It wouldn’t be Christmas without the round of Christmas Nativity Plays. Proud Mums and Dads troop to the schools to see their young ones strut their stuff on stage.

My first experience was when my oldest daughter (now 13) was in her Nursery nativity play. The Christmas music was playing gently in the background; the kids were getting ready in an adjacent classroom, as the Mams and the Dads sat excitedly. We knew she was playing an angel and awaited her big entrance, she moved onto the stage looked up ready to say her first ever line. Looking up and seeing all the smiling faces looking at her, she immediately burst into tears crying for her mum, her first chance of stardom gone. The rest of the play was spend on her mams knee in the audience. As an afternote her shyness has now gone and is a member of the school drama club.

But over the years we have had many a good laugh at nativity plays as the child’s innocence shines through. We have had the Innkeeper who told Joseph there was no room at the Inn but the hotel down the road had plenty of room as his Mam and Dad had just booked a room there for a dirty weekend! One of the three kings who brought Jesus, Frankenstein as a gift. The donkey in the stable that barked like a dog when nobody was watching Mary who dropped Jesus on his head and the list goes on. But each little mistake like that makes the Nativity play worth while. Brings a lump into the throats of Mams and Dads sitting in the audience.

Christmas isn’t Christmas without the nativity play; long may they go on.