Christmas

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 ...

52 pages

9 boys, 8 girls, 1-5 flexible, many extras, choir

Christmas is a time for singing, and this children's musical features festive folk music for a lively portrayal of the birth of Baby Jesus. Eight original songs including a warm welcoming song, "Shalom!" and a song with claps, "The Angels' Song," keep the action moving and the children totally involved. Some other songs include "May's Song," and "I Know His Name." There are also opportunities to add a favorite carol or two, if desired. The costumes, props and staging are simple, the narratives short enough for easy memorization, and the music arranged for the...

20 pages

3 m, 3 w.

What do you say when you see an angel? How do you say thank you when the child you've longed for is finally born? How do you let go of your daughter to her new husband and expected child? What are your first words to the tiny, newborn Son of God? Through Christ's birth, God entered and shared our humanity. In this monologue collection, Elizabeth, Zacharias, Mary, Mary's mother, Joseph and a shepherd tell their stories. They are stories of worship and stories of wonder at a God who would want to be such an intimate part of our lives. Each monologue tells its o...

17 pages

5 m, 4 w, 2 flex, doubling possible.

Strangers meet at an inn in Bethlehem after the birth of Jesus. They all had things they wished to give Him but one by one, they gave their gifts to needy people. Finally, as a group, they decide to go to the stable and seek out the baby with the one thing they have left to give - their love. A symbolic story which shows that we are all strangers, in a way, until we meet through the person of Jesus Christ. An optional nativitiy scene creates a beautiful ending. Performance time: 25 minutes.

45 pages

5 m, 5 w, 1 flexible, 2 boys, 1 girl, extras, choir

Imagine the Christmas story written, directed and performed by teenagers! Follow the antics of CJ, the author of this wild and crazy nativity scene, along with Amos and Jordy, two idiotic stagehands, as they try to retell the story of the nativity from a "teenager's point of view." After watching a rehearsal and weathering an emotional explosion from a stuffy lady of the congregation, the Pastor reminds CJ and the rest of the teens that, although it is okay to have fun in the Christmas program, there is still a holiness about the entire event that should neve...

18 pages

9 m, 2 w, 3 flexible (some doubling possible).

In this hilarious comedy Ben Filbert is a successful businessman who has all that money can buy, except one thing: a new heart. This Christmas Eve the modern-day Scrooge revels in belittling his employees and brusquely refuses an employee's invitation to attend a church service. Ben's guardian angel, who has found him to be a tough charge over the years, allows him to be mugged. After escaping from his robbers, Ben finds himself in a strange neighborhood, without any money, and he seeks refuge in the very church he refused to visit earlier. After being welcom...

28 pages

6 m, 7 w, 1 g, 10 children, extras, doubling.

Dave Moore is home for the holidays having given up a successful army career for a "new line of work." His progressive parents wonder what fabulous paying job this might be. When David explains he is going to be a minister, they are deflated momentarily. David tells about his change in a dramatic story of life and death, and a new life which ended forever his Christmases without Christ. Performance time: 45 minutes.

15 pages

6 m, 3 w, plus choir of angels.

How Far Is It To Bethlehem? That question is asked from four different perspectives including Joseph and Mary, the wise men, the angels, and the shepherds. This play is simple to produce because each short scene except the last, a traditional nativity scene, can be rehearsed independently. Little or no scenery or lighting is required. Song suggestions are included. Performance time: 45 minutes.

52 pages

5 m, 8 w, 1 flexible, 4 teen girls, 1 boy

Volunteers from several local churches have opened a mission kitchen, but they soon discover it’s not just the hungry and homeless who need help this Christmas. Claire, one of the mission organizers, is shocked to see her long-estranged sister Jackie coming to the kitchen with her two children. Another worker, Mavis, admits her difficult past to Marvin, a homeless man who is afraid to get back in touch with his family. Plenty of humor is added by Jolee, a naïve, over-eager volunteer, and Albert, a college student overwhelmed by the attention from Wynetta and ...

36 pages

6 m, 4 w, 1 child

Three days before Christmas, a snowstorm has closed the airport and stranded travelers on their way home for the holidays. Behind each face is a story: the young man returning to make amends for a past left behind 15 years earlier; the young woman who feels she's a failure, running home to Daddy after her marriage falls apart; and the man who's too proud to admit he was wrong and restore a severed relationship with his brother. Also there's the young wife who's more comfortable spending Christmas in an airport with strangers than at home without her husband a...

38 pages

2 m, 3 w, 1 boy.

Lyne and Gary Ambrose don't have the Christmas spirit yet, and may not get it at all this year! Their somewhat spoiled daughter and pampered son-in-law are living with them while he's out of work, and it's a little tense around the house, to say the least. On top of it all, Lyne and Gary agreed to take in a foster child for the holidays, against the advice of their daughter, and the child happens to be the same one who stole Lyne's purse at the mall! Real characters with real problems make this play an affirmation of faith as it reminds us that God does not s...

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...

54 pages

6 m, 8 w, 4 children, extras. Doubling possible.

Here’s a wonderful comedy that’s sure to charm audiences of all ages. When pre-teen brats Jimmy Pate and his cousin Brianne don’t get the gifts they think they deserve, they pray to God and ask for no more Christmas. The next year as the holiday fails to materialize, the two kids are the only ones who notice, in hilarious and heart-wrenching ways, that it’s missing. The store owner doesn’t have a clue about Christmas displays, the cable company operator never heard of Christmas movies, and even Jimmy’s older sister thinks the only holiday in December is New Y...

14 pages

3 m, 4 w.

A group of modern teenagers discuss how disenchanted they are with Christmas. By a miracle, the television becomes a time machine. Mary appears and tells them what it was like to be a young, frightened girl visited by an angel and finding herself pregnant in an era when that was punishable by death. The kids are amazed to realize that teens were involved in the first Christmas.

30 pages

2 m, 5 w, 3 children.

Grandma likes to follow tradition at Christmas and that means having the whole family over at her house for presents, turkey, and carols around her organ. So when unexpected visitors become stranded at her home and the organ won't play a note, Grandma thinks the holiday is ruined. But the Christ Child brought the first Christmas to all of us, and on this night, three other young children bring it back to Grandma's. Performance time: 30 minutes.