To feel just a little bit sad that DD isn't Mary in her Nativity Play

[Bearwantsmore]

... I know, I know! But if you can't admit it on Mumsnet, where can you?!

My dad was telling me about many years ago a little boy in his class wanted to be Joseph and was very put out to be cast as the Inn Keeper Number 3. So when it was the part when Mary and Joseph knock on the Inn Keepers' doors when they got to him and asked 'have you any room?' the boy said 'Yes, I have lots of room, please come in!' instead of sending them to the stable.

i was so proud when 2 1/2 year old ds was a substitute joseph. in case the other boy chickened out.

It comes as know shock whatsoever that my daughter is a sheep. Don't feel sad about it, I am a realist, she isn't one of the class super stars

I was a chicken one year, a fucking chicken. Mum has this brilliant photo of me standing in the livingroom in my bright yellow costume, scowling, with my wings folded. I was distinctly unimpressed.

YABU

Being Mary is not all it is cracked up to be.

Dd2 was Mary at Nursery.

She rode around in a circle on a hobby horse, carrying Baby Lou Jesus whilst dragging along a reluctant Jesus. It was very funny.

Sorry, she was dragging around a reluctant Joseph!

I was Mary I dropped baby Jesus, I have done far better with my own children haven't dropped one of those!

I played Mary in year 2 or 3. The teacher told us out parts on my birthday (late November) and it remains one of the best presents I've ever had .

I was a rather 'well covered' child and my mother said that with my chubby cheeks squeezing out under the headdress, I was certainly the best fed Mary she'd ever seen .

Personally I wouldn't want my DD to be Mary. Stuffing cushions up your shirt and acting pregnant just seems wrong to me when you're 5. Unless they don't do that anymore? They did in our school.

DD's school only do the nativity once, year 1. She was Chief Angel - I was very proud, plus delighted to learn that the role of Chief Angel comes with a school-supplied costume, while lesser angels had to provide their own. I was less delighted when she tried the costume on, and our 6mo kittens found the tinsel trim irresistible ... had to do some sewing after all.

Since then, only one teacher has realised that despite her mild demeanour she is actually a comic genius on the side, and cast her as the Giant in the Roald Dahl version of Jack and the Beanstalk. She was ace, went around sniffing the audience.

I was an angel when I was 5. I was the stereotypical petite girl with blue eyes, long blonde hair ..... and 4 stitches in my forehead after a rather nasty fall in the play ground.

The following year I was a cow!!

My DD is playing the part of a Jack in the box this year, which seems to be the main part - she has the more lines than anyone else! She is just delighted not to be the narrator, as she has been in every other school play she's ever done.

My daughter was cast as Mary in her pre school play, she is a very theatrical miss and will probably be in the stage one day. She was the only 'white British' girl in the play group and was recast as a wise man after some parents complained it was very sad as she deserved the part but I found it very hard to bring up. She is an angel this year :)

Ds is going to be a raindrop

in nursery, i was the innkeeper.

there wasn't a lot of children in my primary class, so every year i got to be a shepherd/king/angel/narrator. which meant doing the shepherd role as i narrated, then running off stage to whip off the tea-towel, jam a crown on (still narrating from behind the curtain-yes, i had a voice like foghorn leghorn ) & run back on, then play a king while still narrating, then run off, remove the crown, stick on the halo & wings(still narrating!) & run back on stage. there was 18 boys, but instead of a couple of them being a king/shepherd, they got to be stars. or xmas presents. or other random things.

there was 6 girls in my class, including me. each year, someone got their "turn" to be mary. in primary 6, i was excited. every other girl had had their turn, it was my turn... nope. a new girl joined the class 3 weeks before the nativity- she got the role. i was gutted!

I was Herod in reception - unfortunately at that age I had yet to get the hang of acting, so didn't revel in the bloodthirstiness as I would have in later life.

DS is a star this year.
he's obviously impressed his teacher because in his preschool nativity he was a cow

I auditioned for Snow White in a school production and was cast as dopey. Still hurts 36 years later.

I hear you. My DD has been given the role of 3rd shepherd (and she is blonde too. The bastards). She is your average princess obsessed 3 year old girl, and this evening spent ten minutes chosing the prettiest clothes she owned to go to sleep in.

I am not looking forward to the moment she turns up proudly wearing a brown sack, with a teatowel on her head and sees her mates dressed in fairy wings with haloes.

DS1 is going to be a narrator in his preschool nativity. Not THE narrator, just a narrator. They have about two lines each. then again, they are only 3 and can't read. I am thrilled to learn from this thread that he is destined for great things thanks to this part though. (Well he tells me he is the narrator - he also told me the woman who runs his preschool is going to be the manger so I'm not sure I trust his answers).

I was considering offering Baby DS2 as Jesus, though he is so enormously fat that he would probably squash poor Mary if she tried to sit him on her knee. He was born to play a Christmas pudding though :-)

YANBU, my dd is only 19 months and it has already crossed my mind!

Ooh I thought I was going to be the only one who was an alien once! The teacher didn't do a patch test first and all the kids who played aliens came down with a rotten allergic reaction to the green face paint. Never had a starring role though, the bastards. I hate how the same few 'class stars' are chosen every year too.

I was Mary once when I was 10 in the nativity. I was completely tongue tied as the best looking boy in my class was Joseph. I think we were both equally embarrassed. It was a whole school production and we were the only two characters that were in it throughout (obviously!) so it was a big deal. DS (4) is a narrator this year. I don't think it is anything to do with reading ability but more likely because he constantly talks loudly and they have found an opportunity to channel that!

Mary at my school was was a stick up, spiteful, nasty cow. The teachers loved her because she had neat writing and was all pious and hoity-toity. She would pinch when no one was looking. I hated her.

I was always the fecking narrator. By Yr3 I was sick of it. That year we had the "artistic" teacher, the whole class mimed and danced the fecking nativity whilst I stood there like a lemon and narrated the fecking story. I just wanted to wear tinsel!!! Anyway, the week before the play, we had to bring our costumes in for practicing and my required costume was black leggings and a black TShirt. it was just so plain and horrible compared to the other cool costumes. I refused to read my lines in rehearsal. I actually staged a protest and refused to join in because my costume wasn't fair and my part was boring (savvy little kid- they couldn't do it without me)

The compromise was reached in a sit down "chat" with mum, teacher and I. I was allowed tinsel around my ponytail and a sequinned waistcoat over the blacks that my DM painstaking handmade for me for the occasion. In return I had to promise to read beautifully.

There were so many art resources in that room, I should have made a placard!!!