Nativity Scene Printable
Fifteen paper figures to print, colour, cut and fold. Each one folds into a little tent and stands up on its own.
Your nativity, stood up
Print at Actual size, on card if you have it.
Your figures
Each name gets one figure, printed on its back: first Mary, Joseph, the manger, the angel, the shepherds and kings, then the animals, the star and the stable. A class of more than 15 gets extra angels, shepherds, kings and sheep. Up to 60 names; nothing you type leaves this page.
Every size keeps the figures in proportion: the sheep stays half as tall as a shepherd, the stable a quarter taller than Joseph.
Nothing you type leaves your device. The figures are drawn in this page and the PDF is built in your browser. The page counts one anonymous event when a file is downloaded (PDF or PNG, never what is on it), and keeps no draft.
How to make the nativity
- Print at 100%. Choose “Actual size” in the print dialog, then check the 50 mm bar at the foot of the sheet with a ruler. Card of 160 to 220 g/m² (60 to 80 lb cover) stands best; plain copy paper works for the two smaller sizes.
- Colour first, if you chose colour-in. Crayons and coloured pencils are fine; felt pens can bleed through thin paper, so test one on the floor panel first.
- Cut round the solid line. Each figure, its floor and its back are one piece, so you cut one outline per figure. Adults may want to do the star and the shepherd’s crook for small children; they have the tightest corners.
- Fold the two dashed lines so the printed sides stay outside: the figure folds up at its feet, the upside-down back folds up at the other end of the floor. The little ticks outside the outline show where the folds are once the sheet is cut.
- Glue the tops together. Rub glue stick on the blank side of the back panel’s top (the small “glue” mark shows the spot from the printed side) and press it to the blank side of the figure’s head. That makes a small tent. The floor keeps it from tipping, so nothing needs weighing down.
Questions
Is this nativity scene printable really free?
Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no paid version. The page draws the figures and builds the PDF on your own device, so you can print as many copies as you need for a family, a Sunday school or a whole year group.
Which characters are in the set?
Fifteen: the stable, the manger with the baby, Mary, Joseph, an angel, the star on its post, a shepherd with a crook, a shepherd boy carrying a lamb, a sheep, an ox, a donkey, the three kings (one with gold, one with frankincense, one with myrrh) and a camel. They are drawn for this page in a simple, flat style with plain faces, so they suit young children and leave room for colouring.
Can I print the cutouts as a PDF or as colouring pages?
Both. “Download PDF” gives every sheet in one file, A4 or US Letter. Pick Colour-in and the same figures print as black outlines on white, which makes them a set of nativity colouring pages that also stand up when finished. The PNG button saves the sheet you are looking at as a 300 dpi image, handy for a school printer or a worksheet.
How do the figures stand up without falling over?
Each figure prints as a strip: the figure, a floor, and the figure’s back turned upside down. Folded up and glued at the top it becomes a narrow tent whose floor is at least 40% as deep and 40% as wide as the figure is tall (45% deep on every figure here). That is why a tall king on thin paper still stands on a windowsill.
How do the three sizes compare?
The tabletop set is the one for a shelf or the middle of the table. The finger-puppet size cuts a 15 mm hole in the floor of every person, the angel, the camel, the star and the stable, so a child’s fingertip slides up into the hollow tent and the figure can walk and talk; the sheep, ox, donkey and manger are too small for a finger and simply stand. The Advent-wreath size fits between the candles; keep paper well away from the flames and use battery candles if children are helping.
| Figure (height × width, cm) | Tabletop | Finger puppet | Advent wreath |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stable | 10.0 × 15.5 | 7.5 × 11.6 | 5.3 × 8.1 |
| Joseph, each king | 8.0 × 4.0 | 6.0 × 3.0 | 4.2 × 2.1 |
| Mary | 7.4 × 3.6 | 5.5 × 2.7 | 3.9 × 1.9 |
| Angel | 8.4 × 6.2 | 6.3 × 4.6 | 4.4 × 3.2 |
| Star | 9.2 × 5.2 | 6.9 × 3.9 | 4.8 × 2.8 |
| Shepherd with crook | 7.8 × 3.8 | 5.9 × 2.9 | 4.1 × 2.0 |
| Shepherd boy with lamb | 6.4 × 3.1 | 4.8 × 2.3 | 3.4 × 1.6 |
| Camel | 9.0 × 10.8 | 6.7 × 8.1 | 4.7 × 5.7 |
| Donkey | 5.3 × 6.4 | 4.0 × 4.8 | 2.8 × 3.4 |
| Ox | 5.0 × 8.0 | 3.7 × 6.0 | 2.6 × 4.2 |
| Manger with baby | 3.4 × 4.7 | 2.5 × 3.5 | 1.8 × 2.5 |
| Sheep | 3.2 × 4.8 | 2.4 × 3.6 | 1.7 × 2.5 |
The whole tabletop scene takes 6 sheets, the finger-puppet size 4 and the Advent-wreath size 2.
How does the class set work?
Choose “Class set from names” and type one name per line. Every name gets exactly one figure with the name printed on its back, in a fixed order: Mary, Joseph, the manger, the angel, the shepherds, the kings, the animals, the star and the stable. With 22 children, the last seven get a second angel, two more shepherds, two more kings and two sheep, so everyone has a figure and the class builds one scene together. Names stay on this device.
Where does the custom come from?
Setting out the figures of the Christmas story is an old custom: the first recorded nativity scene was the one Francis of Assisi staged with a live ox and donkey in the Italian town of Greccio in 1223. Painted and carved cribs followed across Europe, and from the 1800s printers in Central Europe sold sheets of paper figures to cut out and stand up, a cheap crib any household could make. Many families still add the figures bit by bit: the baby on Christmas Eve, and the three kings moving a little closer each day until they arrive on 6 January.