out. We taped them around the card board tubes. Simple as that, very kid friendly. I found that I could cut the tubes down smaller to get two or three figures out of each one.

And here are my helpers for the day. Cousins....they are silly girls! I love them that way :)

Nativity Set printables are here.


I have had a lot of content theft lately. If you are reading this post anywhere else but at Family Home and Life then it was used without permission! Copyright© Family Home and Life 2012 All Rights Reserved

17 comments:

  1. This is so special! I love the idea of a birthday party for Jesus, and the way you involved the kids in making the nativity set. My 2 sisters and I would act out a play of the Holy Family on Christmas Day at our grandparents' home when we went there for dinner. I was hoping to organize my grandkids to do this, but I think I like your idea better!

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  2. I LOVE the silly cousins! What great helpers to have and I love that they are in matching uniforms -- those are assigned helping Grandma uniforms, aren't they??!

    That cousin picture really makes me miss my cousins back in Michigan....cousins are just the best playmates ever! Having a very craft Grandma is pretty good thing to have, too!

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  3. Love this idea, Connie! Such cute cousins, too :) Thank you for sharing at All my Bloggy Friends this week! Merry Christmas to you and your family <3

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  4. Thank you for these reprintables, Connie! Great idea....especially focused on a 'Birthday party for Jesus'. I'm going to do this when my 3 littles come this weekend! I love the photos of the silly cousins......how adorable in their matching outfits and giggly smiles!

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  5. What a sweet party idea and a lovely nativity, Merry Christmas.

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  6. Thank you for posting the link! These are great. Found you on Fun In Functional!

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  7. What a great idea and a very important message.

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  8. Such a cute nativity to do with the kids! I do remember having the Birthday Cake for Jesus when my boys were little....it's an important message! :) The girls are adorable!

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  9. Ahhh love this! I'll have to have the kids do. Stopping by from Pin Me :)

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  10. Connie these are very cute. We have done various nativities over the years. This would be a fun one for the grands. We will be acting out the Nativity on Christmas Eve. We even have a real baby this year. Although he is a chubby 15 lb. 4 months old. The girls are precious. Reminds me of me and my sisters growing up. Thanks for sharing with Share Your Cup.
    Hugs and Merry Christmas!
    Jann

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  11. So genius to use the toilet paper rolls! I'm gonna have to try this with my little kidlets :)

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  12. Cute Nativity -- and cute cousins! thanks for linking on Busy Monday!

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  13. I nominated you for the Liebster Blog Award. Go here to read more about what you need to do:

    http://www.rainonatinroof.com/2012/12/liebster-blog-award.html

    Happy Blogging!
    -Jenna

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  14. Such a cute group of kids! I love how the nativity project turned out! Hope you had a nice Christmas! Visiting from DearCreatives.com

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  15. Thank you for stopping in and sharing your Christmas craft with our readers at Bowdabra's Crafty Showcase. We love seeing your projects each week. Stop in and see which blogs are featured on Friday and to link up more of your goodies on Sat-Thur.

    Happy New Year,
    Susie @Bowdabra

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  16. We love this set!! Your children color much better than mine did. We added some cotton balls to the sheep this year. Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!

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