Our Favourite Nativity Costume Ideas
Staging a nativity musical can be one of the most exciting times of the school year – but are you prepared to make a statement with some eye-catching ideas for nativity costumes? After all, a nativity play demands some crafty nativity costume ideas, allowing children to slip perfectly into their roles.
Whether the children are playing Mary, Joseph, the Angel Gabriel, or any other character, we’ve compiled some of the best ideas for nativity costumes below to help your little stars shine.
Why Are Nativity Costumes Important?
Nativity costumes are outfits worn by children to represent characters in the Christmas nativity story. They are an integral part of KS1 and KS2 nativity plays, helping children visualise and understand the story while making the play engaging and memorable.
Moreover, dressing up and performing in a nativity play can foster a sense of belonging within a school and church community. So, by getting clued up on our most creative ideas for nativity costumes, you can best prepare yourself for making your most memorable nativity so far!
Benefits of Making Your Own Nativity Costume
If you think jumping onto Amazon and simply buying a pre-made nativity costume is the best idea, you may want to reconsider this. There are many benefits of making your own costumes, such as:
- Saving money
There’s just no doubt about it – doing something yourself is almost always cheaper than paying someone else to do it for you! By reusing old clothes, tea towels, and other materials, you may not even have to spend a single penny on your nativity costume ideas. This can be especially valuable if you are working on a budget and are looking to cut costs.
- Creating a personal touch
Anyone can buy shop-bought costumes, which means they’re not unique to your schoolchildren. However, when you build on your own nativity costume idea, you can be sure that the outfit is truly one-of-a-kind. You can even add personal touches to your costume, such as the child’s favourite colour, some jazzy patterns, or even a pocket to hold items like nativity lines (just in case!).
- Bonding experience
What could be better than building a sense of community with your schoolchildren and allowing them to get stuck into a creative project? Developing a nativity costume idea can be a great way to bond as a group and improve teamwork skills. Win-win!
- Build excitement for Christmas
If the little ones aren’t excited enough for the winter season already, why not get them even more engaged by allowing them to help create their own nativity costume? By throwing in a few Christmas assembly songs and winter treats, the children will certainly feel like it’s the most wonderful time of the year!
Our Top Ideas for Nativity Costumes
If you’re looking at how to make easy nativity costumes, you’re in the right place! Take a look at some different character options below and start getting crafty.
How to make a tunic for a nativity play:
Once you’ve made your tunic for the nativity play, you’re pretty much sorted for most characters. You can do this by measuring the child from the shoulder to just below the knee, as well as the width across their shoulders, and cutting some fabric accordingly.
Fold the fabric in half and cut a small opening for the neck. For the finishing touches, grab a simple belt or rope to tie around the waist and hem the fabric’s edges if you wish.
Alternatively, use a large pillowcase that can be cut at the bottom and sides.
Now that you know the basics, let’s look at our top ideas for nativity costumes in more detail!
Mary
What you’ll need:
- Blue tunic
- Headdress material and band
- Tights
- Sandals
As Mary is the lead role in any nativity play, it’s important that she looks the part! When it comes to our Mary nativity costume ideas, we recommend making the tunic above in blue material and pairing it with blue or white tights. Add in a simple pair of sandals.
To make a headdress, take a piece of white or blue fabric and secure it to the child’s head with a headband or piece of elastic. You could also use a blue or white scarf!
Joseph
What you’ll need:
- Brown or stripey tunic and rope
- Tea towel and band
- Trousers
- Sandals
You’ll be pleased to know that the typical Joseph nativity costume ideas are simple and can also apply to innkeeper roles. Make a brown or stripey version of our tunic above and pair it with a length of rope or belt to add shape. Add some brown trousers or leggings to match.
One of the most affordable ways to make your headpiece for Joseph is to grab a stripey tea towel from your kitchen cupboard and hold it in place on the child’s head with a band. To finish things off, add in a pair of brown sandals or old trainers – whatever the child feels comfortable walking in.
Star
What you’ll need:
- Leggings or tights
- A gold top or leotard
- Gold pumps
- Gold card
- Gold glitter paint
- Glue or stapler
- Scissors
While this character outfit can be slightly trickier to make, we’ve got a few nativity star costume ideas to share. For the base layers, the child has a little freedom over what they can wear. Choose either leggings or tights and a T-shirt or leotard. Throw in a pair of pumps or comfortable shoes. Gold or silver are the preferred colours for all these items, but if you don’t have those, it’s not a necessity. Yellow, beige, white, and black will also be suitable.
Now comes the creative part. Cut a large piece of gold or silver shiny card using a star template to make the star part of the costume. You can attach this directly to your child’s outfit, or use some spare fabric or card to create a sandwich-board-style accessory that can be easily put on and taken off – ideal for pre-show toilet breaks!
To make a pointed hat, use the same type of card and cut out a large circle. Make a slit in the circle and form a cone using either glue or a stapler.
Angel
What you’ll need:
- Silver, gold, or white leggings or tights
- Silver, gold, or white tunic
- Silver, gold, or white pumps
- Silver, gold, or white tinsel
- Cardboard
- Feathers
- Ribbon or elastic
- Glue
- Scissors
Nativity angel costume ideas also allow you to get creative. For the base layers, dress the child in a tunic, leggings or tights, and comfortable shoes like pumps, all preferably in white, gold, or silver. You can simply wrap a piece of tinsel around the child’s head for the halo, or wrap some tinsel around a large pipe cleaner for a bit more structure.
Making the wings is a trickier task. Cut out some cardboard in the shape of two wings, and either glue some feathers to the card or cover it in more white material. Make sure you remember to cut holes in the cardboard cutout to thread some ribbon or elastic through for straps, meaning the child can wear the wings like a rucksack.
Shepherd
What you’ll need:
- Tunic and rope
- Tea towel and band
- Trousers
- Sandals
- Walking stick
- Sheep toy prop
If you’re looking for shepherd costume nativity play ideas, you can think along the same lines as you would for the Joseph costume – you’ll want a brown tunic, headpiece, trousers, and comfortable sandals or shoes to match. Going further than Joseph, you can consider specific props – borrow a walking stick from a grandparent and grab a toy sheep for added effect!
This is especially great for more anxious actors, as the child can hold onto the sheep toy for a little added emotional support.
Wise Man
What you’ll need:
- Colourful tunic
- Card or paper hat
- Trousers or leggings
- Regal jewellery
- Present (for the baby Jesus)
- Comfortable shoes
Making a wise man's nativity outfit is fairly straightforward. Dress the children in colourful tunics – deep purples, reds, and greens are good choices here – and add some equally colourful or more neutral trousers and shoes, depending on the child’s preference.
To jazz the outfit up, add some decorations with some jewellery and a crown. If you don’t want to spend money on a plastic crown, take a paper hat from a Christmas cracker or carefully cut one out of some card.
Because no wise man is complete without a present for the baby Jesus, don’t forget to add a gift prop. This could be a simple cardboard box covered in shiny wrapping paper.
Stable Animal
What you’ll need:
- Brown, beige or grey top
- Matching leggings or trousers
- Comfortable shoes
- Mask or face paint
- Headband
- Material tail
How you make a stable animal costume for a nativity really depends on what animal the child is trying to be. There are many stable animals out there, the most common being the donkey, ox, and sheep. So, depending on what animal you have in mind, choose the top, trousers, and shoes with the appropriate colours in mind. While donkeys will typically be all grey or brown, a child acting as a sheep may wear black and white clothing.
Putting the basics aside, you’ll want to add a headband with some animal-like ears attached. You can buy a specific headband from the shops or cut out some cardboard ears to stick onto the headband to make the costume more authentic. You could also sew a piece of colour-appropriate wool, felt, or fabric onto the child’s trousers for a tail.
If you want to go the extra mile, there are additions you can make for each stable animal outfit. For example, any sheep character can stick cotton wool onto their top, while anyone impersonating an ox may wear a brown furry cardigan.
Although not essential with other characters, the face is an important part of animal costumes. To complete the look, get creative with some face paint or make a paper mask with eyeholes. The mask could have a printed picture of an animal face or could be painted by the children themselves.
All Set With Your Nativity Costume Ideas?
If you’ve been inspired by our list of ideas for nativity costumes, you’re now ready to start getting creative and putting on a memorable nativity. Whether you’re executing an early years Christmas nativity play or a production for older students, our costume ideas can help bring your production to life.
Additionally, if you’re struggling with nativity ideas to pair your wonderful costumes with or want to know how to film a nativity to best capture the outfits on camera, we can help – simply check out our blog for more information.
Any questions? Please get in touch with us today if you have a query about our nativity costume ideas or any of our productions, including nativities by Niki Davies.