It's Christ-mutts! Welsh chapel retells the Nativity story using dogs - featuring the three wise WHIPPETS and a pug-cross as the baby Jesus
A Welsh chapel has retold the story of the Nativity - with a cast made up entirely of worshippers' dogs.
The re-enactment of the Christmas story was performed by canines including 'three wise whippets' and a pug-cross standing for the baby Jesus at Gellionnen chapel in Swansea.
The hilarious footage, which has been viewed thousands of times, shows the dogs in costumes standing attentively as the church's Reverend, Rory Castle, does a voiceover of Mary and Joseph's journey to the stable where the Son of God was born.
An innkeeper, which appears to be played by a collie-cross, is seen kindly leading them to stable after running out of rooms at the inn.
The clip, which took 'hours' to put together, also includes one pup wrapped in tinsel for his role as the Star of Bethlehem. 
Worshippers at Gellionnen chapel in Swansea, South Wales have retold the story of the Nativity using their dogs - including 'three wise whippets' and a pug-cross to stand in for the baby Jesus
Reverend Castle and his faithful congregation came up with the canine cast idea as a way to bring festive smiles to their local community.
The chapel is a dog friendly place of worship and so the team decided to set the stage for their furry friends.
Revered Castle said: 'We have a team of event organisers who came up with the idea of a dog nativity.
'We honestly thought it was a bit mad at first but once we stopped laughing we thought why not.'
Hilarious footage shows the dog in costumes standing attentively as the church's reverend does a voiceover of Mary and Joseph's journey to the stable where the Son of God was born
The production had around nine dogs involved and the crew decided not to have auditions but to choose the dogs that best fit the key roles. Pictured: A small pug-cross plays the baby Jesus
The production had around nine dogs involved and the crew decided not to have auditions but to choose the dogs that best fit the key roles.
Reverend Castle, 34, added: 'One we got into it, we were having discussions such as, "Which dog looks most like a baby Jesus? Which breed of dog would be the best shepherd," which are odd conversations to have.
'We had great fun with it all - although it took us a good few hours with dogs running everywhere and we had a lot of retakes.'
He added: 'We had a lot of treats on set, it was a real carrot and stick approach off camera.
'Three wise whippets' were used to deliver the gift of gold, frankincense and myrrh
The clip, which took 'hours' to put together, also includes one pup wrapped in tinsel for his role as the Star of Bethlehem (right) and a 'shepherd' with a cuddly toy posing as a sheep (left)
'It was certainly a little chaotic when filming with so many unpredictable characters, but it worked out really well.
Three Whippets made perfect wise men and a pug cross played the starring role.
Reverend Castle added: 'Our biggest challenge was the editing and one of our members Sean is the one to thank for that.
'The film spent a few weeks in production and he put it together seamlessly, which was hard work when the dogs would only 'act' for a few seconds at a time.
Reverend Rory Castle and his faithful congregation came up with the canine cast idea as a way to bring festive smiles to their local community. Pictured: The dogs cast of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus
Reverend Castle, 34, added: 'One we got into it, we were having discussions such as, "Which dog looks most like a baby Jesus? Which breed of dog would be the best shepherd," which are odd conversations to have'
'He even added the special effects, which make it all the more fun.'
Many of the cast are rescue dogs and the chapel also runs a dog walking group, the Gellionnen Mountain Mutts.
Reverend Castle added: 'Our main aim was just to make people smile.
'After the past 18 months, we need that fuzzy Christmas feeling, everyone is understandably worried about Covid and the looming restrictions and this time of year is hard for many people so we just wanted to make people laugh and smile.
'The response has been wonderful, we are quite overwhelmed by the kind messages and we wish everyone a Merry Christmas.'
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