Christmas Nail Tutorial – Nativity

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you’re having a great day, celebrating with family, eating too much and opening presents!

For my final tutorial of my nail art advent calendar, I wanted to celebrate with the most important present the world has ever received! So I give you, my Christmas Nativity manicure…

Although we know that Jesus wasn’t actually born on the 25th December, it’s great to have a time every year to really celebrate him coming into the world to save us from the bad things we do and to restore our relationship with God.
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. – Luke 2 v 1-7

On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived. – Luke 2 v 21

It’s so easy to forget about the true Christmas story, as the few weeks running up to Christmas are always so busy, but try and make some time today to think or talk about what Christmas really means and why we celebrate it.

The four designs of this manicure

Instead of showing you the step-by-step photos I thought I would just tell you how I painted each design…

	Mary Nail design Start by painting your nail all over with a skin-coloured polish. Next, use a blue polish and paint a hood shape at the top of your nail. Using a dark brown polish, paint the outline of the shape of the hair and fill it in. For the eyes, use a large dotting tool with white polish for the whites and then a tiny dotting tool with black polish for the pupils.
	Joseph Nail design Start by painting your nail all over with a nude nail polish. Next, paint the shape of his hair and the swooping parts of his fringe with a dark brown and tiny paintbrush. Paint lines down the edges of your nail in dark brown for sideburns and then use small brush strokes for his spikey beard. Again, use a white polish and large dotting tool for the whites of his eyes and a tiny dotting tool and black polish for the pupils.
	Jesus Nail design Start by painting your nail all over white for the baby swaddling. Take a skin-coloured polish and a small paintbrush and paint a large circle near the top of your nail for his face. Use a cream polish and tiny paintbrush to paint little lines to extenuate the cloth. Finally use a large dotting tool and white polish for the whites of the eyes and a tiny dotting tool with a black polish for the pupils.
	Donkey Nail design Start by painting your nail all over grey. Take a light silver colour and paint a semicircle on the tip of your nail for his muzzle. Use a tiny paintbrush and black polish to paint his little tuft of hair at the top of your nail. Use a dotting tool with white polish to create the whites of his eyes and a black polish with a tiny dotting tool to create the pupils. Finally, use the grey polish to paint two little nostrils onto his muzzle.

Here’s what the final manicure looks like…

I hope you all have a very wonderful Christmas and that you have enjoyed my nail art advent calendar this year!
It has been a lot of fun, but quite exhausting and I’m looking forward to getting back to some more random nail art in the new year.