Christmas Play
Interviews with the Author
What about Holy Stable
Restore the joy of the season! Mary and Joseph’s devotion to God and tenderness for each other will bring you to experience the story of Baby Jesus’ birth as never before. As Joseph searches for comforting words to offer Mary, he is attended by angel children who sing along. Discover how sharing the gift of Jesus’ love blesses relationships, as you enjoy the magic of children’s narration, original music and song.
Create cherished traditions . . .You may cozy up and read together or listen while on the run. This exclusive illustrated story and music is an anywhere, anytime reminder of the true spirit of Christmas that won’t be forgotten. It’s also the perfect reminder of love, for anyone separated from festivities by distance or circumstance.
Host your own Nativity Play—No instruments needed . . .We’ve made it easier than ever to bring about inspired memories. The play adapts for a few participants or a larger group and for use with or without your own vocal talent. Harp, wooden flute and violin instrumentals come with and without vocals and narration and are coordinated with the innovative script, including tips, which we’re offering to you as a downloadable bonus gift here at www.holystable.com.
Packaged with our illustrated (softcover) gift book and CD you will receive our complimentary distinctive copper mailing envelope to ensure that your holiday gift giving is meaningful and trouble-free.
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As a complementary gift, we offer you a download of the entire script of the play, for free. Please visit our download page
Christmas Play Memories
What are your memories of Christmas plays? Some of my favorite experiences have been in watching the excitement children (and even some adults) show, in putting on their costumes. Even adults love the chance to get out of the daily routine and dress up to act the part of a character that has made an important impression in their life. Often they’ll take on a whole new personality and make even the more serious parts entertaining, special and fun.
That’s exactly what happened last Christmas, when I was asked for the second year in a row to pull together a Christmas play for the local church and neighborhood get together. I didn’t have a lot of time but eagerly accepted the invitation because there’s nothing more meaningful than the story of Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Yet, I needed to make it simple and flexible.
I had directed the Christmas Nativity play the year before, but this time was going to be different, because we wanted to do it entirely with a cast kids and the year before we had all ages participating.
Though I was already familiar with the children, I was amazed to see how well they caught on at the first rehearsal, even improvising and offering suggestions. I followed my best judgment and aimed again, for keeping the play to a set time of preferably less than 12 minutes. That’s about right for cast of children and adults acting or watching and allows time for a nice dinner, other entertainment and games.
To make it very easy to pull together in a little over a week’s time, I asked each child to come in costume for whatever part in the cast they wished to play. This gave them the option of being Mary, Joseph, Angels, Shepherds, Wise Men or Stable Animals and made it simple for the parents and for me. I adapted the staging from Celebrate the Miracle, with some simple changes to make things for the cast flexible.
It was very simple to adapt the play script to them. By seeing each of the children in costume, I was able to see what their strengths were and better choose them for the leading parts. The rest of the flexible cast was in a semi-circle and as each one’s turn came to play their specific part, they would rotate out, to act out their part and then rotate back into the semi-circle. This worked out to be a phenomenal success!
Since there also wasn’t a lot of time to prepare the interior set, we needed to get creative there as well. A neighbor offered to make an unfinished wooden arch from an old piece of plywood, for the simple exterior set of the inn. But, there wasn’t time to paint it. I decided to use a bolt of fabric and drape it over the arch in a swag design. I left the fabric right on the bolt and propped it up on the back side of the arch, instead of cutting it to length. (It can now be recycled for a costume or some other use, later on.) Turning the fabric right side out, brought the ancient feel to it. That’s one of my favorite tricks.
There was an unusual grassy wreath my sister had handed down to me that made the perfect addition, to top the fabric swag. This made an attractive and Israelish entrance to the inn.
The Christmas Play interior set of the inn was created with a simple pallet on the stage, covered with an older Oriental rug. We added a few other accessories and the effect of that simple interior set was charming. Begin thinking now about your upcoming Christmas plays. Christmas is just around the corner and there’s nothing better for lifting spirits at Christmastime. Now’s a great time to go fabric and costume shopping for Christmas Plays.
Christmas Play Feedback
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