On the third day of Christmas, Domestic Sluttery gave to me... a pair of cushions from Hunkydory Home!
Because we're not actually allowed a sausage dog in Sluttery HQ (we've sulked about this a lot), sausage dog cushions are provoding an excellent distraction. These Hunkydory Home sausage dog cushions have one half of the sausage dog on each side, so we're giving away both!
Here's a close up of the front:
And the back. (The tail!)
To win these awesome cushions (worth £70 for the pair), just leave us a comment below telling us about your Christmas nativity plays. Were you Rudolph? Did you audition for Mary and then that mean girl with the plaits got the part instead? Was there a live birth? (No, wait, that was a TV show.) We want to hear all of your stories!
You've got until midnight tonight to enter, and we'll draw at random and announce the winner in tomorrow's competition.
Who won the Something voucher? It was Amy!
"My Nana is the most difficult to buy for, mainly because she doesn't like anything. My parents always sneak in early and get her practical presents she can't sniff at — toilet seats, a mobile phone, a freeview box — leaving me flailing in the mist trying to find something she won't hate. I have yet to succeed.
Also, she gets us the WORST presents. When I was 14 she got me a pack of three tea towels. She gave my 38 year old brother hair minimising cream. My mum got a kilo of sugar. Last Christmas she had no idea what she'd gotten my boyfriend — she'd won something in the raffle and decided it would do for him. We all found out what his present was together on Christmas Day (a flannel and lily of the valley soap, if you're interested).
Amy, just email us and tell us where to send your prize (don't share it with your gran). Good luck today, everyone!
Oh yawn, small print (read it). The competition will close at midnight (UK time) December 5th. You must be UK based to enter, sorry you lovely overseas readers. If you're anon your entry won't count and if you enter more than once, we'll discount all of your entries and tell you off. The winning entry will be chosen at random and you must claim your prize by the 7th or it'll be passed to someone else. We're not allowed to enter our own competitions but Siany played a Christmas tree rather brilliantly.
I'm afraid I was never part of a nativity play as I didn't grow up in this country - I was, however, a tree once in a school play and found it very hard to keep still! Does this qualify? :)
ReplyDeleteI played an elephant (head of the elephants, actually, in a very fetching clown-print tabard) because for some reason, our nativity play began with a circus.
ReplyDeleteMe neither.
I remember being the star in the nativity in our local church when I was 4. My mum, in her wisdom, sewed tinsel to the bottom of an M&S petticoat then I had a headband with spiky stars coming off it. Not only was the tinsel exceptionally scratchy, the church was a wee bit chilly, so in a petticoat, I was bloody freezing!! Oddly enough it has stuck in my memory ever since ;-)
ReplyDeleteI got to play Balthazar and rap in my nativity play! It was quite absurd but brilliant otherwise, I was about a foot taller than everyone else so Mary was definitely out of the question. Not quite as funny as my brother who played a door (very well as you're asking, he creaked at the right bits and everything!)
ReplyDeleteI played Mary in the Playgroup adaptation of the Nativity. I say adaptation because I dropped the baby Jesus into the cradle from some height while the narrator was banging on about 'gently laying Jesus into the crib'. There was video at one point which made it's way to You've Been Framed
ReplyDeleteJem xXx
Woah, those cushions are awesome!
ReplyDeleteI can clearly remember two nativity plays I was in. One was at school when I was about six or seven. I played the Angel Gabriel and was dressed in a white sheet (much like a ghost) with a tinsel halo. Very fetching! Then at my Sunday School one a few years later, I was upgraded to Mary! I felt like the star of the show (Jesus, who?!) and seem to remember wearing a blue pillowcase or tea towel over the bak of my head. Costumes seem to have improved these days!
I was the only girl in the regular Sunday School attendees at my church never to play Mary, either at school or in Sunday School plays(Apparently speccy brunettes are not the desired look - my blonde-haired blue eyed sister on the other hand...)
ReplyDeleteI was a number of things over the years, including Joseph, the star (twice!), a shepherd, the angel Gabriel. But the one performance that stands out for my family was my first appearance as a random angel.
Whilst the other 6 yr olds waved at their parents, or sang out of tune staring at the ceiling, I was determined to get my halo (ingeniously contsructed out of garden wire and fixed to a bun so that it would be "floating" above my head - well done mum!) sitting perfectly straight.
So I spent the entire play fiddling with it, meaning the congregation were giggling at me, to the point where I was completely pulling focus from all Mary's lines, incidentally - revenge is sweet, even if it was unintentional at the time! ;)
We did a nativity called The Bossy King where the boy who's dad was an actor played the king. I played a slave... Very much a nativity themed on dictatorship
ReplyDeleteI think the best nativity had to be in school when I was about 5. I got home and told my mother I was going to be a Bethlehem person and so to make my costume she had me lie on a bit of brown sheet to cut around and used an old white stiff cotten sheet for a headress by just placing it around my head and securing a popper. Come the night she was sitting in the church and heard everyone say 'oo here comes Mary' she turns around and to her horror it was me. She said if I had told her she would have made more effort with my costume, bless her.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't allowed to be Mary as the lead role always went to the oldest girl in the Infants. My best friend got the part as she was born 7 days before me. I was the angel Gabriel and was doing the readings in both English and Welsh.
ReplyDeleteThe girl who should have played Mary the year before, but didn't as she moved away came back and was given Mary which meant my best friend was stopped from being Mary. She was then given the role of Angel Gabriel and had to share the role , me doing the readings in Welsh and her in English
I was always the Angel Gabriel! Nevermind the fact that in the bible he was definitely male it was a role always given to me. Still at least I got to wear a very fetching tinsel halo!
ReplyDeleteAt my 1st school we didn't do a nativity instead we all went to the church to sing carols. One year my sister & the 2 girls from next door put on our own panto of Cinderella. Being brunette was the reason given to me for not being allowed to be Cinderella (even though my party dress was better for the costume!) so I was the Fairy Godmother. My Dad made me a wand out of card and foil and we had an old fire surround as the set. Our huge audience of the four parents and my little brother left me with stage fright and Cinderella had to go ahead without the fairy godmother and a cast of 3.
ReplyDeleteI was sacked as a fairy for laughing too much as I performed my duty of dancing around the Reception class heartthrob who was supposed to be the grand Christmas tree. Instead, I became a tree in the forest and volunteered my mother to help make all the forest tree's costumes. I can still remember her grumbling with every stitch .....
ReplyDeleteI NEVER got to be an angel or Mary. I was always given the part of some animal or other... gutted to this day that I didn't get the tinsel wings #scarredforlife
ReplyDeleteThe only nativity play I've been in was when I was 5 and played an Angel, being short I wasn't even given the chance to try out for Mary! My costume was made from a white sheet with a hole cut in the top and the sides sewn up to make armholes/sleeves topped off with a gold tinsel halo.
ReplyDeleteA friend has a brill pic of m when I was Mary in the school Nativity, I was about six at the time. I'm holding the baby Jesus on an angle and giving Joseph a really grumpy, cross look!
ReplyDeleteSome schools pick a fun way to do a Nativity play at the end of term. My primary school on the other hand saw it as another opportunity to learn something (yawn) so we always had plays based around traditions from other countries, none of which had any amount of festivity involved at all. Instead of brightly coloured costumes and pretty dresses, we were always put in drab, brown smocks.
ReplyDeleteALL I WANTED WAS TO BE AN ANGEL!
I was an angel in the school play three years in a row. I had very pretty wings that my Nana made for me. I was very happy with the angel part as I remember. :))
ReplyDeleteI wanted to be mary, or angel gabriel, I ended up being just one of angel gabriel's bitches. Not that i'm still bitter about this childhood experience ;)
ReplyDeleteI can only remember one school nativity play. I wasn't Mary, or Joseph, or a wise man, or a goat, or an ass or even a giant baby.
ReplyDeleteI was a spectator. Watching the play because I wasn't allowed to be in it...
Sympathy cushions please? :)
I distinctly remember turning up late to Sunday school one December minus my angel costume only to be handed a spare tea towel and dressing gown - bingo, instant shepard's outfit!
ReplyDeleteI was the Angel Gabriel. My best friend is still smug to this day about the fact that she landed the leading role of Mary, honestly, 20 years later she still brings this up - it was quite the scandal actually, as she ended up ditching her boyfriend (a shepherd) and dating Joseph (no baby Jesus made though). My mum was still super proud of me though and refused for me to wear the school's own hand-me-down costume for the part, instead she fished out this overly extravagant robe that was trimmed with fur for me to wear. It was about 4 feet too long for me and I felt like a fool. I remember thinking this was the first, but definitely not likely to be the last, time my mother had severely embarrassed me.
ReplyDeleteAhhhh....the Nativity plays, I remember being a part of 3 of them. I was a shy retiring child yet always auditioned for the lead role of Mary (I was very obviously not put off by my lack of confidence). Anyway I remember my first audition being for Mary, it was a singing audition and despite thinking I had a great singing voice I ended up playing a singing cow.....I had a cow mask and a solo....living the dream!
ReplyDeleteMy second attempt at the Nativity fame ended in my starring role as an inanimate tree, but at least I was on the stage Ma!
Sadly my third and final attempt at stardom faded as I ended up being the prompter 'As you are so good at reading Lisa you get to memorise everyone's parts and prompt them from the stage pit if they forget'. I had reached the height of my fame and retired from the profession a very different kid.
Happy Christmas everyone :-) xxxxx
I was a Mary in the church nativity one year and was chuffed to bits. Never mind it was a bit awkward that I was a foot taller than Joesph.. The issue came when we were supposed to be trying to find a room at the inn. As the story goes, Mary was on a donkey...however, due to my size, I wasn't allowed to ride the toy donkey we had to take down the aisle..so me, pretending to be Mary, about to drop with the son of God, had to walk around trying to find a room at the in, alongside said donkey... after that I was a christmas gnome (complete with hair pulled round my face in a beard stylee - I thought I was awesome...history would say otherwise). I never got the plum role of narrator though...still a bit gutted about that!
ReplyDeleteI was such a shy child I always wanted to be the smallest possible part there could be! I remember being a sheep once, and feeling very happy with that, and then another year being an angel with a speaking role which was highly traumatic. But I always got really upset at the "little donkey" song as I felt so sad about the tired donkey so I was usually placed at the back somewhere where the parents couldn't see my sad face.
ReplyDeleteAnd I love daschund's - much to the disgust of my resident old-grump beagle I just finished looking after one that a colleague found abandoned tied to a street lamp. I found her a lovely home with kids and a garden, and other animals to play with... but I still sobbed like a maniac when I had to part with her!
When I was in nursey and infants I used to be Mary in the nativity play each year. You might think it was because of my acting skills but you would be wrong, the primary reason was that my mum had made me a costume and so because I already had a smashing blue velour ensemble I got picked every time! One year there was an exception and I was chosen to be an angel instead. Needless to say after years of the blue velour number I was very excited by the thought of a new more exotic costume with wings and a tinsel halo. However, shortly after putting on my finest angel attire I started to feel unwell. This was was quickly followed by me vomiting over my lovely new shiny white dress, cue floods of tears. I was more upset about the state of my costume than I was about being poorly! Perhaps the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the manger?
ReplyDeleteOne of the first Christmas plays I remember being in was at our local church. At the start we were lined up in pairs, each holding a Christingle, as the opening. As soon as we started walking to the stage, the girl stood next to me's hair caught fire from the christingle behind her.
ReplyDeleteSome superhero parent jumped from the audience to put it out, luckily the girl was unharmed, she got away with just singed hair.
Like pros (at the age of 5) we carried on after the incident and the show was a success!
I always wanted to be Mary but as I was good at playing the recorder I always had to do that rather than get a proper part. I couldnt even sing the nativity tunes as I had to play them! I think I did get to wear a bit of tinsel around my head tho!!!
ReplyDeleteWhilst I don't remember this my parents delight in retelling the story pretty much every year....
ReplyDeleteWhen I had just turned 5 I was at Parsons Down Junior & Infants school. We put on a Nativity and I was playing one of the bit parts. So I was sat on stage looking all angelic (ahem) and our headteacher (I want to say Mrs Mounsey but I may be misremembering) was being the narrator.
All was going well, children were singing and smiling, parents were dabbing their eyes and looking on with pride until Mrs Mounsey decided that we were overrunning and skipped a bit of the story.
Well, I was outraged (so I'm told) and rushed up to her and announced 'No no you've got it wrong you've missed a bit'...
Oh dear.
I went to a tiny primary school (17 pupils in total) so there was no audition process, you were all in it and as you progressed up the school you got the better roles and more lines.
ReplyDeleteMy lasting memory of them is being told that in the churvh where we would be performing there would be a deaf old lady sitting in the back row so we had to sing loudly! We were told this every year, and believed every year that there was this one old lady who came out once a year to see us perform!
Ok, so this isn't my nativity story per se... it's my brother's.
ReplyDeleteWhen he was very small (I think around 3 and a half) he was in his nursery school's nativity play. He was a really beautiful child - white blonde hair and enormous blue eyes - and reasonably confident (not to mention toilet-trained), so they decided to give him a fairly prominent part.
He was the first of the 3 Kings, and his only line was, in reply to the question "why have you come here?", "I have brought a present for the baby Jesus" (his cue to hand over a box liberally sprinkled in gold glitter).
However, he apparently decided that he didn't want to be one of the Magi but had his sights set on the role of Herod. Thus, when asked the fateful question on stage, he announced loudly the assembled children and parents that he had come to "KILL BABY JESUS!"
I think my mum nearly died of embarrassment, and he's still not lived it down!
I was always, ALWAYS cast as the narrator because I was an early reader... One year they gave me the job of narrator/percussion instrument person (for exciting sound effects)...
ReplyDeleteI had to bang a HUGE cymbal at the end of the musical finale to bring the show to an end!
I took an almighty swing and MISSED it!!
Thank goodness my parents recorded it... Christmas is a time they like to play that video to everyone...
I NEED A CUSHION TO HIDE BEHIND!!
I was the star, though the most memorable part of the play was the delayed start because Mary had pee'd her pants, obviously nervouse.
ReplyDeleteI was ALWAYS an angel. It used to infuriate me. Threadbare white dress itchy tinsel sleeves! I looked upon Mary every year with jealousy and not awe as I should!
ReplyDeleteI called my son Joseph, you know just in case they ever wanted convenience. This year he plays a drummer. Sigh.
I'm looking forward to the moment where they have to prise the drum sticks from his sweaty palms for drumming 'too enthusiastically'
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ReplyDeleteI went to an overstuffed primary school, where there were too many kids for the traditional nativity, so they had to embellish the story a little. And so that's how I ended up as a GANNET (aka a fat seaside bird) representing 'greed'. I wore a papier mache hat, 2 pillows up my top, wore a bib and carried an oversized ice cream.
ReplyDeleteNaturally, there are pictures.
The only time I've been in a nativity, I was 4 and was a 'child of the town'. What sort of role is that?! Anyway, I got to wear my red leotard with the ballerina frill around the waist so I was a happy bunny.
ReplyDeleteI do recall being VERY jealous later on in my primary school life when it was mentioned that the youngest person in the school got to be baby Jesus in the nativity and place the baby Jesus into the little nativity scene next to the Christmas tree. No wonder I am so bitter about life. Ha!
sarahdawncarter[at]gmail[dot com]
I was always an angel or an inn-keeper. My least favourite part was the obligatory tinsel wrapped around your forehead. When you're singing in front of a crowd, the last thing you want to do is restrain the urge to scalp yourself.
ReplyDeleteI was so lucky to be Mary one year at my prep school. We had 3 performances on consecutive evenings and my family all came on different nights. I remember (vaigly) and get reminded of often that I had been so excited when I noticed my granny in the front row on the first night, I picked up the baby Jesus by the ancle and waved it at her, I waved it that hard the leg fell off. The baby fell to the floor and then fell off the stage!! The audience was roaring with laughter. I was told the following night to leave poor, 1 legged, baby Jesus in the crib. Whoops. I bet they wished they had put me as an Angel.
ReplyDeleteI have a very cloudy recollection of being an angel in the nativity at primary school. My mother, who was not a talented seamstress by any stroke of the imagination, cut a hole in a sheet and made a halo out of a coat hanger and some tinsel. This was my 'costume'. I remember the spikey ends of metal halo digging into my skull, perhaps not unlike the the thorn of crowns that the baby Jesus had awaiting in his future? Of course, all the other angels appeared to be the offspring of members of the women's institute, in their fancy, sparkly, perfectly fitted costumes.
ReplyDeleteHumiliating angel costumes aside, the real reason I should win the cushions is that I have a miniature dachshund called Slinky. Last Thursday she ruptured a disc in her spine - she couldn't walk properly anymore and fell down when trying to walk around corners. My husband and I had to rush her from our home on the Isle of Man to a specialist clinic called Northwest Surgeons in Cheshire. They gave Slinky an MRI and operated immediately. We had to come home to the Isle of Man alone that night, as Slinky must stay in Cheshire for almost 14 days. Our house is so empty without her - a house is not a home without a dog (in my opinion!). These sausage dog cushions would go some way toward repairing my heavy heart whilst I wait to be reunited with my beloved Slinky (and lord knows I can't afford to buy them....the vets bill is £4,500 and counting!).
If anybody as tragic as myself would like to friend my beautiful dog (sadly she does have her own Facebook account) and keep track of her progress, please see www.facebook.com/slinky.cubbon
Thank you for reading!
I can only remember doing nativity plays at Brownies,performing at an old peoples home. As the biggest and tallest brownie I always seemed to land the part of Joesph! I suppose I should have been pleased to have a lead role, but one year to be a cute angel instead of a bloke would have been nice.
ReplyDeleteIn fact I don't think I ever played a female part in my junior acting days (Aladdin, a night watchman, an ant and a mouse to name a few!).
I was an angel, with the required tinsel for a halo & net curtain wings. My sister got to be a shepherd because she had a toy lamb.
ReplyDeleteHowever, they should totally go to the lady with the sick sausage dog. x x
Our school nativity was a little bit weird. Sure, we had a Mary, a Joseph and a dolly playing baby Jesus. It's the rest of the cast that makes me question whether it really was a nativity or just an excellent opportunity to embarrass a large number of children at the same time.
ReplyDeleteOne year I was a sewer rat, apparently being your garden variety diseased rodent wasn't degrading enough (also, did Bethlehem have a sewer system advanced enough to play home to a large number of sewer rats?) that same year my brother was a mole. Seeing the weirdness yet?
The next year our school really pushed the boat out and got two (YES TWO!!!) donkey costumes so my mother got to live out every parents dream of seeing both her children on stage making asses of themselves. Or to be more precise making asses for a donkey as that wonderful year we both got to be that starrin role of donkey bum.
I really wanted a good part in our School Nativity play, and I got one, a French Onion! I wasn't hogging the only wondrous role however, I do recall my sister was a chef. What a warped imagination our teacher must have had!
ReplyDeleteThese cushions are truly fabulous, I want to snuggle up with my miniature Dachshund on them! My fingers are crossed.
Thanks, Shelly
Me, a tea-towel on my head.
ReplyDeleteThink I was supposed to be a shepherd.
Just wished my mum had washed the tea-towel first.
Scarred for life, thanks for the memory,
Natasha
I was usually the narrator, apart from the year I did the lighting. I had A.S.D cut out from white sticky labels on my black long sleeve top, black trousers, black plimsolls and blizzard white socks. I was such a cool 10 year old.
ReplyDeleteI played a number of roles in my youth, usually an angel or a shepherd. One year, memorably, I was a piece of wheat. I had to wear green tights with a brown polo neck and just sway about on the stage.
ReplyDeleteI remember desperately trying to get the role of an angel, or Mary. I ended up being one of the rats that hung about outside the places that turned Mary and Joseph down for a room.
ReplyDeleteI think we were meant to be comic relief, although we had no lines and no real action. I just sat cross legged outside the door twitching my nose, dress all in a fetching shade of brown.
Like Siobhan I was the "narrator" because of my freakish ability to remember lines. I remember waiting in the wings one year with Paul Hewitt (class heartthrob) when he gently raised my hand to his lips and kissed it. A moment of such romance and drama I have never forgotten it.
ReplyDeleteI peaked way too early and was Mary when I was 4. After that I only got to be a shepherd, and all I wanted was to be a pretty angel!
ReplyDeleteI can only remember ever being in one nativity- I must have been around 6 and was an angel. Unfortunately nothing very exciting happened during it!
ReplyDeleteTo avoid the disappointment of those kids who didn't get to play Mary or Joseph in my preschool nativity, they came up with 'Mary and Joseph from around the world'. So we all got to play the main part.
ReplyDeleteWe all took it in turns in our pairs to get on to the stage and say who we were, my line was 'I'm Spanish Mary' we all then circled the real Mary and Joseph and shouted 'Here's baby Jesus'
I obviously did a rubbish job of being Spanish Mary as every year after I ended up playing a snowflake or a sheep.
To avoid the disappointment of those kids who didn't get to play Mary or Joseph in my preschool nativity, they came up with 'Mary and Joseph from around the world'. So we all got to play the main part.
ReplyDeleteWe all took it in turns in our pairs to get on to the stage and say who we were, my line was 'I'm Spanish Mary' we all then circled the real Mary and Joseph and shouted 'Here's baby Jesus'
I obviously did a rubbish job of being Spanish Mary as every year after I ended up playing a snowflake or a sheep.
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ReplyDeleteI was once told I couldn't be Mary, as I'm ginger, and Mary wouldn't have been ginger. A blonde girl got the part instead (I'm not sure Mary would have been blonde personally...) and I had to play a mouse. Complete with a huge conical shaped mouse mask with giant ears. No one could hear me talk, so the one line I had was said instead by someone dressed as a sheep.
ReplyDeleteEven that beat every other year when I had to be the Narrator of our Nativity plays, as I was the only person in the class who could say Frankincense.
(The first comment only posted half of it, hope the deletion isn't against the rules!)
I was part of a kazoo chorus in our school nativity play. Can still remember the angels dancing down through the crowd!
ReplyDelete(its my dachshund's (Nutmeg) third birthday today, she would love a pillow for her sofa!)
I didn't get a costume in our nativity play because I was chosen to do the reading, and the reader stayed in uniform. I wanted to be an angel, so I wasn't very happy about it! (Looking back, I suppose it was a compliment, but I would still have liked to have been an angel...)
ReplyDeleteAlways a shepherd, never an angel :) This usually involved me trying to stop my little brother throwing the sheep at Mary, but the promotion to Head Shepherd one year softened the blow. Oh the glory :)
ReplyDeleteI was the Xmas turkey..and being last minute I forgot to tell my mum the costume requirements. Thinking on her feet she sent me to school with paper doilies round my wrists and neck and wrapped in tin foil, which made me pass out on stage with heat exhaustion!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was five I was in my school nativity. The whole school did it, so we're talking about 60 kids in the 'cast'. Anyone who didnt get a 'proper' role was a shepherd led through the audience as a giant train of shepherds dressed in dressing gowns and tea towels. My dad filmed it, naturally.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't until about 15 years later we watched the video and realised he'd been filming the wrong shepherd the whole time. I'm only in the video for three seconds!
Our school nativity featured a troupe of scottish country dancers. Not exactly sure where they fitted into the Christmas story, but there you go.
ReplyDeleteI was about seven or eight and had auditioned for a part as a dancer, but instead was stuck being a boring old angel. Itchy tinsel halo, tiny pillow case as a dress - urgh.
Anyway, one of the scottish country dancers got a case of stage fright, and I was chosen to take her place and had to learn the routine in 20 minutes. I nailed and felt well smug about the whole thing. Still do a bit.
We never did nativity at school. Too religious for an American public school I suppose. When I was in the second grade I played a tree in some other play!
ReplyDeletewell, I never did the nativity play because my parents were "Heathens", as they referred to themselves. My dad, however, once got to play the Roman soldier who whips Jesus in the Passion Play at the St. Augustine amphitheater. Back to me - in 8th grade my school did "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever", which is about a bunch of nosy church ladies getting all up in the grills of this poor white trash family and getting their kids to be in the church nativity, but the kids are all crazy and wild and awesome. I really wanted to play the youngest girl, who got to be all spazzy and irreverent. Instead I was cast as a church lady in a bad wig. I am still all kinds of butt hurt about it. Bah humbug. However, I do have a dachshund/ Wenis at home named Heidi who would love to lay all over these pillows. :)
ReplyDeleteMy school did 'Christmas plays' rather than a traditional nativity... one memorable year, I was cast as Ken Dodd and rescued Santa from the chimney with my tickling stick. I have no idea how we all made it out as functioning humans :)
ReplyDeleteI just rehomed a dachshund. He's frightened of everything with four legs but I think we'd be safe with cushions.
I only remember one nativity play, when I was 4. I remember it being desperately important that I was Mary (I had the right dress); apparently the teacher was happy to go along with this because I got the part.
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, I was intrigued last Christmas when my little boy was cast as the hare in their nativity. (Turns out the Hare and the Tortoise were racing to Bethlehem...)
In my infant school, pupils from the top year were the main characters (I was an angel, eventually) and the younger years had to dress up as shepherds and sit around the sides. My overwhelming memory was when I was sitting at the very back of the shepherds and just as the Angel Gabriel was about to arrive, I had a sudden attack of wind. Which I tried very hard to suppress. And failed. In the middle of his speech. And I was so loud that he stopped. And every single person in the hall turned round to look at where on earth this noise could have come from.
ReplyDelete28 years later, I still go bright red thinking about it.
I was cast as the 'star of Bethlehem'. In the opinion of a six year old this was no great part; stars don't speak. Leading small boys with t-towels on their head was not my idea of an acting future. Thirty years later, I'm still not an actor, but I am a star that shines brightly :)
ReplyDeleteOur schools didn't do nativity plays, just dressed us all up with tea towels on our heads and sung carols for the few parents that came - it was mainly for the rest of the school...
ReplyDeleteDespite my longing to wear Mary's dark blue and hoping every December that it would finally be my turn, I was Angel Standing Right At The Back every single year.
ReplyDeleteI've been playing the Angel Gabrielle in our church nativity for the last few years - it is in fact a glorified childminder role as my main function is herding the local small blonde girls in their angel costumes. Every year there's a 'i need the toilet' just as Jesus is appearing (quite often the most recent baby to be born amongst the congregation!) but last year was a first - one of the angels, in the closing stages of the show was getting a bit excited at waving at her family in the audience...next thing I knew her glass eye had fallen out and was rolling across the stage - This wouldn't have been such a surprise if someone had told me she had one!!!
ReplyDeleteAs a blonde kid, I was never destined to be Mary, but I was *very* excited to be cast as an angel. Which went really well, until I fell down the back of the stage, and had to climb back up. After that year I was cast as a donkey, which did not require me to be on stage, but instead to sit at the bottom of the steps. Seems fair really...
ReplyDeleteMy school nativity was odd. We had people dressed in outfits representing different countries, I ended up being a Dutch girl. I had wire in my plaits so they curled out, I had a bunch of plastic tulips and I had to borrow some clogs from a relative that were too big and I had to wear my shoes inside them. I don't remember having any lines to read, I think it was traumatic enough!
ReplyDelete