Another Church Tradition – Christmas Nativity Plays

When we remember a special Christmas, it is not the presents that made it special, but the laughter, the feeling of love, and the togetherness of friends and family that made that Christmas special. ~Catherine Pulsifer

Sunday we talked about Candlelight Services, and how much those of us who had been to one of those services liked that worship experience.  But another tradition for many years at our church was a Christmas program presented by our young people.

I was never part of the cast of a Christmas play when I was a kid, but my children did get that pleasure. They were shepherds and Wise Men and angels. I can’t remember them ever taking the lead Mary and Joseph roles, but those supporting roles were fun for them. Some years we branched out and had a different Christmas play where kids still learned the true reason for the season. In those, they had parts to memorize and sometimes Bible verses to recite. Of course, they always sang carols, usually with the help of the congregation. It was always fun and a little hectic getting the children in costume and where they needed to be when they needed to be there.

The picture is of one of the Nativity scene programs we had at our church. By then, my children were already adults and off to their own lives. More years went by and our church aged with few young people attending. The last program we had some years ago, the person in charge of getting the program organized recruited some adults to join in as the three Wise Men. Since then, we’ve had more adult driven programs of reading the Christmas story and singing carols. Still good, but nothing like those programs with kids in their dads’ bathrobes and angels with halos made from wire hangers and tinsel.

I used some of my memories of Christmas programs in writing a scene in my Hollyhill book, Summer of Joy. For fun, I’ll share a shortened version of it here for you. David is watching from one of the pew with Leigh by his side.

The church was nearly full. A children’s Christmas program always brought the people in. Mothers and daddies, grandparents, aunts and uncles packed the pews to see their little shepherd, angel or wise man in his or her moment of glory.

Up front Miss Sally and Lela Martin were shooing the shepherds in their bathrobes and towel head wraps out from behind the white sheet curtains toward where red construction paper flames stuck up out of a pile of sticks laid out in front of the podium. The pulpit had been moved to the side to make room for the hill where the shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks.

On the other side of the stage, Dorothy McDermott and Myra Hearndon pushed four little sheep out into the limelight. They crawled toward the shepherds slowly to keep from losing their cotton ball fleeces and ears. Two of the sheep, the Hearndon twins, at two and half had been prone to wander from the flock in practices. Myra had tried to talk Miss Sally out of putting them in the play, but Miss Sally insisted every child needed a part.

When Myra worried about her twins wandering down the aisles or crawling under the pews or who knew where, Miss Sally said that was why there were shepherds. To keep their sheep from wandering. And because those shepherds were out on that hill that night doing their job and keeping their sheep safe, they were blessed. David was thinking about using that thought for his sermon next Sunday.

Of course the little shepherds tripping on their bathrobes and stumbling over their wooden staffs toward the fire weren’t much older than the little lambs. Two of the little shepherds made it to the fire and sat down without a glance at the sheep milling around behind them. The other little shepherd, Jeremy Sanderson, shoved at the towel that had slipped down over his eyes and fell right over top of Eli Hearndon who was doing some kind of spinning sheep moves in the middle of the aisle with a full chorus of baas.

Jeremy fell into the campfire. He jumped back as though the construction paper flames were real, and the towel fell off his head. The other two shepherds tried to help him put it back on, because it was a well-known fact that nobody could be a shepherd without a towel on his head.

Meanwhile the sheep, seeing their chance, took off crawling up the center aisle.  One of the little shepherds, looked around at the escaping sheep, put his hands on his hips, and announced, “I told Miss Sally we should have had cows instead of sheep.”

The congregation let out a roar of laughter, and Miss Sally, who had come out from behind the curtain to be sure Jeremy was okay, laughed so hard she had to sit down on the front pew and wipe her eyes.

“Here come the angels,” Leigh whispered as the play continued.

Cassidy Hearndon, Sandy Wilson, and Mollie McDermott stepped out from behind the sheet curtains up onto the back of the podium. Mollie started proclaiming the good news. “Fear not: for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” She stopped to swallow and for a minute it looked as if she might have forgotten the good tidings.

Cassidy leaned over close to Mollie and loudly whispered, “Jesus. Tell them about baby Jesus getting born.”

Mollie picked up the angelic message. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”

Then the multitude of the three angels, the singers in the front pew, and the mothers behind the curtain said, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”  For a minute even the sheep stayed still as the angels held out their hands to sprinkle blessings down on the shepherds before they disappeared behind the curtains again.

Chad Everts, the shepherd who’d wished for cows earlier, stood up and said, “Wow! We’ve got to go see this. God told us to.” He turned to look at the sheep. “Come on, sheep. You can’t stay out here by yourselves. You’ll have to go too.”

Not exactly the way it was written or the way they’d practiced, but Chad had found an audience and was enjoying it.

While no shepherds in the plays at my church ever went off script, I liked it happening at the Mt. Pleasant Church in Holly County, Kentucky.

Were you or your children ever part of a church Christmas program?

Leave a comment to be entered in my end of the year book giveaway. Deadline to enter is midnight EST on December 30, 2022. I’ll pick three winners who will win their choice of one of my books. You must be at least 18 years old to enter. Each comment on a new post before the deadline will get you another entry. I look forward to hearing about your Christmas play memories or any Christmas memory you’d like to share.

Merry Christmas to you all!