Christmas school/nursery plays

[Jaybee]

Just wondering what your darlings are doing for their Christmas performances? What costumes have you had to make? I feel I have got off lightly this year as the school is doing a production of Swan Lake - dd is a swan and she is doing ballet, ds is Scottish dancing - so all I have to provide is a white scrunchie for dd and a white shirt for ds. My friend's son is in Reception class and they are singing The Ugly Duckling - both my dd and ds are constantly singing it and they and driving me mad!!

my ds is a shepherd in the nursery play. he is getting a sort of tabard type costume made out of brown felt and secured at the waist with a curtain tie back ropey tassly thing. we're still searching for a tea towel with the appropriate pastoral look to act as headgear! we have ruled out getting him anything which resembles a staff or crook - far too much scope for damage!

First time for us. Ds (3) is going to be an angel (chorus of "Aaaahs" please) and he is also going to do a ballet routine! I can hardly wait. I asked him to show me some ballet the other day and all I can say is the resulting effort resembled something more akin to pogoing at a Sex Pistols concert than ballet.

I have to admit I am really impressed by the dedication of the school teachers - especially my ds' - she has adapted 18 adult kilted skirts to fit the girls in my sons class and out of the remainder has made matching bot ties and sashes for the boys - all in her own time.

I have to admit I am really impressed by the dedication of the school teachers - especially my ds' - she has adapted 18 adult kilted skirts to fit the girls in my sons class and out of the remainder has made matching bot ties and sashes for the boys - all in her own time.

DS (3 1/2) is a sheep. Wearing his Aran jumper, cream tights, black plimsolls and home made sheep mask.

Pamina - sounds like a recipe for disaster but bound to be really adorable and I bet you cry! I always do, especially at the little ones - kids school has a nursery attached and they always take part in the main school performances and they are so cute!!

Well, to my immense chagrin, ds' nursery this year has decided that it is "traumatic and unfair on the children" to subject them to the ordeal of standing up in front of their parents etc and performing. So, for the first time, no nursery concert for us. The parents who expressed regret at a recent meeting were made to feel like the worst sort of vulgar showbiz mammas, too.
I can see their point: for lack of suitable premises, the show has always taken place in very cramped conditions and yes, a lot of the children cried in previous years, it's true. But ds was never one of them! He jingled bells beautifully at 18 months and was a beaming sheep last year. This year, I had high hopes of a leading role...
So I am profoundly envious of everyone else on this thread. I wuz robbed. Have fun everyone!

DS1 was a star last year. He refused to go on however, and my star costume went to waste

This year, he is either a servant (nursery teacher's point of view) or the King (DS1s point of view). He's 4 at the end of February so I've got several more years of these things to look forward to

Don't worry Marina - you will have lots of years of them to come - I love them!! The nursery my children attended never did them, for the same reasons that you mention, instead they used to have a big Christmas party when the kids and their parents were encouraged to dress up as something Christmassy, then the kids would have a sing-song around the Christmas tree, just as tear jerking a performance without the pressure of an obvious performance.

dd (7m) is a reindeer, in a gorgeous outfit from Mothercare - thanks to those who told me where to get it. She not only has to do 2 performances, but has 3 rehearsals to do beforehand!

This year dd1 & dd2 are in the same performance. Dd1 is a star (yellow clothes, christmas tree star decoration attached to headband for her head), and dd2 is an angel (dd1's costume from last year) - I think that maybe her teacher was being ironic when she gave her the role of an angel!

Marina - what a bunch of meanies!!!

My daughter is, this year, 'Narrator 5' as she keeps telling me!

DS1 (3) was meant to be a sheep, but he wouldn't wear the costume, so nursery donated a dinosaur outfit and he wouldn't wear that, so a friend gave us a tiger outfit and he wouldn't wear that. All these outfits were furry and he won't wear fur. He won't wear masks/hats and won't have his face painted. I went into town to get some fabric paints and found this great cow raincoat for the same price. He'll wear that so now he's a cow. Now they just need to make sure he doesn't turn the tape recorder off during the performance (he's been doing that in practices). Could be interesting!.

Well, according to my ds, his class were all just going to 'sing songs' at their concert, then this morning as he wandered through the gates at school, the teaching assistant from his class turned to me and said 'Has he told you about his starring role?' I looked blank and she said 'He's going to be a King in the Navity play' He was obviously deeply unimpressed.

My ds's are in the same performance, as they are twins.
Ds1 is a king and ds2 is Joseph, ds2 initially refused to be Joseph, and said that if ds1 was a king then he wanted to be a princess.
However, they had dress rehursals yesrturday, and he seems to have realy thrown himself into the role. Apparently, he refused to answer to his name all day and would only be called Joseph, also, when another child tried to pick up Baby Jesus, he snaped"Don't touch the baby, he's mine".

DD is a penguin. I haven't seen the costume as they have been made by a tailor, I think, but dd is thrilled because she's to wear a bow tie and cardboard flippers. She's complaining that the flippers only cover the tops of the feet and the pavements are so hot they burn the bottom of her feet as she walks from classroom to the hall. We're going on Tuesday to watch though I'm not sure I'll be up to mulled wine and mince pies at 9.30am in temps of 95 degs!!

Marina, that seems jolly unfair. maybe they could do a performance just with the children who wanted to take part? I'm sure there are ways to put on a show without it all ending in tears.

Pamina, interesting to read you're allowed to use videos. The education authority where we used to live has banned cameras and videos at school events in case the pics fall into the hands of paedophiles. Nothing to do with protecting the children, of course, but all about protecting themselves.

SueDonim, when you said DD complained about hot pavements I thought "what on earth is she talking about?? It's freezing!" And then I remembered where you are...

And Jac34, ROTFL at "Don't touch the baby, he's mine". Super!

Mine is a mexican!

Another king! My chest swelled with pride when I was told that DS1 (3 next week) is the only child from the Nursery Class to have an acting role in the Nativity Play ("he's the only one we felt would be able to cope with the responsibility" they said (honest! ) - the rest of the cast are from Pre-school class.
Anyway, off I went to the charity shops and my luck was in - found a fab gold and blue velvet cape thing.
He's been practicising his line all week ("I bring gold!" ) and I heard dh (aka "competitive dad" from the Fast Show) telling him about 'voice projection' last night......(oh, well, this IS Surrey you know.... )

Ds1 will be Joseph (somewhat ironic considering my religious beliefs ). And no requests for a costume thankfully as I'm hopeless and would probably even muck up the tea-towel headress bit!

Heehee, Soupdragon! I'll be interested to see what next week's play is about because most of the children at dd's school are not Christian. I've heard mention of scarecrows, Jack Frost and stars but not of Mary, Kings, Shepherds or Baby Jesus.