Displaying a nativity set at Christmas time is one of the best ways to remember that Jesus is the reason for the season! My mom always displayed many nativity sets around our house during Advent and Christmas, and I wanted to make sure that every single home has the ability to have a nativity set displayed. This is why I have this FREE diy printable nativity set! Kids also tend to love what they have an investment in, so including them in the coloring and assembly is a great way to help foster their love for baby Jesus. You can find my other Christ centered Advent and Christmas resources for families here.
I also have a printable nativity peg doll set, so be sure to check that out, too!
The Nativity Pieces You’ll Find In This Set:
- Baby Jesus
- Mary
- St. Joseph
- Christmas angel
- Stable with Bethlehem behind
- 3 Kings (3 wise men or magi)
- 3 camels
- 2 sheep
- Shepherd
- Palm tree
Supplies Needed For Printable Nativity Set
- TP tubes, card stock, or paper
- Glue, tape, or a stapler
- Something to color with (optional)
- Nativity Set Printables (available below)
- Scissors
How To Assemble The Printable Nativity Set
First Option: Print the download on regular paper and glue the people around toilet paper tubes (or cut paper towel or wrapping paper tubes). The cardboard tube makes the characters strong and sturdy, and they stand very easily!
Just cover the back with glue stick, and then roll it around the cardboard tube. Easy and economical!
Second Option: Print the download on card stock, cut, and roll into tubes. Then you can just staple or tape it in the back to hold the character in a cylinder shape.
If you just use regular paper and roll it into tubes, it will work, but they will be flimsy.
Some Tips For Assembling The Weird Pieces
When gluing the angel, cut the bottom line of her wings and let them flap free- don’t put glue on the back of them! Then curl the wings out slightly with your finger. This will help the angel’s wings seem 3D. I love how they stick out, and I love the colorful coloring of these wings as well! I’m such a sucker for beautiful bright colors.
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When gluing the empty stable, just glue or tape each edge to a toilet paper tube half way around. It might help if you curl the edges of the stable before attaching the cardboard tubes.
And here it is standing up! I love how it has Bethlehem in the background there on the edges.
When gluing the palm tree, cut the leaves around the bottom, and let them stand out as well. Don’t put glue on the back of the leaves. Let the leaves flap free like the angel wings!
Get Your Free Nativity Set Download Here
This diy printable nativity download is all new and improved! I am so excited to be able to offer it to you for free today, and I truly hope it blessed your family this Christmas season. Click the blue button below for your printable nativity pdf.
These pages are my own artwork and are free for any not-for-profit use by individuals, families, or educational organizations. Copies may not be sold, reproduced for profit, or published by anyone but me. If you’d like to post this calendar for others to find, I would ask that you link to my post and rather than my individual downloads because their location may change. When printing or running copies, please do not remove my website from the bottom of the page. Thanks!
More Nativity Resources For Families
You do not want to miss my nativity round up for kids that includes crafts, book suggestions, traditions, songs, printables, and more! Check it out now.
Also, you can find all of my Advent and Christmas resources for Catholic families here.
Lacy ~ I love your printable nativity but when I went to print out your pages it says “The requested URL was not found on this server.” Could you email them to me or tell me another way I could get them? Thanks! Debbie
Very cute. The pictures are nice too. Thank you.
Jacqui
Thank you Lacy – this was very useful and easy to find on google!!
Love this! 🙂
I love LOVE love these!!!!! I really would like to make this for my daughter and teach her about Jesus’s birth. I printed the first page and I could only get the baby Jesus in a manger and a little bit of 1 of the camels. They printed teeny tiny too. Am I doing something wrong? Would it be to much trouble to email this to me as a pdf and I can print each individual page that way.
Thank you so much for sharing your talents!
Jeni
Actually, I have been having some trouble with Google docs. Did you download it before you tried printing it? Sometimes that fixes it. Hopefully I’ll be hosting my own pdf’s soon!
I knew there was a reason I have been hoarding tp rolls! This craft is perfect! My older girls are going to make this for my younger daughter’s birthday this week. Thank you for sharing this 🙂 BTW, I was able to download everything, no problem!
So glad to hear it! 🙂
Love it!!!
I love these!!!
I did have a problem with page #1, 2, 7 where it gave me a warning that said the page wasn’t safe. Is there any way you can email these to me? Thanks so much!!!!
Tina
Maybe give it another try. I know a lot of people have been downloading these with no problem. Sometimes you have to click a box saying you “trust the site” or something.
This is so cute. I’m excited to do this with my kids. Thank you for taking the time to make this AND share it.
Thank you so much for sharing the nativity craft! It is such a challenge to find crafts for children that aren’t all about Santa and snowmen and reindeer. I plan on using this with 40-50 unchurched children at our church’s Christmas celebration this year. Each child will be able to go home with their own nativity scene for a minimal cost. Thank you so much! This will touch the lives of many!!! Kara
Thank you for this! I am going to make this with a special needs student during Sunday School throughout December. She will love it.
Thank you so much for sharing these. They were exactly what I needed for my preschool Sunday school class!
Had an awesome time making this project with the kids! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks for sharing this! It’s adorable and I will be having a group of kids making nativities very soon!
Lacy, I printed these off on card stock (heavy) paper. We then cut them out and taped the ends together. No need for toilet paper rolls. Plus they are easy to disassemble by removing the tape. Bonus is that they store flat.
Love this! Great idea. 🙂
Thank you for making these available for people. It’s always nice to find ways to remind children about why we celebrate Christmas. This is a great thing to try!
Les
Diatomaceous Earth
Thank you very much for share this wonderful Nativity and so I have also the opportunity to recycle some toilet roll 😉
You know you have too much stuff “for craft…” when you find a really cool craft that calls for 13 toilet paper rolls — and you have them!
Thanks so much for such a lovely craft project. I’ve not had any problems with printing!
Hahaha! Love it! 🙂
Thanks so much. Been looking for a scene that my 2 Year old can do and she will just love colouring this in and playing with it. 🙂
My son’s grade 2 class did this at his school in Colombo, Sri Lanka (his teacher downloaded it for the class to make). I thought it was so special that I downloaded it for my kids to make their own at home as well. Will try to make one for the grandparents too : ). Thank you for this–it’s a real blessing!
Btw, at first I had problems with printing, then I right-clicked on the picture, it then gave me the option “print picture” which worked. The regular “print” icons didn’t.
I’ve just finished printing this off, I’m excited to try this with the kids. I did find that I had to open the picture in a new tab to print and to enlarge to 145% to fit our toilet paper rolls. It still doesn’t cover it all but 150% printed off the page. I hope that helps those who are having trouble.
This is super! Thanks bunches. Going to share with my friends on FB. 🙂
Thank you. I did this last year with my daughter. I’m subbing in the 7-yo Sunday School class tomorrow and I’m going to have them do part of this.
This is so cute. I really want to do this with my son but the links to the pictures don’t work when I try. Could you email my the templates? Thanks, Jennie
You have to download them before you can print them. I don’t have them saved on my computer anymore, so I only have the links now.
Where can I find the download please?
Hi Esther –
I can’t post a screenshot here, but you need to look toward the end of the post (but not all the way at the very end) and there is a large blue rectangular graphic that says “Get Your Free Download” in pink and then under it “Click Here!!!” in white and a Catholic Icing cupcake in the bottom right corner. You just need to click on that and the document will open in another tab.
Hopefully that helps!
Angie, Catholic Icing Project Manager
Thank you for this printable nativity. I will print it and hand out to children at God’s Kitchen. It is a soup kitchen providing free hot lunches two times a week.
I right clicked to copy, paste, and save in Paint program and will use Irfanview to print out the pages.
Thank you for sharing my kids will love these. Merry Christmas.
I am teaching the children (5-11) at my church and we are doping the Christmas Story. This craft is perfect 🙂 Thank you for posting!
Thank you. I knew i was collecting those tp rolls for something.
Thank you so much! I just completed this for my sons.
So cute!! I am linking to this from my blog!
I also tried to print the coloring sheets and got the error message. Could you email them to me? They are so cute!! Thank you!
I will be uploading new files soon! I’ve been having a lot of trouble out of these. 😛
Thank you these so so fantastic!
Perfect for my two today for a rainy day at home! Thanks so much, love it!!!!
I love this!!! This is seriously cute. I’m a new follower.
Lacy,
I also love this and would like to use it in my Sunday School class. I got the error message on the webpage to open the link. Could you please email the files to me to print?
Thanks!
Sorry to double post…I overlooked your reply. Thank you!!!
Hi Lacy,
These printables are fabulous! Thanks so much for sharing your talents with others 🙂
Wanted you to know that we featured your nativity printables at our blog, Preschool Printables. You can find the full article here:
http://preschoolprintables.info/1661/diy-printable-toilet-paper-roll-nativity/
We were sure to give photo/idea credit, as well as a link back to your website, but we’d love for you to take a look at it. If there are any problems, we’ll be sure to take the feature down immediately!
Thanks so much,
Kayla Johnson
tristro.com/kayla
P.S. I teach a preschool class at my church and the kids have LOVED this nativity. It’s been a really neat addition to our Christmas lessons! Thank you!
Thanks so much for linking! Glad your preschool class had a good time with it!
This is perfect for some Christmas break activity time with my kids while they are out of school. Thank you for sharing your increadible talent. We will enjoy making them.
Thank you for sharing the nativity printable craft! It’s the best one I’ve seen!
Thanks so much! It was one of the first things I ever posted online. 🙂
Thank you sooo much for this! We did it at Christmas, and I shared it here
http://pinsandprincesses.blogspot.com/2012/04/toilet-paper-tube-extravaganza.html
While we have no young children in our family, I loved your colored Resurrection TP printable so much, I printed it on photo paper and it was beautiful….and stood without the TP tube. Is there any chance you’d have the time to revisit this Christmas version and work your coloring magic. Thank you for sharing your wonderful site.
Love your website! But lately I can not get things to print I would like to try the toilet paper roll nativity but when I click to down load it say server cannot be found and my internet explorer stops working. Could you please email me a copy.
Thanks for all your wonderfull crafts!!!!
Lori Wilcox
The downloads seem to be working. Must be a problem with your personal computer. Hope you get it working! 🙂
As a collector of nativity sets, I thank you for this wonderful download! Now I can make a new set with my children this year. Thank you so much! Blessings, Jennifer
Thanks so much for sharing such a great idea & lovely artwork.
We’ll use the Nativity craft at our kids club over the next few weeks as we unwrap the true meaning of Christmas.
Thanks so much!
Becky
Thanks a lot for your free pattern..My son and I can make this together..Happy Holidays!
Just came across your site looking for “religious” Christmas crafts. I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for providing Moms like me w/ a great craft for our children at Christmas time. I can’t wait to work on this w/ my four kids. 🙂 God Bless you and have a VERY Merry Christmas!!!
So sweet! Thank you so much! 🙂
Thank you this is going to be so great for my homeschool kids and my 4 yr old:D
Blessings
Thanks so much for sharing this craft. I can’t wait to try it with my Grade 2 class. I notice in your photo you have a blue background and green bottom. Any suggestions for what to use to hold the entire scene together?
Thanks again.
Angela
I just set it up on my mantle like that with blue and green paper for the picture. I suppose you could glue it into a box diorama style if that’s what you’re going for. 🙂
Just letting you know that I linked to this post on my page called Nativity Activities for Kids.
I should have been thanking you beginning some months ago, lol, your website has been such a blessing to me! I started teaching 1st grade CCD this year, and they have enjoyed many printables and more from Catholic Icing 😉 God Bless you for this service Lacy!
Hi, I love this craft idea! Unfortunately I am having some trouble getting the PDF to open and download and print. I was wondering if you would have time to email it to me? I can see the PDF on my ipad, but it isn’t working on my home pc and I can’t print from my ipad. I have tried to open it this morning on my pc a few times without success. After doing my web search and browsing your site and attempting to download the PDF I encountered a virus. My husband was able to fix the virus, but then when I tried to download the PDF again the virus came back. I am not sure if the virus is related to the PDF, but I wanted to pass that along just in case. I was also unable to print the google docs file or save it to my computer. Could have just been because my computer wasn’t working properly, again just wanted to pass it on in case there is a problem. Thanks so much.
We just moved and I don’t have the files on this computer to email you, but try downloading them from my Catholic ABC’s easy printing page: http://www.catholicicing.com/easy-printing/ hope this helps!
I printed on cardstock – then printed the picture of your final scene onto photo paper. Now I plan to gift a few of these as “Nativity Gift Kits” with the picture, cardstock, and crayons for my friends with young children! THANK YOU!
I love this idea! I should do that and send it to my little nieces and nephews. 🙂
I printed these out for my home daycare kids. We cut them out and glued the stable into a box so they could play with them and have storage. Thank you!
I want to you know that my 6 year old son made a set of these for both sets of grandparents, for each of his three aunts and for our house! 6 total sets!!!!
We no longer have toilet paper tubes or show boxes but he has had a great time!
Thank you for the free print out!
Merry Christmas!!!!
I cannot wait to do this craft with our preschoolers. I took a collection at church for toilet rolls and have hundreds! Thank you for posting this!
i did it w/o printinting.I just use cardboard and scrach paper
Hello Mrs. Rabideu:
I live in Oliva, Valencia, Spain. We have two children 6 (Laude) and 9 (Sara). As soon I see your Nativity printed set craft I called my children and they were very happy to make our Nativity that way. They are already working on it (very quitely by the way …!!!).
Thanks very much for sharing it with us.
God bless you.
Thank you for sharing. I’ve been trying very hard to find the right nativity cut outs to make puppets with and these were perfect.
I’m just getting a head start for Christmas. We used your easter version this year and LOVED it, and I didn’t want to forget to have these ready for the end of advent.
Just a note, your wise men are all in there now, so you can remove your disclaimer.
God bless you. Love your site!
Really fantastic!. There’s already one made in Valencia, Spain. Personally I think the one who most enjoyed has been …myself (the father!!). We have two little children, Sara of 9 and Laude of 6.
Congratulations for you idea and your generosity.
God bless you Lacy!
Thank you for posting this! I have the paper rolls at the ready but I am not at all an artist. This will be a great project for my girls!
Dear Lacy,
We have enjoyed making ALL of your paper roll play sets. We are making the nativity and I was wondering if you could draw an Angel Gabriel angel to include so we can also act out the annunciation!
Thanks for all your ideas! They are awesome!
Erica
That’s a great idea! I will add it to may “as time allows” list. 🙂
Thank you, Lacy, for this nice nativity set. I really appreciate it.
This really is a great way to stay formed. I know my garage area and basement are a definite mess.
I in the morning undoubtedly designing upon making anything in this way.
What a great idea! I was searching for an easy and fun project to work with my thrird graders and I came across this Nativity project.
Thank you for sharing!
God bless you.
Thank you for sharing! I’m looking forward to making this with my girls.
Thank you so much for sharing this! God bless you.
I cannot figure out how to download this nativity set. I had it several years ago, but I’ve changed computers and I guess I lost it. Can it be emailed to me, or please let me know where I went wrong.
Hi Elizabeth –
I can’t post a screenshot here, but you need to look toward the end of the post (but not all the way at the very end) and there is a large blue rectangular graphic that says “Get Your Free Download” in pink and then under it “Click Here!!!” in white and a Catholic Icing cupcake in the bottom right corner. You just need to click on that and the document will open in another tab.
Hopefully that helps!
Angie, Catholic Icing Project Manager
Thank you so much for this wonderful resource. This will allow students to take home a Nativity when they may not otherwise have one. God Bless.
I‘m a Christian mom of six, not Catholic ->but Church of Jesus Christ – it’s so great we can all support each other!!
I did this craft years ago with my oldest two and now after years of in and out of the Christmas box we need a new one!! Now the younger ones get to do it!! Thank you soooo much for the gift of SHARING!!! ❤️
So happy to hear this! This nativity sets is one of my original crafts and one of my favorites. So happy for all Christians to enjoy it! 🙂
this is so good. We made it today & had fun. Thank you for this amazing nativity printable. It really helped me teach my child to keep “Christ” in Christmas. Thanks once again
This is very generous of you. Thank you for sharing this one for free. My children will definitely love this craft. Merry Christmas in advance!
I love Lacy’s drawings. But in the nativity scene, I do not think Saint Joseph was an old man. He was a young God loving man.
Lacy and I have had a discussion about that before. The Bible doesn’t really say if Saint Joseph was young or old. Lacy thinks of Saint Joseph as an older man and I think he was younger. But, there’s no Biblical guidance either way. Here is a good article about it: https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/old-joseph-young-joseph
On the plus side, if you want to use the black and white version of this, you can color in Saint Joseph’s beard and hair in a way that will make him look much younger than in her color version.
Angie, Catholic Icing Project Manager
I would like to express my sincere thanks to Lacy and her team at Catholic Icing for the generosity of offering a free download for the printable “Nativity Gift Set’. Much appreciated. The Catholic Icing provides loaves of ideas and handicraft for Catholic kids. It is a very useful and helpful website! May I wish you all at Catholic Icing a very Merry Christmas! God bless.
Thank you for sharing! We are teachers in a school in Burgos (Spain) and we are going to use your free Nativity craft this week before Christmas. It’s fantastic!. And children will love it. Thank you very much
Thank you so much for making this adorable free resource! I can’t wait to make this with my daughter tomorrow!
Many thanks for sharing your excellent Nativity Craft – it is really appreciated”
Regards
kendell
Thank you so much!!!