How to Make Baby Jesus and a Manger- Preschool Craft

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The twins bring home the most beautiful creations from Mothers Day Out each week. They made this baby Jesus in a manger project last week at school and I could not resist sharing it with you. It really is simple to make and if you are a crafty person you likely have most of the materials on hand already.

You will need:

  • brown marker
  • blue marker (or color of choice for eyes)
  • red marker
  • empty toilet paper roll
  • glue
  • some raffia
  • large popsicle stick
  • gold pipe cleaner
  • white pipe cleaner
  • smaller piece of white felt (approx 2 in x 2 in)

Color your toilet paper roll with the brown marker. They can color every visible spot, or an overall quick color. I like the less filled in look, like the photograph of the manger they made at school.

Then, cut your toilet paper roll in half, long ways.

Take the two toilet paper roll pieces and glue them back to back so there is a top area for baby Jesus to lay and the bottom area serves as the feet of the manger, like photographed here:

 

Glue some raffia to the inside of the manger to replicate the look of hay as pictured above.

For baby Jesus you will take your large popsicle stick and cut from the top about 1.5 – 2 inches. Using markers draw a smile and eyes on the popsicle stick.

To make the blanket covering for baby Jesus, simply take a small square piece of white felt, approx 2 in. x 2 in., and position the popsicle stick on it like the below photograph. (Baby Jesus is face down.)

 

Fold like this:

And then fold again by lifting the popsicle stick up to give the tucked-in look.  This is how it should look:

Then you will use a small piece of white pipe cleaner to tie the blanket and secure baby Jesus to look like this:

To make the halo, take a piece of gold pipe cleaner and form it in the shape of a halo and tuck it behind baby Jesus like this:

Place baby Jesus in the manger….

 

…and you have the sweetest Christmas craft ever.
Simple and fun to make that is another great family project. This would be a great activity to do when you have your big family Christmas dinner and the children can assemble it at their kiddy table while dinner is finishing up.
Merry Christmas!

26 Comments

  1. Marni's Organized Mess says:

    How cute Crystal!

    Did you enter my giveaway yet?

  2. Jessica Heights says:

    How cute! I can see my preschoolers liking this!

  3. I love this! I was looking for something for my Sunday school class to do and I've got a whole pile of tp tubes! Thanks for sharing!

  4. Marni- I did. Fingers crossed! 🙂

    Tara- Isn't it the cutest?

    Jessica- We are going to make it with family at our night before Christmas cookie making marathon! 🙂

    Caroline- It will be a crowd pleaser! 😉

  5. This is a great idea–I might even be able to pull it off without buying anything new, heehee!

  6. How cute!! I'll be storing this idea away until next Christmas!

  7. Anonymous says:

    woow… this is really cute and simple… thanks for sharing the idea… i just made one of this craft and gave it to my little friend ^^ he loves it so much.

  8. CUTE!! thanks for sharing.
    Marie

  9. AllieMakes! says:

    Very sweet!
    Thanks for linking up to Making It With Allie! I can't wait to see what you have for next week!
    AllieMakes.Blogspot.com

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  11. So cute! I wonder if I could come up with enough toilet paper rolls to do this with my Sunday school kids…

  12. Laura@happycanadianhome.com says:

    How sweet – it’s challenging to find Christmas crafts that help teach the true meaning of Christmas!

    1. Thank you for your kind words, Laura.
      Have fun making this awesome craft. 🙂

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  15. Thank you so very much for sharing this craft. It is perfect and exactly what I needed for my PSR class. I wanted a quick, easy, inexpensive, and precious craft and I just found it! I even had everything I needed on hand already. Love that! Thanks again. 🙂

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