I was nearly always an angel because I had very pale blonde hair, I was the star once too, I had to carry it in on a giant pole. I also remember being a Rag Doll, an Owl (my mum and sister have never forgiven me for the night they had to spend sewing brown tissue feathers onto an old t-shirt) and a line dancer - where exactly those 3 fit into the birth of Jesus I forget!
The funniest thing I remember from nativities of my childhood was a sheep related incident. I had a toy sheep, around 3ft high that was on a rocking horse type base but also had metal wheels that could be bolted onto it so it could be pushed around. One year the school needed sheep for the play so offered it up and they accepted. It was kept to the side of the stage and was meant to be pushed on so it would roll across the stage and come to rest near the manger. However the person whose job it was to send it on it's way obviously didn't know their own strength. The first we knew of this was when a 3ft high metal wheeled sheep came flying across the stage at mach 9, flew off the edge and ended up on it's side, narrowly avoiding members of the audience! Health and safety would have had a field day and I bet if it happened this year the school would have to be closed down after half the audience sued for the trauma of narrowly avoiding being hit by a flying sheep!