NATIVITY plays have been a regular feature of the autumn term at schools for many years, as these pictures from the Oxford Mail archives show.

Picture One shows some of the children who took part in a concert and Nativity play at Wood Farm Infants’ School in Oxford in 1966.

They entertained their parents and relatives with dancing, singing and reading to bring the Christmas story to life.

In Picture Two, the Angel Gabriel, played by Catherine Ladyman, appears before the kneeling Mary, played by Suzanne Girdler, as the shepherds and kings look on during Beckley School’s Christmas production in 1963.

There was a crisis at Dunmore Infants’ School, Abingdon, in 1989 when some of the principal actors were struck by flu. Fortunately, other children knew the words and stepped in to save the day.

Among those in the production were the three kings, seen in Picture Three – left to right, Michael Crick, six, and Neil Nisbet and Timothy Robins, both seven.

Angela Fyfe, five, and Tony Wake, six, played Mary and Joseph in the Nativity play at St Francis First School, Cowley, in 1982.

They are seen in Picture Four with some of the other 28 children who featured in the production.

The Christmas story went upbeat in 1984 when Rock Nativity was performed at Wesley Green Middle School at Blackbird Leys, Oxford, with a cast of more than 80.

Simon Braham, 13, as Joseph, and Francesca Chard, 12, as Mary, appear in Picture Five.