Homemade Nativity Puppets from Felt - Tradition

Years ago we got these cute nativity puppets. I thought I would get around to making some using these as a pattern and give them as gifts. Sometimes dressing up while reading the nativity doesn't work. Since we have all girls, that wasn't much of an option. They are all angels already but it isn't much of a story if everyone is an angel.

However, these cute puppets give everyone a chance to act out the Nativity choosing whichever part they would enjoy.

I have to say that the younger kids enjoy this more. My older kids will play along but as you can see by the bottom photo, we have dramatics involved.

These are just mitten shaped puppets made out of different colors of felt. Then they used rick-rack to embellish and also fake fur for the sheep. They glued on jewels for the wise men and they cut the shepherds staff out off card stock but I would have used a darker brown felt for that as the staff has cracked over the years.

The girls joke while playing with them but they have become a tradition with us. I have also seen finger puppet nativities made out of cotton gloves with each finger being a different character. They wouldn't be difficult to make either. I made several different bedtime stories into glove finger puppets.

Either way, it gives the children something to do while we read the nativity on Christmas Eve.

Sometimes we don't remember much about holidays but what my kids come back to and what I find myself looking back at in my childhood are the yearly traditions that when looked at through the years all together made the holidays memorable. I am grateful my family had traditions that I carry on with my children. Thanks mom and dad.