Adult Christmas

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.

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.

50 pages

5 m, 9 w, 2 boys, 1 girl, extras

It's frantic in the Albert home. Mom is trying to direct a Christmas pageant that no one wants to be in. Dad, an obstetrician, is hoping he doesn't have to deliver any babies the night of the pageant so that he can attend. David, 12, is trying to avoid Victoria Monroe, the meanest girl in town, who insists she play Mary to his Joseph so that they can hold hands. Molly, 15, is worried and guilty when her dreaded math teacher, Miss Morris, informs her mom just how far Molly and her friends have begun harassing the new girl, Darlene. But some special Christmas m...

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...

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.

28 pages

Flexible Cast and staging

As "The Reluctant Shepherd," ten-year-old Toby invents numerous excuses to keep from participating in the live nativity at his church. Later, standing on the cold hillside under the sparkling stars, Toby and the other shepherds bring the true meaning of Christmas to life for passing motorists.

A well used crèche helps bring calm to the chaos as two exuberant children decorate for Christmas without adult supervision. The nativity figures, though scratched and broken, can be used, "One ...

17 pages

5 m, 7 w, extras.

Here's the story of a woman of Bethlehem so caught up in the activities of the day that she missed the very first Christmas. It is also the story of some of the people of our own time who almost miss Christmas for the same reason. A closing nativity scene blends both contemporary and Biblical characters to give a meaningful message. Ten carols add to the beauty of this program. Performance time: 50 minutes. 

21 pages

6 m (with doubling), 3 w, 1 adult flexible, 1 boy, 2 girls.

See the Nativity through the eyes of a family in the second century, "new" Christian believers in awe of the recent miraculous events. Jacob, a middle-aged shepherd, visits the home of Gaspar and Vashem and their children. The children demand Jacob tell the story of his grandfather, one of the shepherds who was visited by the angels announcing the birth of Baby Jesus. Vashem then tells the next story, that of the innkeeper. Finally Gaspar relates the story of his grandfather Melchoir, one of the wise men, and how he asked for a small strip of Jesus' blanket. ...

20 pages

5 m, 5 w, 1 boy, 1 girl, extra teens as youth group.

Elizabeth, pregnant with her third child, blames God for the recent car accident which killed her husband, Mark, a young minister. Distraught and grief-stricken, Elizabeth even contemplates giving up the baby for adoption. Her parents, strong Christians, reach out, but nothing helps until their pastor brings a special young woman to visit. The last person to see Mark alive, she tells about the healing comfort he gave her and her husband in the hospital on the death of their infant. The faith of those around her gives Elizabeth the courage to go on. "Unto us a...

12 pages

2 speaking parts.

A minister, alone in the sanctuary, wants something different for Christmas Eve service, something with a real emotional kick, perhaps a famous person. Then the Voice from above speaks. For every glitzy idea the minister has, the Voice counters it. Finally by recounting Jesus' birth, the Voice seems to get through to the minister. The simple nativity story is best. The minister pulls out a tape recorder proclaiming, "But I do have a celebrity!" The tape, however, has only one voice - his own. The minister realizes the old, old story of Love's greatest gift gi...

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...