Adult Christmas

20 pages

6 m, 8 w, 1 flexible part. (Also 3 boys, one line each.)

Gina and Steven Hart are ready to take their newborn son home from the hospital Christmas Eve when a man they think is an orderly takes the infant from their arms. Soon they, and the doctors, nurses, minister, and others realize the baby has been kidnapped. As a search swings into force, the distraught, exhausted couple envision the Holy Spirit. In two dramatic inset scenes, the Holy Spirit shows that when parents ask, "Why my child?" as Mary must have questioned the future of baby Jesus, God always has answers. A beautiful ending reaffirms the blessings of t...

40 pages

4 m, 5 to 7 w, 1 girl, 1 boy non speaking.

It's Christmas Eve, (1960s) and Jake Johnson can muster only an uninspired, "Yeah, whatever," due to the stress of keeping his small, private hospital financially sound. In fact, he's just issued a new policy refusing to help anyone without health insurance, forcing patients to travel to the county hospital miles away. And there's no relief at home either as an elaborate family dinner has been planned which includes the Johnsons' estranged son Reese, and their daughter and her fiancé, whom Jake believes will be just another smart-alecky seminarian. Ill-will s...

37 pages

1 m, 3 teen girls, 3 teen boys.

Megan, too young to have a job, secretly applies for a position as a waitress in order to buy her mom the perfect Christmas gift, a ticket to visit Grandma. Of course she has to make a few innocent "white lies" on the application to get the job. A co-worker, Denon, who has also lied on his job application, doesn't think his "white lies" and deception will hurt anyone either so they both cover up their lies with more lies, resulting in whirled truth. Finally, the lies culminate into a small disaster in the restaurant, leaving Megan and Denon expecting to get f...

37 pages

4 m, 4 w, 1 girl.

Have you ever received a gift you didn't really want? A young married couple, Stephen and Pamela, find themselves on the receiving end of a grandfather's will, and the inheritance, should they choose to accept it, is his retarded adult son. Although they are Christians, Stephen and Pamela undergo a critical test of faith and marriage, as they share the Christmas season with this unexpected "presence," Uncle Duncan, plus some friends and family members who complicate their custodial decision and their holiday. Humor and pathos color their unfolding dilemma. Ch...

29 pages

9 flexible parts, approx. 3 m, 5 w, 1 child.

Linda is worried because her recently widowed mother, Susan, is adamant about staying in her Florida condominium rather than coming up north to celebrate the holiday. Linda decides she and her husband and children better see what's wrong, even if it means they won't be celebrating Christmas the "right way" with all the familiar traditions. And non-traditional it is! Instead of warm fires and sled rides the kids are sunbathing and riding jet skis. But when Linda objects because her mother may miss Christmas Eve services, she finds the real and generous reason ...

32 pages

3 m, 1 w.

Three wounded Confederate soldiers are confined to a makeshift field hospital and cared for by Liddy, a black woman. As the men's differing personalities begin to clash, they gradually uncover a dark, common past which has shaped their present, and threatens to destroy their future. They become embroiled in their own personal "civil war," and each struggles with his own form of slavery. Liddy, assumed to be a slave, offers the only key to freedom for them all: the self-denial and humility of the first Christmas. This uniquely American drama is beautiful and p...

27 pages

3 m, 2 w, 1 girl, carolers if desired.

The family is trying to ready the barn for the annual nativity scene, but no one feels much like celebrating since Brenda has just suffered a miscarriage. Eleven-year-old Anna Bell is taking it the hardest, especially since her favorite cat, Glory Excelsis, has been missing for days, too. But Sarah, a wise mother, comforts the family when she makes them realize that God must have known sadness when He sent His only Son to earth. That's why Christmas should be celebrated, to thank Him for His great gift. A warm and wonderful story with optional nativity ending...

37 pages

4 m, 3 w, 4 flexible parts.

Dylan and Tyler Shepherd, brothers whose arguing finally stopped when they were brought together one Christmas (see "The Shepherds Who Gather"), are back in this sequel. It's five years later and now they are working together on a Christian TV show. Unfortunately, the station has a new owner, Tabitha Rafferty, to whom ratings are more important than people or their priorities. She has little sympathy for Dylan whose wife has recently died, leaving him to raise their young son alone. But Christmas is a time of giving. Some unusual "gifts" given by some unlikel...

27 pages

4 m, 10 w, extras.

Angel Charles Persindon has a month on earth to find out what is the "Christmas Spirit." He visits many places, but seemingly hasn't come up with the right answer. With only twenty-four hours to go, he happens onto the Cavindish Orphanage. The antics of two girls, Tiger and Lizzie, coupled with the visit of Mrs. Cavindish, almost ends up in a veritable explosion. Through Charley, the haughty Mrs. Cavindish and the girls are taught a lesson. Performance time: 30 minutes.

18 pages

Flexible cast

Here is an impressive, 45-minute, candle-lighting service for the congregation. The program can be presented with minimum time for rehearsals for there is little memory work needed. Most portions may be read. It's a new and different presentation to interest those who have become bored with the same message heard in the same way.

15 pages

1 w, 7 flex.

A federal court has ordered that a traditional Christmas cross on top of the fire station not be lighted this year. At a town meeting numerous people voice their opinions, including an ACLU attorney, a born-again Christian, and the free-thinker who brought the suit against the city in the first place. Into this melee walks a pregnant, illegal refugee who needs help. A fascinating play which shows that being a Christian takes more than putting up a Christmas cross.  Performance time: 25 minutes.

19 pages

8 m, 8 w.

Here is a play which shows that the Christmas story is really a story of people on a journey. Mary and Joseph and the wise men travelled long, difficult distances physically, but more important are their personal journeys. They, along with the shepherds of the field and even a messenger in King Herod's court, face danger, consuming doubt, and sometimes frightening emptiness. For some of them it's a journey into the unknown. Yet each one finds - and follows - a path to the King of Eternity. Their journeys beckon us to follow. Performance time: About 25 minutes...

25 pages

3 m, 4 w.

Janie wants a real old-fashioned Christmas, one that brings back the spirit of the old days, but her boyfriend is too busy working at the mission to help her. As hard as she tries, everything goes wrong - the popcorn balls are too sticky, the homemade candles collapse, and the live Christmas tree falls over. Janie thinks Christmas is ruined, but it's only the display that's failed. With the help of her family and boyfriend, Janie rediscovers that the Christmas spirit is in each of us, giving and sharing all year long. Performance time: 30 minutes.

0 pages

flexible cast

These five different Christmas pageants put the Gospel of Jesus firmly at the center of spiritual dramas that grapple with the events and basic needs of everyday life. Each hour-long program represents an entire service, including a responsive reading, a place for a message from the pastor and an offering, all interspersed with suggested songs that can be sung by a choir, a group of children, or the congregation as a whole. Each script offers active speaking and non-speaking roles for 40 to 50 participants. These pageants present an ideal opportunity for wors...

9 pages

5 m, 10 w.

What is the Christmas miracle? The Angry Man feels the only miracle is that we are still alive. The Tired Woman feels the miracle is that we still bother with the holiday. The Greedy Boy believes the miracle is getting anything you want. The Sad Woman has stopped believing in the miracle. The Girl-in-White enters and the characters find a different miracle of Christmas, they light their candles and stand beside her. Is the miracle friendship, laughter, giving, or hope? The most important miracle is love from which all the candles are lit. A beautiful pageant ...

19 pages

8 m, 6 w, narrator.

In Part I a modern wife, serene in her happiness, scoffs lightly as her old-fashioned mother tells the children the Biblical story of Christmas, acted out in pantomime with a narrator in Part II. In Part III the modern wife finds, in near tragedy, that the scarlet ribbon of Christmas, which runs through the Bible, still binds the past and the future together in faith and hope. A presentation that offers easy rehearsal scheduling, and yet highlights the Christmas spirit. Performance time: 90 minutes.

43 pages

2 m, 3 w, 1 teenage girl, 1 boy, extras.

Hollister Day wants to spend the day before Christmas at home with his beloved wife, Mamie, but she insists they help their friend, Octavia, who is weak and bitter from surgery. And help they do - first with Octavia's divorcing daughter and son-in-law, and then with a teenage neighbor who is facing an unplanned pregnancy alone. Holly asks a battered angel doll to help. Through prayer, peace and goodwill is spread and somehow, the battered angel is beautiful again. A unique nativity scene, with children portraying the shepherds spreading the good news of Jesus...

43 pages

3 m, 4 w, 1 boy, 2 girls, extras.

Hollister Day is trying to get home to his beloved wife, Mamie, in time for the Christmas church service, but his detour to a small motel may be heaven sent. He's needed to unite a regretful grandmother with her lonely grandchild and bitter daughter-in-law to show a young couple the sacredness of marriage and remind a feuding older couple that true love never really dies. Marriage, divorce, the rights of children and grandparents - everyone will identify with these problems which are faced with faith and humor. Performance time: About 70 minutes. 

17 pages

1 m, 2 w, 5 flexible, 6 boys, 2 girls, extras.

The church children are practicing for the Christmas program when Katie asks Pastor Steve if they are going to do the program just once at the church. Katie wants her grandmother, who lives at Green Hills Convalescent Center, to see it. Pastor Steve hurriedly arranges for the play to be performed at the center, but Katie is upset when she learns her grandmother won't attend because she hates Christmas. A heartwarming ending to this Christmas drama shows us Christ's love. Performance time: About 50 minutes with suggested songs.

25 pages

4 m, 4 w, extras.

It is a very much depressed Wallis family on Christmas eve that meets to discuss their problems. They hardly have enough money for wood for the fire, Emma may lose her job, Carol's boyfriend is hurt and may die, and brother Joe is in prison. They are all waiting for Judge Davis to bring over a tin box their grandfather left them which, according to his will, cannot be opened until tonight. They hope it is filled with money. As they wait, a stranger enters seeking warmth and they receive him as a friend. When the box is opened and found empty, they discover th...

38 pages

With doubling: 7 m, 3 w. Extras as desired.

The extreme peril and the boundless love surrounding Jesus' birth is beautifully dramatized here. Lucius, an ex-Roman soldier still vibrant although somewhat crippled, has escorted Mary and Joseph on the long trip to Bethlehem to register for the tax. In return Joseph will build cabinets for the inn that Lucius owns with his wife Swan. They hide the couple in a small cave used as a barn and soon the older couple thinks of Mary as an adopted daughter. But there's danger everywhere. In a tense scene Lucius uses his wit and friendship with local soldiers to enab...

44 pages

12 m, 4 w.

When Matthew, the future evangelist, visits Melchior to tell him about the life and death of Jesus, he is surprised that the old Wise Man knows about the Messiah already. Melchior tells Matthew about when he was young and troubled, he and his fellow Magi, Caspar and Balthazar, followed the star to an uncertain destination. Braving deserts, snakes, storms, and treacherous rivers, they struggled with more than the elements. Beset by grave self-doubt, Melchoir nearly gave up along the way. In the process, his travels became an inward journey of discovery as well...

35 pages

4 m, 7 w, 3 children.

Charity Magazine has chosen the Stetson family for an "at home Christmas" article. The family is well known: mother Monica is a children's author; Cody a soap opera actor; Brad a high-profile attorney; and Mallory a pediatrician. As the interview nears, however, the family makes a shocking discovery - that both Mallory and Cody are alcoholics. In fact, while the family looks so perfect on the outside, all they feel on the inside is emptiness. It is the reporter, who reminds them of Jesus' love and the critical needs of a children's shelter, who starts the fam...

39 pages

5 m, 4 w, 2 teen b, 3 teen g, 1 g, extras.

Another Christmas Eve at Holly Day's Inn! New customers including two young runaways, one on drugs, as well as old customers including the parents who almost split up last year, are back at the inn. Holly Day's Inn is not a fancy place but as the characters find out, a place filled with love and hope. Performance time: About 70 minutes.

27 pages

4 m, 4 w, 1 child.

This is not a happy Christmas Eve in the Stewart home. While young Cory prepares, unwillingly, to be an angel in the church pageant, the oldest son, J. J., who has just returned from several months in juvenile hall for burglary, struggles to regain the trust of his mother, Maureen, and very angry father, Joe. But when he is accused of shoplifting at the mall, Joe is so angry, he won't even attend church with them to see Cory's performance. A juvenile hall chaplain tells him that sometimes you have to work on faith - that maybe an angel in a dream will convinc...

11 pages

2 m, 2 w, 1 flexible and chorus

Using historical and contemporary voices, "Supplicants: An Advent Drama" broaches thought-provoking Advent themes that are often overlooked during the holiday season. The play's characters, including a Hebrew man circa 10 BCE, a present-day businessman, a physician, a soldier, and a homeless woman, anticipate deliverance from distress even as they despair of present circumstances. The play features non-denominational Christian spiritual issues and is appropriate for family audiences. About 20 minutes.

52 pages

5 m, 5 w, 2 flexible. Doubling possible.

Come on back to a simpler time and visit the folks at Juneberry this Christmas! Things seem peaceful at the courthouse on Christmas Eve, and Sheriff Randy Baylor thinks that is mighty fine. His deputy, Arnie Nife, couldn't disagree more. Arnie is tired of the lack of action happening in the small town. Even locking up Curtis, the town drunk, isn't exactly cheering him up. When a few robberies start getting reported and a couple of carolers go missing while singing for the town, boring Juneberry gets real busy, real fast! Come join the citizens of Juneberry, w...

52 pages

3 m, 4 w, 3 flexible

Just sit right back and you’ll see a tale of a fateful trip, with seven familiar passengers, but with a few new twists! Join Captain Clipper; his first mate Gulligan; the billionaire Houston Powell and his wife; the movie star Scarlett Rooney; the dean; and the sweet farm girl Kari Ann Winters in this parody full of laughs and adventure. The castaways have become stranded on a deserted island with no cars, no lights, not even Facebook! What may be worse than the lack of comforts is the sad fact that the marooned passengers are unable to celebrate Christmas pr...

46 pages

2 m, 5 w, 1 flexible, 1 optional

   Detective Vic Torious is called to Pine Valley Church by their secretary, Barb Dwyer who reports the church’s historic, antique grand piano missing! Key members of the congregation (aka suspects!) arrive at the request of the detective. Was it Barb Dwyer herself, who may or may not be a piano player and perhaps may want to frame someone else? Or maybe it’s the new pastor, Rev. Oliver Sudden. Little is known about him.

   Perhaps it was Frieda Livery, a truck driver who makes deliveries almost daily, or Anne Tickwitty, a...

40 pages

8 m, 8 w, 1 flexible, 1 child.

This is the first Christmas Tim and Lisa have ever spent with both of their families together under one roof. It could be explosive since Tim's upper income family objects to his marriage to Lisa, who comes from a religious farm family. There are plenty of tense and hilarious moments that put the young couple's marriage to the test. Besides the obvious friction between the parents, a nosy neighbor and her henpecked husband are on the lookout for any signs of crime, and eccentric Grandma and Grandpa arrive having just escaped from their nursing home. Then add ...