To be irrationally annoyed that my child wasn't Mary

[TheSkiingGardener]

It was a lovely Nativity, but I still can't shake this mildly miffed feeling that they weren't chosen to be Mary.

I have a son.

That's pretty precious isn't it.

I'm a lawyer, I'm so outraged for you I'll even do it pro-bono.

You guys never been to a nativity?

Mary is the rubbish part. She just gets to sit there.

The true centre of stage is always the innkeeper or Angel Gabriel (or boss of the angels as described round our parts).

FlappertyFlippers It's a long time since I did my A-Level Greek but try octopoda if you want to sound bloody silly highly educated.

Our Mary was ginger, which must have been ginger tokenism as the majority of girls in the year are blond .

I love this thread! No one has yet mentioned that their DC was an animal. Did anyone have a sheep, cow (well an ox I suppose), pig (they had swine in those days), donkey, star, cloud? No, they wouldn't have had a cloud. It was a clear sky so they saw the star.

If you have to provide the costumes, how would you dress a sheep?

The Mary I remember from school works in the local betting office. She's also about 15 stone and is a gobby single mother of 5.

Just saying it has no bearing on future success in life.

I doubt if the people among whom Jesus Christ was born kept pigs, HeraldAngelSinging

Fucking gender sterotyping eh?

Yanbu

DS got the part he wanted...a star. He stood during the whole performance with a finger up his right nostril trying to dig out an awkward bogey. When he eventually got it, our eyes met and he realised I'd been watching him the whole time. He looked longingly at the bogey and then gave me a look which said "I'll just save this one for later, shall I ?"

An animal part is a step up from the tree, star or flame - yes one year dd was a mere flame around the shepherds' fire. I think a donkey would have been a step up from there.

DS was a shepherd and almost managed to start a fight between his fellow shepherds and Angel Gabriel.

Gabriel: Jesus is here for you! (point at audience)
DS: Jesus is here for you! (points at Gabriel)
Gabriel: Not me, you! (Points at shepherds)
Shepherds: For you! (to Gabriel)
Gabriel stomps off stage.

My blonde blue eyed dd has been a wise man 3 times. Does that make her G&T?

She was very jealous when blonde brown eyed ds was an angel. They had blondes with silver tinsel halos and the brunettes in gold tinsel halos.

My other blonde blue eyed ds was a ninja. (Dressed in black and called chorus on the program but he's a method actor who would only sing if he was in character)

DD was a donkey. She looked super cute and they had the best costumes -fact! Mary had dark hair. Performance of the day was a very loud, out of tune angel. She was so enthusiastic it made me smile

Teacher code for nativity parts....
Mary- the girl who best fits into the school Mary outfit.

Well MNers are always preaching on about gender neutrality, so I don't see that it is beyond the realms of possibility. You just need to educate the school in time for next year's performance

Sarah Bernhardt played Hamlet, but even MN children are rarely that talented!

I have been a sheep, shepard and multiple angels. Sister was mary once then narrator for next 5 years. Karma.

Derailing the thread slightly but why are the girls angels? Aren't the angels in the Bible given male names? We had female Inn keepers in my DD'S nativity as well as boys but only girl angels

Up our way it's about who is brave and can speak in a loud enough voice that the audience can hear, sell it girl, sell it!

Owl I was about to raise the same thing about angels being male.
I actually think it would be rather fun for school to challenge the gender stereotyping on that one, and at least tell all the sparkly be-winged fancy girls (and yes, my daughter was one yesterday!) that they're playing blokes

This is a religious school and they still had girl Angels. The parts were very well distributed really. Nursery children were animals (onesies), reception were kings or Angels, year 1 and 2 were Angels or shepherds or narrators. The small number of star parts were picked out but everybody got a proper (as in, in the bible) part. No aliens or octopodes.

It's a very small school which makes that possible I think.

I shall prime DS ready for next year and possibly buy him a wimple to wear to school in November.

DS was an angel in the nativity. We stuck silver tinsel on the side of white trousers, he looked like a cross between Elvis and the fella singing beauty school drop out in Grease.
He was gutted as Ben10 was also in the nativity and that's what he wanted to be.

dd was Mother Christmas when she was three, as she was 'clearly not a dancer'. she rocked it esp. when she shoved Prancer and Vixen into their places.

I remember when dd was cast as cow #2, I was a little surprised none of her teachers had noticed her clearly advanced acting skills, then when I saw the nativity, it was actually told by the animals and it was the main part.
in your face, mary!

The letter from school told next my DD was cast as...(wait for it!)...."a person in the crowd!" No costume required!