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Clothespin Manger Nativity Scene Christmas Craft
One way to really get the kids involved in the Christmas story is to create a manger scene of your own. It turns on their imaginations, same as when they play dolls. Here’s a Christmas craft idea for a manger made out of clothes pins and other easy household items that you can use to bring the story to life!
Materials
– Empty toilet paper roll or small wooden box to create manger
– Clothespins (fully wooden – not the spring kind)
– Glue
– Black marker
– Scraps of colored cloth or felt.
– White clay or Play dough
– Scrap of white cotton or felt (an old handkerchief works well).
Instructions
1. Cut the toilet paper roll in half and then cut one of the halves lengthwise to form the cradle.
2. Draw a circle on the piece of white cardboard. (The circle will form the two ends of the cradle when cut out. Cut the circle in half to make two semi-circles. Glue semi-circle to both ends of the cradle, curved side down.
3. Paint the cradle brown and set aside to dry.
4. Use plastic “straw” (as used in Easter Baskets) for the cradle bed, or if available, cut a few straws from a straw broom.
5. Use white play dough to make a ball for the baby’s head and a cone shaped
“body” for the baby. Attach head to body.
6. Completely swaddle the baby in white cloth so that only the face is visible.
7. Use clothespins to make figures around cradle.
8. Use cloth scraps to make simple clothes to glue onto the figures.
9. Make round circles from clay or play dough to make pedestals for figures to stand on. (Push the clothespins into the clay pedestals.)
10. Use black marker to make eyes on the figures. Baby’s eyes will be closed.
Conclusion
Use the text of Luke 2:1-21, moving the pieces around with the story, until you have everyone together. Have kids move their own pieces, and they will learn the Christmas story by working their play time imaginations.
And be sure to check out our other great Christmas craft activities! Don’t forget to Become a Fan on Facebook, and Follow Me on Twitter, where we will be sharing even more great Christmas craft ideas and activities all month long!
how adorable and sweet! what a great idea and kid friendly craft too! Thanks for sharing these Clothespin Christmas nativity set with us!
Thats wonderful! Thanks for sharing.
What a great craft!! I love how it came out as well. May have to try this for this year’s Advent calendar (we usually do a craft a day). Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!
What a sweet nativity set! I love crafting and really love Christmas crafts that help you remember the reason for the season!
Years ago I made lots and lots of clothespin ornaments. Seeing this brought back lots of memories. My grands would love making a Nativity set like this. Thanks for sharing with SYC.
hugs,
Jann
Great idea!
This is so sweet! We have several Nativity sets, but this would be a great craft for the kids to make and enjoy. 🙂
My daughter loves to do crafts and this is an excellent way to share the story of Christmas while doing something fun! Thanks so much for sharing this at the Frugal Crafty Home Blog Hop! I hope to see you back on Sunday!
My little girl would love playing with this manager set! And I wouldn’t have to worry about her breaking mine. 😉
Thanks so much for the inspiration and for sharing on Show Me Saturday!
~ Ashley
This is such a nice idea!
I think it is so important that children know why we celebrate Christmas and I think activities like this are such a good way to remind them.
Thank you I am featuring this on the weekly Kids Co-op
So cute! This is a perfect activity for young kids.
Thanks for sharing with SYC.
hugs,
Jann
I love making clothespin people and using them in this nativity is adorable. Thank you for sharing at Share It One More Time. Cathy
What a cute and fun idea! I like the tip on incorporating it into a Sunday School lesson too.
These are adorable! I hope you will share them tonight at the Found & Foraged Linky Party! The party starts at 8PM CST! Hope to see you there http://www.thebigrevealblog.com
So cute!!! I love this idea and can’t wait to do this with my kids! You’ll be a feature at the Saturday Soiree Blog Party this week! Congrats!
This is just so sweet and the perfect project to do with my granddaughters. Thanks for sharing at What’d You Do This Weekend.
Linda
Thanks for stopping by to share this cute idea. Wishing you a great week!!
I am a Sunday School teacher and am always looking for creative ideas for my class. I love this nativity craft, simple and very nice looking, definitely pinning to my Bible Crafts Board! 🙂 Thanks for sharing this craft!
This is precious! Thanks so much. I’m going to pin it to my Christmas board and share it in my upcoming post about keeping Christ in Christmas. Thanks so much.
Awwww…this is super sweet! Love this 🙂
Pinning this one…
Visiting from Inspired By Me Mondays; hope to see you again this week!! Rachael @ Diamonds in the Rough
Wow! What a great idea, so creative! Maybe I’ll try it:)
Thanks for stopping by the #SHINEbloghop
Adorable! I have some left over peg people from our Chinese New Year project. I’ll have to try something like this with my kids. 🙂
Visiting you from the Shine Blog Hop, and this is a very timely find! I’ve been thinking about when I will get out the nativity sets. The Girl(4) likes to play with the ceramic ones but I’m not ready to let The Boy(1.5) do the same!
This is such a fun idea! And super cute. 🙂
I’m not really a crafty person, but this is absolutely adorable. I love nativity scenes. Visiting from SHINE Blog Hop.
We have several nativity scenes that my kids made when they were little, and they still get set up every year despite the fact mine are all teenagers now! I love the idea of the kids being involved, making the figures, thinking about who needs to be there, the story of Christmas.
Another cute Christmas craft. I’m glad I found your blog on the Teaching What is Good Tuesday link-up.
Adorable! My nieces love crafts and they certainly love the manger scene. 🙂
I really love this idea, thanks for sharing.
Amazing. What a wonderful job you did! If I had kids… I’d be a copy cat! That’d even be a good idea to make instead of paper dolls!
Very Fun!! I’d love for you to share this on Theology Thursdays FOR KIDS!!!
I love this idea. You can even double this project as ornaments.
This is such a cute idea! I have wanted to purchase a nativity set, but my wish-list one is too expensive. This will be a great alternative and match my mish-matched, homespun home decor. Thanks! Visiting from Anti- Procrastination Tuesday.
This is a really cute project. Thanks so much for sharing with Adorned From Above’s Link Party. We hope to see you at tonight’s party.
Debi
Awesome idea! We did something similar years ago with my kids, using blocks of wood from my husband’s discard pile. I love this clothespin idea. I’ll have to try it with my grandkids! Off to share
Ooooh, I just love this! So very cute!
Such a sweet idea.
Thanks for sharing and linking up to the #SHINEbloghop.
Wishing you a lovely weekend.
xoxo
So fun and darling. I love having decorations that the kids can actually play with! Great idea!
This is too cute. One year for Christmas I got a little plastic organizer and put ribbons, sequins, pom poms, glue, etc. (anything you can decorate with) and found a huge bag of the round clothespins at the thrift store completely new and unused and made a doll kit for our youngest. She loved it and spent hours playing with this. This reminds me of that. What a fun idea! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for this, I’m glad I found your website! I, too, try to make Bible stories come to life for my kids using props. Right now, we’re doing pretty well with Lego. I’ll be following you!
This is so stinkin’ cute! I especially love Joseph’s lil’ beard!
ACK! This is so cute! I bet my kids would love it, I’ll have to keep my eyes out for some old-fashioned clothes pins. Thanks for sharing!!
This is so great! I have a whole bag of these clothes pins and a need for a new nativity for my kids. Well timed. 🙂 I found this post on the Link up on Golden Reflections Blog!