Christmas

38 pages

3 m, 2 w, 1 teen girl, 10-19+ children

With the holiday season approaching, Pastor Jack Taylor finds himself overcommitted, unable to take his own advice about not doing so much this year. When parishioner Beulah takes the pastor’s sermon of slowing down to heart and quits the children’s Christmas pageant, Pastor Taylor jumps on the opportunity to let Pam, an inexperienced teen who loves TV crime shows, be in charge. The Pastor doesn’t have the time to supervise her, so she and the kids create a new Christmas pageant called “Bethlehem CSI.” Now the long-loved Nativity scene is a crime scene! Pam t...

47 pages

6 m, 4 w, 2 teen girls.

If putting on the church's Christmas play isn't hectic enough under normal circumstances, Randy Rogers has the added problem of whether to use two new members. Fred and Royce Fink are ready to act, but they are so comical and bumbling, the other church members don't want them anywhere around, much less with major roles! Even Randy starts to doubt his decision of including them when he sees what a disaster the play is turning into. But when the Royce brothers accept Christ, they step into their greatest roles - that of showing us the joys of acceptance and for...

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...

42 pages

6 m, 6 w, 2 girls, 3 flexible

Here is a touching comedy, a modern-day spin on the story of the Prodigal Son. After years of being over-shadowed by her pretty and over-confident older sister, Peri leaves home, taking the money from her college savings. Like the story from the New Testament, Peri, once quiet and hard-working, lives a life of excess, but finally realizes she wants to return to her family. A homeless man, who has more connection to the family than anyone initially realizes, urges Peri to call home. But will it be the same old story, or will the Stewarts have learned something...

28 pages

3 m, 4 w.

Kyle is bringing home his fiancee, Katie, a very religious young woman, over Christmas and the Murphys dread it. Talk about a damper on the holidays. Grandma won't even be able to eat her rum balls in peace! When Kyle and Katie start talking about the rapture, the adults exit fast. Soon the young couple take the other children outside to see the snow. At that moment an unexpected power outage hits and in the dark, empty house, the Murphys think the rapture may have actually happened!  Performance time: 30 minutes.

24 pages

6 m, 4 w.

The Murphys are back in another heartwarming, spiritual comedy. (Meet them in "A Christmas Rapture".) This year they get a lot more than they bargained for when they adopt a nursing home patient for the Christmas holidays. What was hoped to be an opportunity to minister turns into a trial of their faith when Gus Swanson (better known as Grumpy Gus) arrives. Bitter and hardened from a past hurt, Gus makes life miserable for anyone around him. But the faith of teenage Denita Murphy and an unexpected reunion between Gus and a young evangelist, show us the healin...

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.

36 pages

7 m, 6 w, 2 girls.

Chuck Overton is finally home for Christmas, but his welcome is far from reminiscent of the prodigal son. Because of Chuck's involvement in a robbery years earlier, his father, Aubrey, has shut him out and refuses even to talk to him. Seemingly nothing can pierce Aubrey's hardened heart until Chuck's young daughter, delivering letters from the past, intervenes. Her middle name is Rose, after her late-grandmother. When Aubrey thinks how his late wife Rose would have handled Chuck, he finally realizes the importance of forgiveness and its relationship to Christ...

28 pages

2 m, 3 w, 2 flexible.

It is the day of Eleanor's annual church Christmas dinner for the poor and she has brought along her new boyfriend, Leo, to meet her grown granddaughter, Jane, for the first time. Jane has also brought along her new boyfriend, Bobby, to meet her grandmother. Unfortunately, they are so busy serving the dinner that the two couples do not get the chance for formal introductions. Through a series of misunderstandings, each person thinks the other is someone else entirely. Eleanor thinks Bobby is one of the homeless people while Bobby thinks Eleanor is a confused ...

19 pages

10 speaking parts, plus a large flexible cast.

Want a wonderful children's Christmas musical, but don't want to invest heavy rehearsal time during the already overloaded Christmas season? Here's your answer! This musical features four main speaking roles which provide the humorous framework for a showcase of familiar Christmas carols to be sung by the children of your church. Come along as Billy tries to find the Christmas spirit and Max works hard at putting together his version of a really big show. Enjoy the "Old Testament Rap," the comical parade of animals heading for Noah's Ark, and Billy's revelati...

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...

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...