It occurs to me that I have been extremely remiss in not mentioning the one Christmas activity sure to put the breeze up even the most confident of parents. Weather your offspring is to be Mary ,Joseph,a donkey of more often than not one of “sundry shepherds” once your budding super star has been chosen to play a part the heat is on.
At least with the Nativity everyone knows the story and we all has plenty of old tea towels to make shepherds head dresses. Even so the pressure is on poor old mum to produce a gown worthy to be
worn by the likes of Paltrow or Knightly,after all we don't want to let the side down,do we.
At this point it is worth mentioning that apart from the donkey most of the costumes can be made without even having to sow, after all the show is only going to run for a couple of days at the most.
In its simplest form an effective costume can be made by taking a length of fabric roughly double the child’s measurement from the shoulder to the floor, folding it in half,cutting a slot in the middle of the fold then slipping it over the child’s head and belting the middle with a piece of cord or plaited string.
If you have ambitions to become a wardrobe mistress,remember the old seventies kaftan,using a wider piece of fabric fold as before but this time cut a T shape so that the garment will have arms, and the same slit for the neck. The sides can be joined with iron on hemming tape or even fabric glue. This type of costume lends itself rather well to the wise men and other dignitaries.
Getting the donkey is definitely the sort straw as far as mum is concerned ,perhaps you should attend the P.T.A. Meeting more often and ingratiate yourself with teacher? How ever you can still triumph without a single stitch.
Dress the child in grey or brown from head to toe and then buy one of those reindeer antler head dresses seen everywhere at this time of year and bought for pennies.
Cut two long donkey ears from card and glue them with copydex on to the antlers. When to glue has dried cut of any protruding bits of antler then paint the ears to match the costume,don't worry too much about the colour as a donkey's ears are often darker than it's body. Make a tail from wool or unravelled string and attach to the seat of the trousers or leggings with a safety pin..Eyore style!
Use a little brown face paint to darken the child’s face but leave the eye area light. Draw a thick black circle around each eye slanting slightly at the corners, this is very appealing to the audience and your child will probably upstage even the Virgin Mary in to ooooooh and ahhhhh stakes.
My Primary School had delusions of grandeur as far as theatricals were concerned,one of our teachers having belonged to E.N.S.A. One year it was decided that the upper school should do a dramatisation of “The Pied Piper of Hamlin” the announcement of this caused the mothers concerned to “Shake with a mighty consternation” .As you see I still remember my lines, you see I was the narrator.
The Pied Piper's costume was bad enough, not to mention the Mayor and the Corporation, the towns people and....a couple of dozen rats!!!!!!! It was the teachers brain wave to ensure that every child got a part in the play, but before the month was out there was not a bit of old fur hearth rug, grey army blanket or tatty old fur coat left within miles of the village.
On the day of the first house(there were two) the show caused a great stir,unfortunately this was because one enterprising mother made fashioned for her little ratling a nose made from a pink marsh mallow,this was promptly bitten of by another little rat in full view of the audience.
“Is there a Doctor in the house?” Loud screams, curtain!
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