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?!

I was a Sunday School kid so was in a proper nativity every year of my childhood so got to play the full range. One year I was Narrator and the others mimed so I guess that was the lead role

I was never Mary but I've been a shepherd, an alien no idea why aliens were in the nativity , a bauble, an angel and mouse

Well, dd IS dancing to All The Single Ladies for her Christmas production. I can't wait, it's going to be hilarious.

You have to be kidding me. Oh god, you are serious. I imagine DS1 will be locked up in the classrooms when his nativity comes, so as not to spoil it for anyone else with shouts of "Gabriel was A MAN you got it WRONG"

DD1 was Mary in the pre-school one so I can't really complain about DD2 being a stable girl. I was then just pleased (apart from it being DD1) that they chose a dark-haired Mary for once. At least DD2 has lines anyway! The little girl who is Mary this year I had a good idea would be chosen as she is one of the older ones and seems pretty confident. They used to only give the 'leavers' speaking parts but I was also pleasantly surprised last year when DD2 was only 2 and was a shepherd and had lines to say.

I am cracking up on the train with laughter at these posts....my first nativity and when ds1 came home with shepherd before I even said "thats lovely darling"I asked " who's Joseph" I didn't know that with one small thing I'd become competitive parent....officially a grown up!

twooter is so right.

I was an angel. Because I was tall I had to stand right at the back. DD isn't at school yet so we haven't crossed that bridge. However, DP is a primary school teacher. Two years ago two of the kings started fighting and one headbutted the other in order to have the gold. It was hilarious as DP crawled along the back of the stage, trying to stay hidden behind the other kids, in order to break up the fight. There are at least 7 or 8 home videos of this. I keep waiting to see it on some type of 'you've been framed' type show. Cracking. :)

DS was a Shepherd last year and loved it. This year, as he is in Y2, he gets a speaking part and is the third (littlest) wise man/King. The first wise man is very tall, and the second is taller than average, then my DS is slightly short for his age. Apparently this is deliberate so they look good standing in a line to present their gifts. DS is extremely happy with this as well

On the other hand, DD2 tells me she desperately wanted to be Mary, or failing that an angel, but was never ever picked. She can remember being a donkey one year but can't remember what she was the other years (just knows it wasn't Mary/angel). I feel for her. Although I can make a very good guess why she wasn't considered a suitable Mary and also why not an Angel, despite looking angelic. They are both supposed to be quite sweet and meek parts for well behaved children.........

When I had my nativities, I was a star, the innkeepers daughter and then a narrator. I was upset because I wanted Herod or the Innekeeper to be a girls part. I liked getting the villains parts!! Being the villain was all I ever wanted. Not drippy Mary

ds1 was never anyone in school nativity, he was always in the group of left over kids who stayed in uniform and sang and sat quietly while the stars done their thing. He is now head boy though it only took 11 years of school to get his staring role :D

ds3 was a sheep last year and didn't do anything he was meant to, this year ive no idea he probably dosent even know himself... at 5 he is still a dreamer :)

Mine have been
DS1 Choir, angel (he loved that!), shepherd, narrator (with one sentence) and this year has risen to the dizzy heights of Joseph (he has no lines but a very small singing solo)
DS2 angel (in same show as ds1 he was the only one of the two who would wear wings and tinsel!), choir, line dancer (!) and this year is playing the triangle in the percussion section.....he is beside himself with excitement.
DD choir and this year a narrator....
Whatever they do they are always stars! I am beyond it now. It is always the same kids who get the big parts....mostly because they can speak loudly and learn loads of lines. I am so relieved we have no lines to learn between all my three DC.

I was a FENCE.
Beat that!

Is your acting a bit wooden?

My dd is Mary. It's not a good role, no lines and she has to wear weird headgear that makes her look like an air hostess. Also 'Joseph' doesn't like her so is refusing to walk with her down the aisle. It's not looking good.
DD2 is a star and is very excited about singing Humphrey is a camel with brown eyes. Much better in her opinion.

Oh and dd1 is the third king in the spanish version of the nativity, yes you heard it, the spanish version, entirely in spanish, a language I don't speak. So that will be fun!

I always wondered where they got the idea for "third lobster" from in "Love Actually". No more

DS told me that he is going to be a kettle
Turns out he is cattle

I was never Mary or an angel, I was a sheep, donkey, inn keeper and 3rd sheperd. Specky with prominant front teeth that made me lisp as a child was not good for the "special" parts. I was even cast as a dung beetle in a High School play!!
DS were choir members, sheep, donkeys and finally in their last year of school nativities 1st King and 1st shepherd - finally!! Speaking parts - and they made the most of it - they kept chatting to each other through the whole thing!!

Last year, Ds2 came home and announced proudly he was narrator number 5.

Three days later, he came home and glumly announced he had been demoted to a sheep. (apparently he kept gurning madly at an imaginary audience...)

I tried so hard not to laugh, as I said brightly "well -- thats great! we've never had a sheep in the nativity before - shepherds, trees, kings and stars - but a sheep - wow! I'd better cut that old rug up then hadn't I?

"But a SHEEP mum - there's not much scope.."

No - probably not - but he was a very sweet gurning sheep

ds1 has been a star (no, not THE star, just one of the stars in the star choir, which meant they all had to wear a star headband. Ds was the only one that managed to wear his to the side and all his hair sticking out every which way, all the other stars managed to stay nice and neat) in reception.

Then, in Y1 he was an angel in the choir of angels - he's a very blue eyed blond little boy so would have been perfect casting, apart from the scowl that never left his face throughout the peformance because he didn't want to be standing up in front of people singing. Must admit I do love that picture, makes me whenever I see it.

last year in Y2 he was a cow. He needed brown or grey t-shirt and trousers for the part as the ruddy supermarkets were full of gazillions of Mary and Joseph costumes, a handful of kings, sheep, camels and donkeys but no cows. Everybody else must have had the same problem because everywhere was sold out of the things. found some eventually and made headband thing with cow ears and then added horns to turn it into a boy bull - significant quantities of double sided sticky tape and industrial strength staples.

This year he's in a new school and the eejits made some sort of announcement to say that pupils didn't have to be in their year nativity - so of course he said he didn't want to be. But he then discovered he needed a note and me being mean mummy has said no, he has to do it. so think he is going to be one of the narrators.

DS2 started at ds1's old school this year and is going to be a shepherd - he's much more confident than ds1 and actually enjoys learning songs and singing them. Worry is more that he is going to start grooving on down as he tends to whenever music comes on (doesn't matter what it is - latest funky pop song or a sad dirge), he's there boogie-ing away.

bad thing that the school has decided this year - to only do the nativity play in the reception year . Y1 will do an easter play and Y2 a leavers play, so the teachers don't have to spend so much time rehearsing and making the hall out of bounds for gym etc. Think it's off - it's lovely watching them getting better and better at their nativity play each year, it's just not the same if it's a different time of year. They can do those too but the nativity one is a thing in its own right!

I was in the choir once. Until they heard me sing. And then I was demoted to the back end of the donkey.

Even my mum couldn't disagree with them - when I told her I was in the choir she said 'have they heard you sing?'

Dd is a 'wonky donkey who breaks the manger?' Wtf? There are lines to learn and everything. Any primary school teachers shed any light on this particular production?

DS1 was always Joseph when we lived in the UK. What can I say, he is good looking and has the gift of the gab.

SMUG.

DS2 is best suited to 'HULK, SMASH!' sorts of roles.

Still SMUG.

In primary school I was once chosen to be Mary, but then a new girl (who happened to be the tallest in the class which at that age was the coolest thing), threw herself on the floor and had a total fit, screaming 'But my Mother has already made my costume!'. Rather than telling her to grow up, our teacher lost her nerve and turned to me and said, 'I think as Megan wants to do it so badly we should let her, don't you think?' To which I replied, 'No. My mother wouldn't let me have something just because I screamed and cried. Its not fair.' There then ensued lots of negotiations, with my Mother being asked to meet the teacher. By this stage I had refused to have anything to do with the play and my Mother and other staff were busy trying was to cajole me into accepting an ever decreasing level of parts. (Shepherd, sheep, tree and even a rock!). I still refused. As punishment I was eventually forced to take a part which meant you had to be in your school uniform and not in a fun costume. Myself and other - lets say they were perceived as the less talented students -were expected to spell out Merry Christmas by reciting a little poem for each letter at the end of the play. We did a brilliant job, timing bang on. My Mother to this day still recalls the icy venom in my voice as I read out 'H is for Holly that shines so bright' and turned over my card.....

The best of it was though that Megan who had won her lead role through a spectacular tantrum totally forgot her lines, burst into tears and wet herself.
It might have had something to do with the costume though, as it turned out her Mother hadn't made one at all but had (post tantrum) had to hire it. Megan had chosen a princess outfit. The audience chuckles at the Mother of our Lord in a hot pink meringue number may have put her off.