There are two things that I believe are really important about Christmas and what makes it really special – and they are spending time with family and appreciating why we celebrate. One of the ways I do this is by making Christmas Crafts in the run up to the big day – which helps really build up excitement too. I always make sure we cover the Nativity Story in some way because I feel it is important to not feel that it is all about the presents.
About the White Stuff Christmas Campaign
When clothing company White Stuff asked me to be involved in their Sew this is Knitmas Christmas Craft Campaign with the requirements of making something that reflected their brand I knew that a Toilet Roll Holder Nativity was just perfect for the job. White Stuff pride themselves on hand-drawn prints and versatile clothes with extra special touches – which I feel is reflected in the individual creations made and are extra special as every time they are made, and by each person can mean that they are unique.
About the Toilet Roll Holder Nativity
I feel that as children grow, in confidence and maturity as well as age, they should be allowed to develop more. Therefore, it was at this point I decided that they were ready to start using a glue-gun under supervision. White Stuff had provided us with pieces of carefully selected materials and really would not have stuck without it. You will see there are no children in my video, however, because I wanted to be fully concentrating on them when using it. The characters were thought out before making, considering what clothes and accessories they would need, as well as how they might be feeling during the story.
Toilet Roll Holder Nativity Characters
The Virgin Mary – The Main Nativity Character
The Virgin Mary is in blue and my son even questioned this as she would not have had any money so it would not be blue. I suggested that it is possibly because she was given it after the birth of the son of God. It is the artist’s impressions that she wears blue and is a colour associated with royalty, peace and nature. Although she has cheap materials to fix her head-dress and mantle together. Mary has brown hair and a big smile. Although she has had a rough time of things lately we decided that she would be delighted to have somewhere to sleep and a new baby.
The Angel Gabriel
The Angel Gabriel has a very important job delivering messages from God and therefore would need a splendid outfit of only the finest quality materials. Angels are depicted in white and in the case of our toilet roll holder craft with extra special details on the fabric – to show that Gabriel is not just an ordinary angel. Of course he has long hair and a set of wings.
Joseph
Joseph the carpenter, and Mary’s husband has no such splendid clothes and so a cheap brown ribbon was used for his clothes. He was rewarded with a new head-dress though but in keeping with the brown colour. Joseph is older than Mary so he was given a beard to reflect this.
The Shepherd
I think we have a very rich Shepherd indeed but we liked this green material for him as it reflects the fields in which he works. Also an old man he has a beard and a crook. Of course it was imperative that he also had a sheep!
The Wise Man
Given the good quality of the fabric it was tempting to leave Joseph and the Shepherd and instead make Three Wise Men. Also known as the Three Kings he needed to be dripping in wealth – therefore when adding the back to the garment we raised the fabric up the back to make a big cloak effect. A fabric with many colours was used with shades of blue (as noted earlier to suggest wealth); and a golden head piece with jewel. Also being old (and wise) he has long grey hair and beard. He is very happy as he has found the new King!
King Herald
King Herald was not so happy about the news of the bad Jesus, as reflected in his expression. To reflect his (previous) importance he has blue eyes made of jewels and dark hair so that they really stand out. He also has a cloak and tunic from dark blue material but fixed in place with a gold belt. His silver (foil) crown also has 3 blue gems on it to match.
These characters are enough on their own to tell the story of the nativity or more can be made to further develop on it (such as Inn Keepers and animals). I think they also give great inspiration if you are trying to think of costumes for your own performance.
You can see how they were made in my video:
For other inspiration of what you can do with White Stuff Fabric visit: Jennifer’s Little World and The Gingerbread House.
You may also be interested in Christmas Fudge
This is a sponsored post in collaboration with White Stuff.
This is such a fabulous idea. I’m sure my daughter would love to make her own version. Although I’m sure it wouldn’t be quite as good as this x
Oh this is such a lovely idea! I think your angel is awesome! I love the white stuff too, and what a fab ad campaign for Christmas.
Nat.x
This looks fun to make. T and I haven’t done any crafting lately. I think it’s about time we did! 😉
What a fab idea, I really love your Nativity figures and how much you’ve thought about how to dress them and the different fabrics work perfectly. How lovely also to talk about the people and how they might have been feeling as you made them together, a really great family craft.
Oh they are adorable!!!A great way of using up scraps of material as well.
Oh these are SUPERB. White stuff is my fave clothes shop too!
What a great idea. I like this concept a lot. The figures look fab!
This is just superb, I love it and the sheep is pretty awesome x
These are great. What a lovely idea. You are so creative, I would never have though of this 🙂 Love them .
These are so creative. I think we are going to have to crack out the toilet rolls now and come up with something Christmassy, perhaps a Santa or two
Oh these are just adorable, will have to give this a go with Eliza
Aww this is a lovely idea. A fab way of recycling toilet rolls. King herald is my fave here x
They look great, I always put are nativity out at Christmas but never put baby Jesus in until Christmas eve.
Oh what a lovely idea! I’m going to try this with my daughter as it looks relatively simple. Thanks for sharing.