DIY Paper Nativity

It’s Christmas time again! And that means, decorations, most of which for me are nativity scenes. I’ve tried to make a new one each year for the past few. Last year in China, I designed a very simple set made out of paper since I didn’t really have access to a Michael’s, JoAnn’s or Hobby Lobby nearby.

So, I thought I would share it so others can make their own. It is a perfect activity for kids and you don’t have to worry about them breaking anything. You can always print out a new shepherd or Joseph. It was designed for A4 size paper (that’s the standard size in most the world, but not America). But this year I printed them on standard letter size paper, and it worked just fine. I left the faces blank in the designs so they can be personalized however you want. Below are each of the pieces for downloading, but first here are some steps, even though you can figure it out on your own.

Step 1: Print out each character (1 baby Jesus, 1 Mary, 1 Joseph, 3 wisemen, as many angels and shepherds as you want.

Step 2: Draw or paint on faces

Step 3: Fold each figure

- Mary, Joseph and Angels are just made into tubes and taped at the seam
  - I cut the tops of the pages into strips down about an inch and form domes for their heads
  - The angels I cut a halo out and painted it silver
- Shepherds are folded into rectangles and the tops are cut and folded to make hats
- Wisemen are folded into triangles
  - I cut the tops for two of them to look like various kinds of crowns
  - the third I form a hood type top like the shepherds

Step 4: Make accessories like wings for angels, gifts for wisemen, crooks for shepherds

Step 5: Make animals – you could do origami or like me just draw them on paper and cut it out

Step 6: You can make it your own by decorating however you want! If you’re doing it with kids, maybe you could use glitter, googly eyes, or anything else to make it their own.