The Story of The Nativity from Christmas Costume

Nativity plays are a very old tradition at Christmas; it is unclear who first devised the first Nativity Plays, but in researching this piece we found one source attributing the first performance to St Francis of Assisi, but this claim is unsubstantiated.

What we can be sure of is that in earlier times the Bible was in Latin (as were church services) so a play explaining the story would be a great way to get the story over to the masses. These plays may not have been preformed in Churches but could have been in public spaces. Whatever the date of the first Opening Night it is certain that many of us first trod the boards in one of these productions (possible the first and only time!).

For many grown-ups an essential memory of Christmas long since passed has to be watching a worried mother, struggling with sections of old curtain material and tea-towels, then affixed to their tiny child's head in a vain attempt to recreate one of the Shepherds 'watching their flocks, by night'! Or, perhaps worse, struggling with wire, tinsel and gauze material desperately attempting to manufacture Angel's wings to fit in with teacher's exacting design standards.

All the tears and stress are soon forgotten as the child performs beautifully 'even if they mess it all up the parents think the play is wonderful', then as the child grows up there is a lot of fun to be had at their expense as family get-togethers are marred by humiliating tales of 'your first performance!' (Or is that just me then?)

Britain has greatly benefited from being a multi-cultural country, however until recently this has caused the popularity of school Nativity plays to decline. Also the (political-correctness brigade) have hastened the decline in this popular dramatic form where school children play not only the parts of Mary, Joseph, The 3 Kings and Shepherds but also the Angels and occasionally animals such as the Donkey and flocks of Sheep to a doting audience of parents and grandparents.

Julie Henry and Vikki Miller reported in The Daily Telegraph that one in five primary schools were planning a "traditional nativity play" for 2007. They also reported that more secular plays such as Scrooge or Snow White were now on the decline in schools. According to fancydress.com sales of Nativity costumes have not been following this downward trend and in 2007, time-poor parents simply do not have the time (or in some cases the ability) to manufacture costumes and fancydress.com's Nativity range is packed and ready to wear. Most items have sashes or belts to ensure that the costume fit the smallest frames and the fray resistant fabrics can be cut at the hem for the shorter performers without needing to have them finished.

Whether you select a more secular version of this enduring story for a mixed-faith school or follow a more traditional version it is part of our British culture and many people want to hold onto as many traditions as possible regardless of their ancestors origins or beliefs.