Friday 29 November 2013

Lego Nativity

Well, we are coming up to Christmas. We are very nearly in December now and if I'm honest I'm not feeling very Christmassy at all. In the UK this was my favourite time of year. The days are getting shorter, it's getting cold and crisp outside and all the fairy lights start appearing. I love the whole atmosphere of everyone getting ready for Christmas. I don't like the shops trying to make everyone spend and spend and spend, but I love that everyone gets together.  Families and friends all try and meet up and make the effort to find out how each other is doing. And the fact that it usually involves food is always a bonus!

But this year the days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer, there are no fairy lights to be seen and we have no family around. So... We are making new traditions!

To try and get in to the Christmas mood I have created our own lego nativity as a surprise for the kids.
Here it is...

It was pretty easy to do actually. First just find some bog standard lego people. You'll need one lady for Mary, then about six men; Joseph, 2 shepherds and 3 wise men. Then an extra head and round white block for baby Jesus!
 
I found an all blue body for Mary, then cut out a rectangle of material for the headdress.  I needed to use a little bit of blue tac to keep it in place because the material kept slipping on the hair.

 
For the shepherds you can use the cloaks and hoods from Star Wars figures if you have them (I used  the emperors for one of my shepherds) or you can cut out a rectangle for the headdress and a separate piece for the cloak...

The Wise men also have cloaks.  I was able to get some turbans from the Lego shop (in Cardiff) but if you don't have a local Lego shop you can try www.bricklink.com or you may have a crown or two in one of your own Lego sets. I then found some interesting and colourful shaped pieces for the gifts.
And of course there are then the animals. We already had horses for the wise men to ride, so I just needed to make a sheep for the shepherds.  After a quick search on Pinterest I created this sheep.  Lets just ignore the fact its twice as big as the shepherds!