Sunday School or Bible Clubs > Crafts > Nativity crafts
Cardboard and Clay Lamb
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1.Cut lamb body from thin cardboard
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2.Clip on tiny clothespins for legs (Sold at craft stores. Paint white, if you like)
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3. Cover body (not face) with air drying modeling compound such as Hearty and give texture with an old toothbrush
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4.Add Hearty ears and tail
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5.Draw on eyes with fine tip pen
Toilet Paper Tube Nativity Set
Cut origami paper (or wrapping paper) for the outer clothing, and disposable kitchen cloths for the headdress. Use Pipe cleaners (chenille wires) for beards and hair. Make the top of the head rounded by using egg carton cups.
Golf Tee Nativity Set
Buy plastic golf tees in assorted colors (sold at Walmart and sporting goods stores). The tees form the bodies. Add beads for heads and pipe cleaners for arms and they are almost finished.
Wooden Ball and Dowel Nativity Set
Buy wooden balls and cylinders ( sold in sets of a dozen in wood/tool section of hundred yen stores ) and sheep (toy section at some hundred yen stores.) Paint the heads and draw faces. Cover the cylinders and heads with felt.
Hearty Nativity Set on Wooden Blocks
Buy wooden blocks ( sold in craft stores ) and Hearty (sold in craft stores and Walmart.) Make the body from a big cone shape, and arms from small cone shapes. Head and hands are ball shapes. Heads tend to fall off, so it is best to secure them with a toothpick (stick it all the way in so it won’t show.) Headdresses are flattened balls. Hair is clay cut into strips. Make the baby by wrapping a bead in felt. Draw faces with a fine tipped marker.
Foam Nativity Set and Stable
This set was made out of various thicknesses of EVA foam (sold at dollar stores and craft stores.) Make the bodies by shaping foam (or thick colored paper) into cones. Add details such as belts, arms, and a contrasting color for a coat (smaller cone than body.) The heads are wooden beads, and the head dresses are triangles cut from felt.
Foam Nativity Wreath
There are 2 pages of inexpensive foam nativity sets that are sold through Oriental Trading Company. You can cut your own shapes from EVA foam or felt or colored paper. The wreath base on the left was cut from foam floor mats and the base on the right, the word “Joy,” is also cut out of the same foam floor mat.
Tiny Nativity Set
This set is small enough to make into a pin. The people are made out of wooden bee bodies, the stable is cut popsicle sticks, and the baby is a bead wrapped in felt. Buy supplies at craft stores.
Nativity Bingo
These Bingo cards are made with Nativity stickers ordered from the Oriental Trading Company. You can make your own by drawing pictures or getting pictures off the internet. Put them in plastic sleeves so they can be used over again. Use it to help children listen during the story, or as a review game. Link to Oriental Trading.com
Star Chinese Checkers
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1.Roll out yellow clay and cut into a star shape.
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2. Use golf tees to poke holes in the star.
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3. Provide two colors of golf tees to play the game once the clay dries.
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1.If you cut 5 identical triangles, they will form a pentagon and show you where to poke the middle hole with a tee.
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2.When you flip them out , you can cut out the star shape, and see where to poke the 3 holes along the edge of each triangle.
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3.Take the patterns off and poke one hole in the tip of each triangle, and one more on each side of the triangle.
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4. Make two more holes between each row of 3 and the middle hole.
Nativity Tree Ornaments
Here is a 4 week plan to make Christmas tree ornaments in Sunday school for advent.
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1.Week one, cut out clay ornaments with cookie cutters or patterns. Let dry.
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2.Week two, glue on decorations.
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3. Week three, Use needle and thread to make hanging loop.
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4.Week 4, decorate a box to hold the ornaments.
Although white ornaments show up well on a Christmas trees, children often prefer bright colors. Two options for quick decorations:
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1.Glue on buttons and squares of plaid fabric
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2.Cut out small felt leaves and glue on, or fasten on with red map pins stuck in diagonally so they don’t poke out the back
Clay Sheep Ornaments
Nativity Mobile
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1.Make a baby Jesus by drawing a face on a wooden bead and wrapping it in a small square of white felt. Glue to hold in place.
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2.Make a cross by pressing clay into a chocolate mold, or cut a cross shape out with scissors, or tie two twigs or popsicle sticks together.
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3.Wrap a small square of styrofoam like a gift.
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4.Make a sheep by pressing clay into a chocolate mold, or make a sheep in one of the ways shown above.
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5.Buy or make an angel out of felt or clay. (see above.)
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6.Buy or make a star ornament. (see above.)
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7.String them all together with beads or gold balls and hang them from a wreath.
Matchbox and Tiny Clothespin Nativity Set
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1.Make the matchbox into a stable. ( View step by step instructions)
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2.Buy Tiny clothespins at a hundred yen shop, or craft store.
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3.See which can stand up (some fall over, so don’t use those.)
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4.Clip onto a map pin for the head, or glue a bead on the top.
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5.Make tiny clothes out of paper or cloth.
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6.Make a tiny baby Jesus by wrapping a bead in cloth. Glue.
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7.Fasten on tiny beads for the wisemen’s gifts, or cut a paperclip with wire cutters to form a shepherd’s crook.
Nativity Bead Game
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1.Cut a circle of paper to fit inside a Pringle’s (potato chips) can lid.
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2.Draw a scene for the wise men to travel from the East to Bethlehem. Don’t forget the star!
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3.Glue pieces of toilet paper tube on various places on the game.
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4. Add three beads to represent the wise men.
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5.Tape another lid on top.
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6.See if you can help the wise men find the baby Jesus.
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7.You can draw the picture, photocopy, and let the kids color it in, or color copy it so the kids only put the game together.
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