I guess this is just a little early to be submitting a Christmas pic, but then this is partly intended as a Christmas contest picture for
And the deadline for that contest is today!
Edit: Seems I just missed the deadline... D'oh!! Oh well...

Anyway, the setting... the Nativity, with all the characters played by the cast of Sonic the Hedgehog.


The storyline adapted for my version of the play:
One day, the Angel Gabriel (Tails) came to a young virgin woman named Mary (Amy) and told her that she was to become the mother of a boy named Jesus.
Later, her fiancé Joseph (Sonic) discovered that she was with child. Fearing that she had been unfaithful, but not wanting to expose her to scandal, he was in a real quandry on whether or not to divorce her quietly - so Gabriel came to him to explain what was happening. Brought into God's confidence, Joseph went ahead with marrying Mary and took care of her while she was carrying the holy infant.

Some months later, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, Emperor of Rome, that a census was to be taken of all Roman territories. This included Roman-occupied Israel. As such, every man with his family had to go to his native town to be registered. Joseph, as a descendant of King David, therefore went to Bethlehem.
Mary was by now heavily pregnant, so Joseph took her along on a donkey (Knuckles).
Upon arrival at Bethlehem, they found all spaces in the local inns were taken. However, one landlord gave them a loan of his stable for the night - and whilst there, the time came for the baby to be born. There being nowhere else available, they had to resort to placing him in the manger.

That night, shepherds (Big and Hydrex) were watching their flocks on the hills. They were given the fright of their lives when Gabriel and other angels appeared and gave praise to God for the safe delivery of the Christ child. Once over their shock, the shepherds went down to see this new King and were astonished and immediately glorifying God and telling everybody about the wonders they had seen.

Soon afterwards, three wise men (the Chaotix) came from the East following a star they had seen that told them of a new King born to the world. They ended up at the palace of King Herod (Shadow), who was horrified at the thought of having a rival to his cushy throne. He told them to seek out the child and then tell him where he might find it so that he might "pay homage" himself - though secretly he planned to kill the child!
The three wise men soon tracked down the boy child and his parents at the place they were staying and the bowed down and worshipped and presented their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. However, they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod and so returned home by another road.

All Sonic characters are Copyright © The Sonic Team.
Hydrex the Otter is my own Sonic-based fan-character and belongs to me.

The characters were drawn in Flash, the background was done with my Wacom in Photoshop.