Nativity Stories

It all happened just before the first Christmas night of all Christmas nights; and that, as you know, was a long, long time ago.

A beautiful, surly donkey is too wild to be ridden by anyone. When his master, eager to be rid of him, sells the beast to Mary, her new companion is suddenly as docile as a lamb. Joseph’s staff, found in the corner of his workshop, is made of a wood no one can identify; and it has some amazing qualities as Joseph will find out. A little boy cleans and cleans his father’s stable one week knowing it just isn’t clean enough, but not yet knowing why.

Simple things attend the birth of Jesus: a donkey to carry Mary, a staff to support old Joseph, a stable, and straw, and a manger in which to lay the Jesus child. These lively stories of the Nativity conclude with a more contemporary tale, creating the atmosphere we all seek at Christmas. Each of these imaginative stories, which present a simple element of the Nativity as their central themes, were written to be read aloud. Here they are presented with new, fresh watercolors by Bethan Welby, herself a former pupil of the school in England where these stories were told as part of a long-standing storytelling tradition.