to feel disappointed over nativity casting

[madamearcati]

We are a small village school and every year the school has a nativity and so does the unattached pre-school.
It always seems to be the nicest looking children who are the angels and Mary and Joseph. The ones with the round cherubic faces ,pink cheeks and usually blonde hair
It can't be coincidence !In fact I once heard the TA discussing whether it would be 'ok' to cast an absolutely drop dead gorgeous mixed race little girl as an angel (because of her colouring )
Before the inevitable 'sour grapes' comments I would like to point out that my DD will be off for the nativity this year recovering from a minor operation.

Well we did the nativity.
Guess who my DD turned out to be?

She was the child that is in every play who assumes the role of on stage director. She tutted at thye children who were in the wrong place and did that thing where you whisper but with a really cross and animated face. We were near the front and her singing was the loudest and her disapproval at the poor quality of the poor performance of those around her was plain to see.

I spent most of the time biting my own hand so as not to let her see me laughing. And after I had to apologise to the four of five performers nearest to her who apparently failed to meet her exacting standards.

I have the DVD. I am going to show any boyfriends so they know what they are letting themselves in for.

and

my dd's infant school never did traditional nativity they always do a school play which also has a nativity scene so every child has a part the reception children are all angels then all the other children are given parts Mary and Joseph always go to the children least likely to be picked i.e. the tearful shy ones but so much encouragement is given to them to boost their confidence they always succeed in 3 years my daughter was an angel a sheep then a harassed mum she has loved every school play and every child was given a part all parts are recognised by everybody and cheered for equally

Nice thread!

I was blonde when I was very little. I really wanted to have one of the 'big' parts (Mary or the angel were always blonde girls), but you had to be able to read. I spent four years (aged 4,5, 6 and just 7) struggling and not learning; by the time I'd finally learned to read ... my hair had darkened up and was brown!

I was a blonde Mary (my Joseph was black, though).

Hope the OP's little girl gets well soon!

Oh Pag, my daughter was the same last year (but in fact the child next to her went shy and wouldn't read his lines, so she leant over and read it for him -- complete with longsuffering sigh and squaring of elbows!)

at lancelottie. Yes - love the long suffering sigh!

it just makes you want to stand up at the end and make an "she really is very sweet but she just is too determined that it should go really well and she is not normally bossy at all" announcement

My DD used to be exactly the same... at one nursery Christmas concert, she gripped the boy next to her by the arm & hissed at the top of her voice "SING!!!!!!!"

She was Mary in the school nativity this year (black).

I remember when I was small, all the spare girls were angels (I was always an angel!) but my class teachers daughter, who had really long white-blonde hair, was always Gabriel. (ER, wasn't Gabriel a man...) I remember even then thinking it wasn't fair at all, even though I worshipped the ground the teacher walked on and I don't think it was her decision.

thank you Rafi.

I am so pleased I am not the only one. We should have some kind of a support group...

pagwatch

She's 9 now & she's learnt that you can't really do that in public.

She saves all her criticisms to tell us afterwards instead.

I was that Angel Gabriel. For some reason I briefly attended a Sunday School and they clearly thought they had the Nativity sussed. Cast blonde haired middle class child with Mother who could whip up a costume so dazzling that God would have needed shades. Being ignorant of the politics, I recall being very surprised why the delivery of my lines in cut-glass RP accent resulted in me getting my ankles kicked very hard indeed by the Second Division angels who had to wear white sheets instead of shimmering gold stuff.

Forwards to dss's nativities which were much less stereotypically cast. But after having to wear "girlies tights" as a reindeer in Yr 1, ds1 somehow managed to get some sort of offstage role for every single Nativity afterwards.

DS2 had a difficult relationship with one particular teacher in Y2 so was normally cast as a "naughty boy" and left out of pretty much everything which did nothing to improve matters. But she'd gone on sabbatical at Nativity time and his new teacher had already worked out that he was a different boy if given something responsible to do. So he was cast as Innkeeper. A role that was eerily prescient given his grown-up occupation. Having stood on stage exuding "Landlordliness" and not permitting any sort of disorder, he expanded the part by, after the second time of asking, fixing Joseph with a scornful gaze, and saying "Look Squire, what is it you don't understand about "we're bloomin' full up?"

Laugh? Indeed we did. Whole room cracked up!

the kids whose parents kiss teachers arses are always mary or joseph

so imagine my surprise when ds aged 6 ( now 20!) came home and told me he was cast in the role of Joseph.

ohh i was so please my child had been given the premier role.

went to the play - the whole thing was writen from the sheeps POV, joseph didn't say a fking word and just sat there at the back like one of Lewis'

gutted

However, we did (used to ...eek) go to church every saturday for confessiona nd every sunday for mass, all my children were altar servers - so due to similar nepotism as the schools use... my DD was cast as the Virgin Mary in an interfaith service in the big proddy church.

i was so proud.

Well this year my ds aged 3 got Joseph in his nativity Play. I was thrilled as my dd has had various odd parts like a sqirrel. My ds had a little girl who likes him play Mary and some of the video was fab. They were holding hands. At another point she kissed his hand and put her arm round him. He drew the line when she tried to kiss him on the cheek. Priceless.

Well the casting of my DS as an inanimate object was wise, as he is generally away with the fairies and is not the sort of child to memorise a line and then recite it at the right moment. I was happy because it saved any awkwardness for him. At his nursery they definitely cast based on who is best at being on the ball and remembering stuff.

But a friend's DD was Mary (in a different nursery) and I strongly suspect that was just because of her blonde ringlets. The real Mary would have been dark-haired at least, and probably darker skinned, but I think in a lot of British people's heads long blonde hair = the perfect little girl, and I do find that a bit

It was always the same kids for the main parts at DS's primary. The LOUD twins who could also be guaranteed to raise a chuckle from the audience, the other set of twins who went to evening stage school and had numerous bit parts on the TV, and the pretty girl who could sing and dance.

It got bloody boring, I can tell you. I think the Head haboured a secret desire to step into Spielberg's shoes.