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There is no giraffe in the nativity

In the run up to Christmas I found myself trying to explain why there's no part for a giraffe in the All Saints Church nativity play – I had entered a new world!

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Despite having been a vicar for 17 years, this was the very first Nativity play I had ever had the good fortune (that's how it feels almost all the time) to direct.

We erected a gazebo as our stable in the church, and a cuddly hippo stood in for the baby Jesus.

It was all a bit chaotic, but great fun!

Around the time we were choosing our script Netmums released a survey of how parents feel about nativity plays. The findings prompted the annual ‘death of the nativity play’ story that seems to run each year alongside the ‘can’t find any Christian Christmas cards’ story.

I was struck that never in my previous 16 Christmasses as a vicar, had anyone criticised me or my churches for not having a nativity play.

Schools however, whether church schools or not, are the focus of a lot of Christmas opinion. A church can avoid a nativity play without comment, whereas our schools seem to be held to a higher standard.

So, sidestepping the question of whether schools should or shouldn't put on nativity plays, can I suggest another approach? Next year why not organise your own nativity? Office nativity plays? Community plays? The scripts are easily found online and writing our own is simple.

If you really want your child in a nativity play and your school are instead doing an all singing all dancing 'winterval' extravaganza rather than grump – do your own!

I would hope that any church would welcome people asking to work with them on a community retelling of the nativity. But why just church? Pubs make great settings – not least because you already have an innkeeper!