Nativity 3 in November: A Review by Natty

I know I know...
IT'S TOO EARLY!

It's only November and Nativity 3 is in a cinema near you.

I love to keep the magical excitement of Christmas at bay until the end of December. I think it's a throwback to the time I spent living in France. I love real decorations and simple gifts, good food and family games.

Somehow I think that starting Christmas in August (yep, I'm sure I spied a display in a garden centre as long ago as that, Baa Humbug!) just leads to wrung out children, overspent parents and a diluting of the whole meaning of that festive time of year.

That said, we have Natty in our family 

Natty at Nativity 3 in November!

And Natty, as you know like to celebrate unbirthdays. 
She's also pretty fond of deciding when it's Yule time too. Sometimes that means a Christmas jumper in August and some frantic Makaton signing along to her favourite Singing Hands Christmas Cracker DVD. 

Protesting is futile, we just let her get it out of her system. After all, life is too short, we need to pick our battles wisely, and maybe it's just her way of remembering or thinking ahead to that time of year. Being a visual learner she might just want to 'see' Xmas for a while to remind herself of what it's like.

And so... we have a number of films in the festive section of the DVD library. We all have our personal favourites. Daddy Downs Side Up has a soft spot for It's a Wonderful Life. I like Love Actually, Mia loves Elf on the Shelf and Natty would watch Nativity on a loop if she could. 

You've seen it right? I can't believe there's a parent, teacher or primary school child alive who hasn't.

Natty climbs right inside that film and lives it. And as she played Mary in last year's school nativity play I think she thinks it's all about her. She rushes off to fetch her own Baby Jesus doll and has a remarkabe understanding of the fat that babies 'come out of the mummy's tummy and it hurts'. If you've seen the film, you'll know why.

Natty played Mary in last year's school Nativity play

Nativity 3 in November

Anyhow, for the last few weeks Natty has spotted buses with the adverts for the new Nativity 3 on them. Her excitement was hard to ignore and somehow this Sunday we found ourselves buying popcorn ahead of the film's airing on the big screen at our local multiplex. Mia is not a fan of the cinema, having been frightened by Toy Story when she was younger, she fears the sudden loud moments but she agreed that there could be no scary surprises in this Christmas epic. 

Natty insisted on wearing an angel costume to attend, and why not. I think dressing up for movie excursions should be de rigeur.

The girls were captivated. There were a lot of big names in the casting. Daddy DSU did nod off momentarily, but it has been a bit of a week. Natty was enthralled and watched whilst holding her poster depicting the characters, all the way through pointing out each one as they came on screen. 'Look Mummy, it's the same!' she excaimed with delight.

Every now and again she would lean over and whisper to me that baby Jesus was going to be born soon.

Natty the film critic gives her first review

The film drew to a close, many giggles still resounding. Natty's smile began to drop. 
The credits rolled and her face crumbled into tears which became wracking sobs. Daddy carried her from the theatre and we sat and consoled her outside. We weren't sure what the matter was. Other parents looked over with sad faces, also wanted to take her pain away. When she spotted the life size poster in the foyer her face lit up again and she ran to kiss each character.

As we chatted with her over the evening we concluded that she was so sad that the film had ended, in the way that they say finishing a good book is like bidding farewell to a good friend. But we had to accept too that she was disappointed at the lack of a guest appearance from her favourite character from the previous films, the Baby Jesus. A Christmas-themed film it was, but the nativity story was missing, and Natty the film critic had just aired her first film review.



You might also like to see our review of specially written Makaton Nativity play Born This Night by Rebecca Thompson here.