Adult Christmas

24 pages

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

Overworked and over-committed, Jim and Mary McIntyre are frazzled! Their three kids are acting up and they've got a thousand and one things to do at the church for Christmas. Instead of feeling the joy of the season, they're feeling resentment. Enter Mason Angel, a stranger whose car broke down at just the right time and just the right place. Taken in by the kind family, Mason shows them the perfect peace they all seek. He reminds them that serving the church is not the same as serving Christ, the Savior, who died for us. By following their individual calling...

58 pages

6 m, 6 w, 1 flexible

What would you do if you lost your job, lost your home, and were on the verge of filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy… yet everyone in your family was already planning to spend Christmas with you? If you’re Melvin Maldaput, you call upon your real estate buddy to lend you a million-dollar home for the holidays. Melvin and his wife Miranda end up telling a string of lies to keep the ruse going. The last thing Melvin wants is his parents or in-laws to discover that he is a failure. Melvin’s rich hillbilly neighbors, Prudy and Pruitt, even pretend to be his servants. But...

36 pages

4 m, 5 w, 1 flex, extras

Since they were knee high, Dill Mickle and Phil Slaw, now brothers-in-law, have dreamed of being the grand marshals of Crabshore, Maryland’s Christmas Crabtacular. The honor of grand marshal only goes to the fisherman who catches the biggest crab. Gladys Leech has won for the past twenty years! But Phil is trying something different this year, a new tactic. He is going to use faith as bait. (Just like the catch Jesus netted on the Sea of Galilee!) Dill has doubts, but Phil ends up catching a crab of ridiculous measure. They end up beating all the odds to beco...

35 pages

Large, flexible cast.

From the original story by Leo Tolstoy. Christmas Eve has come, but the old Russian shoemaker, Papa Panovich, is sad and alone. When he begins to read the story of the very first Christmas, the treasured words take on new life as he imagines and interacts with the words of Scripture. Then Papa Panovich believes he hears Jesus speaking to him, telling him that He will visit him tomorrow. All the next day while looking longingly for Jesus, Papa Panovich stops to help so many - providing a warm drink for Ivan, the old street sweeper; encouraging a struggling wid...

44 pages

3 m, 4 w, 2 flexible, 3 girls, 2 boys

Delmas, a father of three daughters and several grandchildren, is fighting a losing battle to cancer. This comes only one year after his wife passed away. Delmas also grieves over an estranged brother with whom he wants to reconcile before it is too late. Two of Delmas’s daughters are dealing with their own problems, with the third daughter caught in the middle. The sisters, with emotions on edge, begin to argue over inheritances and cause added pain to an already difficult situation. Four grandchildren struggle with losing someone they love so much, and how ...

56 pages

3 m, 7 w, 5 teenage girls, 2 teenage boys.

Jacob and Marie Carlson have been married for 17 years, and all that time, Jacob's father, Melvin, and Marie's mother, Antoinette, have hated each other. Disastrous holidays have been avoided by alternating their parents' invitations to special occasions. But this Christmas, Antoinette changes her mind and surprises the family by arriving after Melvin has already settled in! Their little jabs at each other soon escalate when Antoinette hides Melvin's false teeth and he retaliates by hiding her wig. The tension and hilarity rise even more when the extra outdoo...

52 pages

9 m, 6 w

Just one year ago, Doc Nash’s Free Health Clinic was facing closure. With a visit from the Undercover Boss, Lou Grant from the Matthew Chapter 25 Foundation approved a grant, thus saving the Clinic. But town councilwoman Beatrice Chandler now wants the Free Clinic closed. Her son will be opening a new medical practice and she doesn’t want any competition. She pays a visit to Doc, hoping to buy him out. When Doc refuses, Mrs. Chandler storms away in anger as she is accustomed to getting what she wants. Then, the unthinkable happens – a fire! It destroys much o...

55 pages

4 m, 5 w, 2 flexible, 1 girl and extras

No one loves Christmas more than Chrysanthemum Parker. As she and her grandma Gertie are discussing plans for a possible Christmas celebration show, Sheriff Gideon Gumption arrives to say that escaped convict Jedediah Thornside is on the loose. Jedediah actually is in the area with his partner-in-crime, Belinda Burnheart. They’ve concocted a sinister plan to swindle the town away from its current deed holder, the sheriff himself, AND cancel Christmas! Through a series of blunders, Sheriff Gumption falls for their scheme and the town now belongs to the villain...

74 pages

5 m, 6 w, 6 boys, 4 girls, extras

It's the 1800s and Emily Ainsley, an idealistic young lady, is trying to provide a home to young orphans. She rents space from a greedy businessman, Aloysius Penningham, but gets behind in the payments. He proposes marriage to her (so that he can manage her inheritance which she receives after marrying) or threatens eviction if she refuses. While other well-meaning folk attempt to help Emily, Penningham is visited by Harrold, an angel in the guise of a gentleman. A ragtag band of pickpockets creates havoc and humor as Penningham must confront the consequences...

40 pages

Very fluid cast. Minimum: 7 m, 5 w.

“The Gift of the Magi” is probably one of the most beloved stories for Christmas. It, along with two other tender stories by O. Henry, “The Last Leaf” and the lesser known “Christmas by Injunction,” are dramatized here, set in the framework of O. Henry’s life which in itself is a story. In the early 1900s he was one of the most widely read authors in America. O. Henry, whose real name was William Sydney Porter, was known, however, to have spent some time in jail for allegedly embezzling from an employer, and it is believed that he started writing there in ord...

35 pages

2 m, 2 w, 1 flexible, 1 child, extra voices

Rev. Cordell opens the play as he recalls a Christmas some 20 years earlier when he was trapped with a handful of other strangers by a blizzard in a small Oklahoma diner. He wasn't a pastor then, but a young man full of questions. Seamlessly, we join the group: the owner of the diner who is set in her ways, a middle-aged man with a secret past, an edgy newspaper reporter from out of town, and a young mother completely on her own with a small child who does not speak. No one in the lonesome diner is quite sure of the real meaning of life or where theirs should...

26 pages

1 m, 3 w, 1 flexible, 1 boy, extras

Goldie, Frank, and Myrna, three counselors at an emotional helpline, have devised a way to have Christmas Eve off this year. They have engaged Thomas Wellmore, a charming but self-centered Wall Street type, to man the phones. He willingly embraces the opportunity to “balance his karma” and “do something real at Christmas for those less fortunate.” As the evening wears on and no one calls, he becomes increasingly irritated and his true character is revealed. Then, at the stroke of midnight, a cleaning woman enters with her young son, Christopher. Though the ey...

28 pages

Flexible cast of 23 (Approx. 8 m, 9 w, 2 flexible, 4 children, extras)

The church's Christmas play rehearsal is a disaster. The actors haven't had time to learn their lines and they're tripping and falling over each other. During a much needed break, Wendy, a busy lady playing Mary, complains to the new janitor, an old man, that she feels in all the holiday hustle and bustle she has lost God. He urges Wendy to pray. She does, and with a renewed sense of hope and vigor, calls the rest of the cast back on stage. But a mishap occurs and the janitor is knocked down. As he rises, we see the nail-hole scars in the palms of his hands. ...

26 pages

4 m, 5 w, 1 child.

Merry Lane is a nursing facility the Brittenham brothers call home. Rufus, the oldest brother, is a grouch who dislikes Christmas time. Edgar, the middle brother, is a kindhearted, soft-spoken man, the peacemaker, and Percy, the youngest brother, is scatterbrained, but has a heart of gold. Despite Rufus' many objections, Percy shares story after story about their childhood. And if that isn't enough to drive Rufus crazy, the members of the Ladies Auxiliary stop in to sing Christmas carols and the young kids visit and "adopt" a grandparent. One little girl touc...

40 pages

10 m, 6 w, 11 flexible, 3 children, extras, doubling possible

Sam Nazareth is a bumbling, down-on-his-luck private eye who will be out on the streets if he doesn’t get a case soon. Enter Delilah, a mysterious young woman whose boss wants to know why a certain bright star has suddenly appeared in the sky and where it leads. In this film noir-style tale with plenty of humor Sam (including his inner voice) and friends agree to help Delilah solve the mystery. Following that bright star, they take the audience on a journey across the desert to Bethlehem where we meet two silly shepherds, a no-nonsense census taker, and an in...