22 December 2024: Nativity Play
This morning I joined Sunday Special for their Nativity Play. This is always a bit of an adventure as it is done without any rehearsals. The children don’t even know which parts they will be playing, although one girl obviously had to play an angel as she arrived already dressed as one. One of her cardboard wings looked bedraggled; I think she must have worn them last year as well.
Before the service started the other children were all given costumes suitable for their parts. Some consisted solely of tabards, with an apron for the innkeeper and the traditional tea towels to turn into head coverings for Joseph and the shepherds.
One of the Sunday Special leaders acted as the narrator. We sang a series of Christmas carols, in the right sequence for the story. Then that passage would be acted out by some of the younger children while an older child read the relevant Bible lesson. I was impressed by the donkey Mary rode. It was a sturdy painted wooden donkey mounted on wheels. One of the stronger boys acted as Joseph to pull it along.
It went well. When it was over we went through the closing parts of our normal Sunday Special service, complete with a Christmas song written by a member of the Sunday Special band.