Adult Christmas

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.

56 pages

4 m, 3 w 3 girls, doubling possible.

Three related one-acts are woven together with scenes in a radio booth. George and Mary Williams are $14-million lottery winners. They host "Radio Riches," a local broadcast, where they receive calls and letters from people seeking money, and share stories about the people they help. The first one-act, "How Can They Call It a Fixed Income When We're Always Broke?" is about a retired man who hesitates taking a check from the Williamses, much to the wife's chagrin. In "Bus Stop Baptism," the homeless Preachin' Pearl discovers George's motives to help the poor a...

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...

56 pages

6 m, 5 w, 1 extra, 1 boy, 1 girl

Grandpa, along with Luke, Ellen, and their two teens, fly to Texas to celebrate Christmas with the rest of the family. Grandpa's other son is a real down-home cowboy, and, unbeknownst to everyone else, has recently gotten married. His new wife, a former New Yorker and Jewish, is a recent convert to Christianity. She very likeable, but the family can't understand half the words she's saying! Even more puzzling is her teenage son, who misses the big city, resists speaking to anyone, and is on a "religious break." Family confusion rises to new heights when Grand...

10 pages

by Charlee Cardon Wilson.

19 pages

2 m, 2 w

Perhaps the most perfect Christmas parable ever written is O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi." In this one-act play version is the timeless story of Della and Jim, a struggling young couple who seek to give the other the ideal Christmas gift. They barter their most valued possessions to purchase each other's gifts: Della's beautiful long hair for a watch fob and chain, Jim's watch for a tortoise shell comb set for Della. While the physical gifts prove useless, their love is enriched beyond measure. About 35 minutes. 

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.

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...

20 pages

2-3 adults, 7 children

It’s Christmas Eve in the 1770s, and a father is depressed he cannot afford to buy his eight motherless children any gifts. Suddenly he thinks of a present that won’t break or wear out, one they can all enjoy together. He sings a beautiful round about the Savior’s birth and the children quickly join in. An old sea captain living upstairs offers them money for peace and quiet. But without singing, the family’s mood becomes somber once again. Father tells the oldest child to return the moneythe family is going to sing! Ultimately, the old captain still gives th...

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 ...

12 pages

1 m, 1 w, extras, non speaking.

Here's an unusual and touching candelight service. Guardian angels Gabriel and Agnes are confused when they hear God is sending the Prince of Peace to earth as a baby. A baby?! No army, no muscle, no clout? Then the Child will certainly need the best home and education to succeed. As they argue over the details, they realize He has already been born. The two angels then help the only way they can. From one stable candle they start lighting candles of the congregation to "light the waiting hearts of all those who stand in the dark." Performance time: About 20 ...

8 pages

1 m, 2 flexible parts.

Hiriam, the innkeeper from Bethlehem, interrupts the modern day speaker's sermon. Hiriam has been desperately seeking the couple he turned away some 2,000 years ago to now make amends to them. The modern day speaker and assistant are amazed then outraged at his story. But their piousness fades as they see how Hiriam is truly seeking the Christ child. They tell what happened to that newborn Babe and explain that He is still alive and the only way to keep Him is to share Him. Then they do so by shaking hands with everyone. This program will make even visitors a...