How to Make a Shoebox Nativity Scene

July 8, 2008 · Crafts ·

A crèche, or nativity scene, has been an important part of Christmas celebrations for hundreds of years. Many nativity scenes are large and not easily stored in small spaces, but by building yours in a shoebox you’ll be reusing a cardboard box (it’s like recycling!) and making a cute crèche scene you can put under your bed or in your closet between Christmases.

You can make your own nativity scene or crèche if you have the following materials:

*shoebox
*glue
*scissors
*ruler
*crayons
*blue or purple construction paper
*yellow construction paper
*printout of our nativity characters (click here to print)
*optional: cotton balls

1.) Gather your materials and have an adult help you print out the sheet with our nativity characters. If you can have it printed on white cardstock, that’s best.

2.) Take your crayons, colored pencils or markers and color all of the characters.

3.) With your scissors and adult supervision, carefully cut around the outside solid line of each character.

4.) Fold each character’s base along the dotted line. This will give you a spot where you’ll glue the character into the shoebox so he or she will stand—but that’s later.

5.) Ask an adult to help you measure and cut 4 pieces of blue or purple construction paper to glue onto the box’s inside back, inside top, and both inside sides to create your sky.

6.) With an adult’s help, measure, cut and glue a piece of yellow construction paper for the inside bottom of the shoebox (like hay). Then cut some long, thin strips of yellow to glue along the inside bottom to give more of the look of hay or straw.

7.) Now take the characters you colored, cut and folded earlier and decide where you’d like them placed in the box. Once you know where they go, glue them in place. Let the glue dry and then display your colorful cardboard crèche wherever you like! Happy holidays!