Lillenas Drama Presents CHRISTMA from The Worship Drama Library Volume 6 By Mike and Colleen Gray Characters: Nine: any combination of men and women, works best with four of one sex and five of the other Eight 4 to 5-year-old children. LIL: a well-behaved girl JON: a happy-go-lucky boy RON: a very loud boy SARAH: an outgoing tomboy type of girl KAREN: a normal little girl who should have gone to the rest room before the program began PAUL: a cynical boy who participates in little of the program and when he does, in a gruff manner; he is being forced to be there VICKI: an extremely shy but polite girl RICH: an outgoing, energetic boy ROGER: an adult Sunday School teacher (who needs to be able to sing) Tone: Humorous Running Time: 10 minutes Synopsis: It s the church s Christmas program and the preschool class is presenting their part of the program. Each has a letter that represents a particular aspect of the Christmas season. However, as four-year-olds can, they forget what their letter is suppose to represent and substitute what they think the letter may stand for which is a secular definition for each letter. To complicate the situation, the child for the final S is late, so the children end up spelling CHRISTMA. After the children exit, the child with the final S arrives, dejected the program is over. A caring teacher allows the last S to share his part, helping to show the true meaning of Christmas. Setting/Props: Setting: The Christmas program. Props: Eight pieces of construction paper, each with a letter spelling out C-H-R-S-T-M-A-S. OPTIONAL INTRODUCTION: ROGER (as a narrator, or add another character to play this part): The Christmas season is very special to us, for we remember the birth of God s Son, who would eventually atone for our sins and bring us back to God the Father. But to many, Christmas means shopping, parties, gifts, and a myriad of other things having
nothing to do with the true meaning of Christmas. Unfortunately, our children are heavily exposed to this. We would like to share a sketch now that moves us forward through time... to a future Christmas. It is a portrayal of what children may actually think Christmas is all about if the world would have its way. (The sketch begins with seven of the children in the rear of the church, coming forward as if in a Christmas pageant processional, singing O Come, All Ye Faithful. Four of the people are singing the song on key. PAUL is not singing at all he doesn t do anything through the whole sketch but stare straight ahead. One person is singing monotone, and one person is singing off-key. Make sure that the people that are singing off-key do not draw too much attention to themselves, just a taste of it for the audience to get the idea. Each child, except for SARAH, is holding a piece of construction paper with his appropriate letter to be used later in the program. They come down the aisle to the front of the stage and line up facing the audience, finishing the song. All of the children are holding their right fist clenched with the thumb sticking up, representing a candle. As they come down the aisle, some of the children can ad lib, pointing out parents, waving at relatives, etc. Onstage, they line up as follows facing the audience: LIL, JON, RON, SARAH, KAREN, PAUL, and VICKI.) LIL (steps forward): Welcome, welcome on this Christmas morn (pauses and thinks) when Jesus Christ our Savior was born. (Smiles and steps back in line) (JON, standing beside her, leans over and whispers in her ear. She quickly steps forward again with a look of fear on her face, realizing she has forgotten an important line.) LIL: Amen. (Steps back in line, smiling) SARAH: Hey, everybody, blow out your candles. (All of the children blow at their thumbs and as they blow, the thumbs fold over, and they place their candles on the floor behind them. All of the children, that is, except for PAUL. VICKI notices PAUL is just standing there with his candle still lit, so she leans over and quietly says) VICKI: You re supposed to blow out your candle. (PAUL looks at his candle, looks over to VICKI, then without taking his eyes off of VICKI, squashes his candle with his left hand, opens his right hand, indicating the candle has dropped on the floor in front of him. VICKI is terrified of this sequence and quietly moves away from PAUL one step. PAUL resumes his nonaction, nonexpressive pose facing the audience.) SARAH: We re supposed to sing Away in the Manger. (All sing Away in the Manger with the gestures four singing on-key PAUL does not sing, one singing monotone and one off-key. VICKI does all of the gestures at least one measure late.)
(Now they pick up their letters: C-H-R-S-T-M-A. The last S is not there. SARAH [letter I ] does not have a letter. KAREN has the S and the T. PAUL does not pick his up, which VICKI notices. She picks his letter up and hands it to him. All of the children try to remember their lines, but finally ad-lib, with what they believe are the right answers. It is important the children believe what they are saying, else the scene will not play properly.) (LIL steps forward.) LIL: C. C is for (pauses, trying to remember), C is for... (pause)... C is for (suddenly gets an idea)... candy canes that hang on the Christmas tree. (Steps back, proudly) (JON steps forward.) JON: H. H is for... H is for... (JON leans forward and listens to an imaginary teacher in the front row who is prompting him.) What? Oh, herald... Harold... my dog. (Steps back proudly and says to LIL) My dog s in the Christmas story! (RON steps forward.) RON (very, very loudly): R. R is for... aah... (RON looks at SARAH, who is sniffling. She has a cold.) Rudolph, who has a big shiny red nose, just like her! (Points to SARAH as he steps back) SARAH: I do not. RON: You do too. SARAH: Do not! RON: Do too! SARAH: I don t got a letter. (RON pulls back his letter to his other side to protect it from SARAH. She looks down the line and looks at JON s H. SARAH bends over and looks at the H sideways [looks like an I ]. She stand ups, smiling, reaches over and snatches JON s letter. She turns it sideways and steps forward.) SARAH: I. JON (wails): She took my letter. (Sobs on LIL s shoulder) SARAH: I... I... I like Christmas. (Steps back) JON (still crying softly, says to LIL): Can I share your letter? (LIL, thinks a bit, then offers to share with him. Happily JON holds one side of her letter with his left hand and puts his right arm around LIL. LIL looks at JON s hand on her shoulder, then looks at JON, looks at the audience and smiles broadly.)
(KAREN steps forward. She has S and T one in each hand. She has to go to the rest room and is squirming more and more as she talks. Be careful not to overdo this sequence, just enough to convey to the audience KAREN s dilemma.) KAREN (to SARAH, rubbing it in): I ve got two! S. S is for... (pauses, squirming) S... ooh, S is not important. (Throws the letter over her shoulder)... But T... T is for... T is for... (the situation is getting desperate) I gotta go! (Runs offstage) (Others watch her run off) SARAH: Where did she go? RON: I guess she had to go. (All look to PAUL, who is doing nothing but staring straight ahead. Finally SARAH pushes him forward. PAUL frowns at SARAH, then reluctantly does his part.) PAUL (steps forward, staring straight ahead): M. M is for money that my grandpa gives me and my dad takes away. (Steps back) VICKI (steps forward very shy): A. A is for... A is for... (pauses, scared, then remembers)... A is for angels... who help (pause as she forgets but then an idea hits)... help Santa bring the presents. (Steps back and smiles proudly at PAUL who shakes his head negatively at her, as if that is the dumbest answer he has ever heard.) (VICKI, realizing the final S is not there, sneaks over to that place and steps forward.) VICKI: S... (pauses, not knowing what S is for) (VICKI slides back to her position and mimes asking PAUL what S is for. He asks the one beside him and on down the line. LIL thinks, then whispers to JON and they whisper it back down the line to PAUL.) PAUL: They said spaghetti. (VICKI steps forward again in the S position and confidently says:) VICKI: S is for spaghetti. (Realizes what she said) It is not! PAUL (to SARAH): No, it ain t. (This is passed on down the line quickly.) JON (to LIL): It is not! You don t know nothin! (JON drops his hand from LIL s shoulder, but continues holding on and sharing her letter. LIL, astonished at JON s last move, pulls the letter they were sharing away from him. JON pouts!)
SARAH: You put it all together and it spells... ALL EXCEPT FOR PAUL: Christma! RON: Let s go, teacher s got presents. SARAH: Hey, don t forget your candles. (The children ad-lib excitedly as they exit.) (All, except PAUL pick up their candles and run off to the side. He watches them run off, then reaches down to pick up his candle. Just as he is about to pick it up, he looks to his left, then his right, then stands up and stomps his candle into the floor with his foot. He slowly walks off and follows the rest of his class. After they are gone, wait a few seconds and then RICH runs in from the back. He is carrying the letter S. ) RICH: Hey everybody, sorry I m late, but I had to get a new letter because my dog chewed up my old letter. And it took us a long time to make it. But I m ready to do the program now. (Looks around for them) Where is everybody? Come on, you guys, we have to do our program. I m the last S. (Looks around again) They re all gone. They did the program and I missed it. Oh, no. (Starts crying) I was going to do my letter S. And my mom was gonna come and my grandma was gonna come, and I was going to sneak my dog up in the balcony and everybody was gonna see me do my letter. (He is crying through the last lines but then suddenly stops.) I ll show them, I ll do it myself. (Walks over to where C stood and says each letter as he moves to their spot, misspelling C-H-I-R-S. At the first S he steps forward.) RICH: S. Oops! Wrong S. (Moves back and goes on to last T-M-A-S, and steps forward) RICH: S. S is for... S is for... Oh, no, I forgot what S is for...? Why does this always happen to me? (Drops to the floor, sobbing) (ROGER, the Sunday School teacher, walks in and sees RICH crying.) ROGER: Hey, young fellow, what s wrong? RICH (loudly): I m crying. ROGER: I can see that, but why are you crying? RICH (sobbing so audience may only catch part of this next paragraph; the audience already knows what happened, so RICH can sob part of each line but end with the last line clearly and loudly): I was supposed to be the S in the Christmas program, but my dog chewed up my letter, so we had to make a new one and so I was late and they did the program without me and my mom was gonna come and my grandma was gonna come and my dog was gonna sit in the balcony and no one s here, so I was gonna do it by myself and I forgot what S is for and this is the worse day of my whole life.
ROGER: I m sure it s not quite as bad as that. I know a song that tells what the letters mean. If you ll stop crying, I ll sing it for you. Would you like that? RICH: I don t care. ROGER: All right, stop crying and I ll sing it for you. (ROGER sings C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S. * As he does, RICH stops sobbing and listens.) ROGER: C is for the Christ Child, born upon this day H for herald angels in the sky R for our Redeemer I means Israel S is for the star that shone so bright T is for three wise men, they who traveled far M is for the manger where He lay A for all He stands for S means shepherds came And that s why there s a Christmas Day RICH: So that s what Christmas means. Can I do my letter now? ROGER: Sure, go right ahead. RICH (stands in his place on the platform): S (turns to ROGER) But there s no one there to hear me. ROGER: Oh, I think someone very special is listening. RICH: Oh, yeah. S. S is for Savior. God s Son who came to forgive us of our sins. (To ROGER) That s right, isn t it? ROGER: That s right. RICH (smiles): Merry Christmas. (Runs off) ROGER (looking after him): Merry Christmas. *The music for CHRISTMAS is written by Jenny Lou Carson and is copyrighted by Hill and Range Songs, Inc. It can be found in the Reader s Digest Merry Christmas Songbook.
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