If you’re new here, Welcome to Catholic Icing! I made a printable nativity set craft a few Christmases ago, and it’s been a very popular post. It’s free to download, and fun to make!
- About 13 Toilet Paper Tubes, or just print the figures on Card Stock
- Scissors
- Glue Stick, Tape, or Staples
- Crayons
- Download of Nativity Set (link below)
Directions for Completing Nativity Craft:
- Print the Nativity Set
- Color with Crayons
- Cut out the pieces
- Attach the pieces to toilet paper tubes with a glue stick, staples, or tape. If you’ve printed them on card stock, just roll them into cylinders and tape or staple. Some of the toilet paper tubes for the shorter figures will have to be cut shorter first. For most of the figures, just glue the bottom even with the bottom of the toilet paper tube and let the heads hang off the top. A few of the pieces are different- see directions below.
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. 
When gluing the empty stable, just glue each edge to a toilet paper tube half way around. 
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. Now Offering a New and Improved Download!!!
Now that I’m self-hosted, this 
isn’t on Google docs anymore.You can now download the entire nativity in just one pdf!
Click here to
Download Your Nativity!
It turns out this download is missing 2 of the wisemen- *gasp*! But you can still access them from Google Docs. Download other wisemen here.
Nativity Sensory Bin
Easy Nativity Cookies
Make a Soft Manger for Baby Jesus
Pin It 
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.
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