What A Star Nativity Play: How your children can shine like stars!

‘What A Star’ is a groundbreaking nativity play designed to boost your children’s self-image. This blog looks at how and why it was made.

Early in 2013 I had an idea for a new nativity play for young children. The premise was simple: a little star who wasn’t very good at shining would be chosen by God to become the brightest star of all, shining over Bethlehem, guiding the wise men to visit the newborn baby Jesus.
What A Star - How your children can shine like stars
I suggested the idea to my teenage daughter, who ran with it. Within a few days she had enterprisingly produced the first draft of what would become: ‘What A Star!’ A nativity play for ages 3-7. In her script, my daughter had introduced the idea of the star going to ‘star-school’, but being the worst in the class at everything, getting teased by other ‘bigger, better stars’ and feeling unhappy at being so small and shy. By the end of the play of course, Leo the little star becomes the biggest, brightest, most important star of all, as he shines over Bethlehem’s stable.

All good and well, but what surprised me most was that my daughter had chosen to give this star a name… Leo! Having written dozens of nativity plays over the years, my first instinct was to change the name or remove it altogether. But then I thought about the significance of this tiny name…

Straight away, I should state that I never read horoscopes, or take any interest in star signs or the zodiac, but I do know that because my birthday is in late July, my star sign is ‘Leo’. Therefore, as I read the first draft of the script, I immediately felt a connection to this little star, who didn’t feel as good as all the larger, older stars in his class.

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