Christmas and New Year
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- Kathleen Appleby
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Teenaged Jasmine, granddaughter of one of the Magi, decides to disguise herself and join the caravan following the star of Bethlehem, dragging childhood companion Meshach into another one of her "hare brained" schemes. Meanwhile King Herod takes extreme measures to protect his throne from a rival king. Style
: Dramatic. Duration: 1hour
Actors: 12M, 3F, as many extras as desired
Scripture reference: Matthew 2
To download the script, click on the link below.
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- Kathleen Appleby
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A series of Readers Theater vignettes covering the Christmas story.
Scripture: Based on Matthew 1-2, Luke 1-2.
To download the script, click on the link below.
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- Kathleen Appleby
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Reactions to Jesus Birth are portrayed in this “TV documentary” style presentation.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 22min
Actors: 9 M, 3F, 3 M/F; doubling possible
To download the script, click on the link below.
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- Kathleen Appleby
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Gabrielle’s visit leaves Mary with an unsettling choice. Demons try to discourage Mary from accepting God's plan while David, Ruth and Rahab encourage her to submit.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 6min
Actors: 3F, 2M, 4M/F.
Scripture references: Luke 1-2, Esther 4, Isaiah 49:6, Hebrews 11 & 12, Psalms 23, 2 Corinthians 6:2
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- Kathleen Appleby
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A silly Christmas (or just after) comedy set in the Stellar Departure Department of heaven. The egotistical stars, a frantic Mr. Sandman and one lost child will have the audience laughing Mr Sandman can't figure out what he is to do with the newest star who shows up without orders.
Style: Light-hearted. Duration: 15min
Actors: 1M, 3F, 2M/F, 1C
To download the script, click on the link below.
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- Kathleen Appleby
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Folks are startled when an alien lands and wants to know what Christmas is all about, but not nearly as much as when they realize how shallow their attitudes are.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 1min
Actors: 5M/F, 1C, +V
Scripture reference: Matthew 2, Luke 2
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- Kathleen Appleby
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: The nativity story in dramatic format for mature casts. At the Nazareth community well, young women respond to Mary’s pregnancy with near vicious gossip and speculation while her parents are concerned and bewildered. Only Joseph and Elizabeth truly believe her claims to have seen an angel. The final scene occurs at a well in Samaria with Jesus talking to a woman who came to draw water.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 25min
Actors: 10F, 8M with doubling possible. Extras as angels, Magi, shepherds and servants.
Scripture reference: Luke 1-2, Matthew 1-2
To download the script, click on the link below.
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- Michelle Patterson
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Young parents find out that both sets of their parents are coming to visit for Christmas, to be there for the baby’s first Christmas. One set is staid and conservative, the other is ex-hippie and charismatic.
Style: Dramatic, with light touches. Duration: 30min (approx)
Actors: 4M, 3F
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- Ruth Sen
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Christmas raises the question of whether we are available to do what God asks us to do. This script contrasts different attitudes to being willing to fit in with God's purposes.
Style: Light-hearted. Duration: 10-15min.
Actors: 1N, 3M, 1F, 2M/F, + extras
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- Michelle Patterson
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A monologue by Mary right after the birth of Jesus. This was written as part of an Advent series. Others in the series are Silent Thoughts, Gabriel, and The Temple Pair.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: Approx. 5 minutes
Actors: 1F
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- Michelle Patterson
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A monologue by Gabriel, talking about delivering messages to people. This was written as part of an Advent series. Others in the series are Silent Thoughts, Mary Ponders, and The Temple Pair.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: Approx. 5 minutes
Actors: 1M/F
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- Michelle Patterson
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A monologue by Zacharias right before the birth of John. This was written as part of an Advent series. Others in the series are Gabriel, Mary Ponders, and The Temple Pair.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: Approx. 5 minutes.
Scripture: Based on Luke 1
Actors: 1M
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- Michelle Patterson
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Anna and Simeon share their thoughts as Jesus is being brought into the temple for dedication. This was written as part of an Advent series. Others in the series are Gabriel, Silent Thoughts, and Mary Ponders.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: Approx. 5 minutes
Actors: 1M, 1F
Scripture: Based on Luke 2: 22-39
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- Peter Minson and Scott Kindig
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Two friends mull over the significance of Christmas.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 6min
Actors: 2M/F
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- Stacy Legg
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: This skit focuses on hope. We see the wives of the Wise men getting ready to send off their husbands and their fears and hopes for the journey.
Style: Dramatic, with light touches. Duration: 7min.
Actors: 3F
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- William Derek Graham
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: This drama is portrayed as a live television reality show hosted by Mr. Jeremy Kyle and his team of trained researchers, medical and psychological experts. They endeavour to assist the guests who contact the show to find solutions to their personal, matrimonial or family conflict with the aid of mediation, counselling, polygraph and/or D.N.A. testing or drug/ alcohol rehabilitation.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 10min
Actors: 2M,1F
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- Joe Henderson
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A teenager finds her Christmas vision in working with a blind lady for a service project at school. She realizes God can work wonders in any situation.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 50min.
Actors: 5M, 4F
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- Jim Bradshaw
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A one act monologue, in which Joseph the carpenter tells his side of the story about Mary’s pregnancy with our Lord, Jesus Christ. He talks about his feelings and how he decides not to divorce her.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 5min.
Actors: 1M
Scriptures: Matthew 1: 18 - 24, Luke 1: 26 - 56.
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- Joanne Miller
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Neither Mary's family nor Joseph believe that the baby she is bearing comes from God. Only her cousin Elizabeth understands.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 5min
Actors: 3F, 1M
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- Sheila Hamil
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Four shepherds look through a new Gift Experience catalogue, trying to choose from the various options on offer.
Style: Light-hearted. Duration: 6min
Actors: 5M, 1N
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- Jeannette Walters
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: The birth of Jesus from various points of view. Humorous in tone but shows that those who got to witness the events surrounding the birth were ordinary people in an extraordinary time.
Style: Light-hearted Duration: 15-20 min
Actors: 2M, 2F, 5M/F
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- Brian Alleyne
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: The story of Herod and his reaction to the news of Jesus’ birth.
Style: Dramatic Duration: 12 min.
Actors: 1M, 2M/F
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- Ray Markham
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Two characters discuss the reason for and meaning of Christmas.
Style: Light-hearted Duration: 5+min
Actors: 2 puppets or 2M/F
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- Ray Markham
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Two broadcasters are discussing possible content for their Breakfast show when news comes of an amazing event that has happened overnight in Bethlehem. As they hear about it, they discuss the possible significance of what has occurred and whether to broadcast it.
Style: Light-hearted Duration: 5+min
Scripture: Luke 2:8-18
Actors: 3M/FCharacters:
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- Bob Denison
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: This play is structured to be performed by, and appeal to, teenagers. Most of the cast have few or no lines. The play begins with a sister who does not believe in Jesus. Her youngest sister accepts Jesus at a friend’s church. God then transports the unbelieving sister to Bethlehem at the time of the census, then to what is going on in the devil's kingdom of darkness, to show what the world would be like if Jesus never came. The unbelieving sister finally believes when she “sees” Jesus in the simple faith of her little sister.
Style: Dramatic Duration: 30 min
Actors: 4M/F, 4M, 6F
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- Stacy Legg
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Christmas is a time when so many focus on Christ. However sometimes it is hard to focus on the relationships within our own families, and on those that still need to learn to trust and love Him.
Style: light-hearted Duration: 12 mins
Actors: 2M, 3F
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- Alan McElreavey
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: This humorous sketch is set in a fictitious Department of Floods, Plagues and Pestilence who used to handle the big events for God – the flood for Noah, the ten plagues in Egypt, etc. There hasn’t been much work recently and now they are to be put out of business by the birth of Jesus. (By the way, if it’s not clear, a BOGOF is Buy One, Get One Free.)
Style: Light-hearted. Duration: 7min
Actors: 2M/F
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- Adam Gee
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: An Introduction to the Christmas Season. Sometimes we get our priorities a little mixed up during Christmas. This short skit features a father and his teenage son where the father learns a lesson about the giving of time to others instead of himself. Style: Light-hearted. Duration: 4min.
Actors: 1M, 1 teenage M
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- Marjorie Kennedy
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Santa has lost his reindeer and his enthusiasm for the job so he has nothing to give to a group of children coming to see him. But his helper suggests he reads them the true Christmas story, one which he has not heard before.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 12-15min
Actors: (Speaking) 1M, 1M/F, 4C; (non-speaking) 4M, 4+M/F
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- Mo Lacey
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Two angels discuss Christ’s coming as a baby in Bethlehem.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 8min
Actors: 2M/F
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- David Ralf
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: The angel Gabriel has received orders to appear to a girl called Mary. He turns to his colleague Michael to help him prepare to deliver one of the most important messages of all time.
Style: Light-hearted. Duration: 10min
Scripture: Luke 1:1-28
Actors: 1M, 1M/F
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- Kerrie Polkinghorne
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: The Santa in this department store is no ordinary Santa, and he goes on an extraordinary journey after he encounters three very unusual time travelling visitors. (Note: Setting: The play is initially set in The Magic Cave in a Department Store and later moves to Santa’s Workshop at the North Pole and later still to the stable in Bethlehem where Jesus was born.)
Style: Light dramatic. Duration: 50min (?)
Actors: 8+M, 1F, 9+M/F, 2+C
To download the script, CLICK HERE.
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- Jo Bower
- Scripts Since 2007
A Play by Adults for Kids
Summary: The Christmas story told by the most famous participant in the story, but who remembers it least. There are three levels to this play, the story and the characters, the small kids who are sitting and listening to the play, and the ‘tweens’ who are doing what they do best… whispering and making comments about how boring things are…
Style: Light-hearted. Duration: 20min
Actors: Puppets, or if live: 2F, 5M, 5+M/F, 2VO
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- Susanne Ticknor
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Terry Topper, is a TV presenter and journalist, no longer believes in God and sees little sense in Christmas, until he gets a surprise visitor.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 30min
Actors: 2M, 2F, 1C
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- Jo Bower
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: (A Reader’s Theater Presentation) A visitor is sent to earth. He‘s been here before and doesn’t want to come back. Earth people are violent and unpredictable. Yet his world has encountered difficult times and his commander wonders how such a violent people as humans have survived all these centuries. So he sends Travillion back once more. . ..
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 45min(?)
Actors: 7+M, 2F, 3+M/F
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- Ian Wallace
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A sketch to illustrate how easily we can become deflected from finding the real meaning of Christmas. It presents the quest to discover the truth about Christmas as a train journey to Bethlehem, with a second character boarding the wrong trains.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 12min
Scripture: Luke 1: 5-7, 11-14, 57-66
Actors: 4M/F
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- John Siedenberg II
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: When Theatre Producer Ebenezer Scrooge discovers that his theatre is being used to host a Christmas Play, he decides to sabotage it. That night he is warned by his old partner Jacob Marley of three ghosts who will soon be there to change his outlook on life. He is taken from the Manager scene to the crucifixtion, and the home of his employee Bob Cratchit to his own grave. Based on Charles Dicken's A Christmas to Remember, this show helps show the true "Meaning of the Season", with moments of laughter and fun, and seasoned with enough carols and songs to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. (Note: the following is only an excerpt from the play. To obtain a full script, write to the author, whose email is at the foot of the script.)
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 60-90min
Actors: 8M, 3F, 9M/F
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- Author unknown
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Old George, owner of a gas station, has not celebrated Christmas since his wife died. But a chain of startling events on Christmas Eve show he understands the true spirit of the time.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 15min
Actors: 7M, 3M/F
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- Les Kovaks
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A one-act play, based on a famous TV game show, used to highlight the real meaning of Christmas. This play was performed, as part of the service, on Christmas Eve of 2011 at St. James Centennial United Church in Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada. Les Kovacs wrote the original script but members of the cast later added many of the lines. Feel free to personalize the lines to suit your cast. We did.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 15 - 20 minutes
Actors: 4M, 1F, 4M/F
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- Lynette Morgan
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: It’s the day after Christmas Day, and a typical suburban family struggle to deal with the aftermath, all but one missing the real point of Christmas.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 12min
Actors: 4M, 4F
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- Lynette Morgan
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A late-night radio host fields a variety of comments from listeners about Christmas.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 8min
Actors: 1M/F, + 5M/F (voice only)
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- Neil Dodgson
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: The Christmas story from a different point of view. Suitable for Epiphany, Christmas or New Year. It is the night before the Magi visit. Our scene is the inn in Bethlehem. Mary, Joseph and Jesus are absent – they have moved out of the stable into a house in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:11). The Magi will visit tomorrow. The characters are the innkeeper who let them use his stable, his wife, and one of the servants of the Magi.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 12min
Actors: 2M, 1F
Scripture: Matthew 2:1-18, Luke 2:1-20.
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- Kelvin Bueckert
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A short skit featuring the Christmas hymn, O Holy Night. One stormy Christmas Eve, a burned-out Pastor begins work on his sermon for Christmas Day. Inspiration is lacking and even God doesn't seem to hear his cry for help. Will he overcome his painful past or will this Christmas continue to be haunted by memories of what could have been?
Style: Dramatic. Duration:
Actors: 1M/1 F.
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- Keith Lowe
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A shepherd and one of the three wise men experience the peace of Christmas together as a result of an unexpected meeting.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 7min
Actors: 2M
Scripture: Luke 2: 7-15 Matthew 2: 1-2, 7-11
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- St Thomas’s Church
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Christmas uncut is a re-telling of the most wonderful story of all time, of how God came to Earth that first Christmas. We wrote, then performed it at St Thomas’s Church, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire, UK, on Sunday morning, 18th December 2011. It would need some adaption to your situation, but essentially the stories are timeless. It is aimed at everyone from about 7 to 100+. It is ‘uncut’ to help us appreciate what actually happened here on Earth, when God became vulnerable and shared our vulnerability, as we shall see. But the story does not end there, because when ‘Emmanuel’, God with us, comes then life is not the same again.
Style: Drama. Duration: 60min (?)
Note: The service should flow without instructions. Stand when instructed on the sheet, sit afterwards. Then after the verse of ‘In the Bleak Mid-winter’ at the end we shall say one of God’s blessing and the very end is sharing God’s peace together. It took 75 minutes including songs – we think you will want to choose your own and insert them as you wish.
Cast: It needs about 24 people, although we doubled up some parts
To download the script, CLICK HERE.
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- Jeannette Walters
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A comedy based on the Shepherds going to see the new born baby. The setting is firstly based on a hill where the story is told by a father & son and then follows the shepherds journey to Bethlehem.
Style: Light-hearted. Duration: 12min
Actors: 5M, 1M/F + 1M, 1F (non-speakng)
Scripture: Luke 2:8-20
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- Charity Ford
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A Christmas Carol is based on the classic book by Charles Dickens, but with a twist. The good and kind characters around Scrooge are Christians hoping and praying that Scrooge will be saved. They are not preachy, but instead show him Christ through their actions and the way they live their lives. The script includes notes for music that may or may be applicable to other performance groups. For further information or clarification of this play please fee free to contact the writer.
Style: Drama. Duration: 60min (?)
Setting: Ambiguous. Could be Dickenss England or (as it has been successful performed) modern day USA.
Actors: 4F, 7M, 9M/F, 15-17C + various numbers of party guests at Fred's, Dancers at Fezziwigís Party, Carolers, Townspeople (Many characters are such that the one person can play 2 or 3 roles)
To download the script, click on the link below.
- Details
- Jeanette Walter
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A pantomime-style version of the arrival of the Wise Men at the palace of King Herod.
Style: Light-hearted. Duration: 15min
Actors: 6M, 1F
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- Blaine Dueck
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A skit that explores promises. Our lives are filled with promises. We promise to this, we promise to do that. We promise to keep this a secret. We promise to be faithful to God, our spouse, our friends, We make a lot of promises. So many times, however, our promises come up against some opposition and often we break those promises. Join this cast of characters as they explore what it means to be truly faithful. Join with them as they learn about the faithfulness of God as they hear about the birth of Christ. Then be challenged to believe in the promise Jesus gives that he will come again. This is a group of Christmas sketches that has been used for Christmas but could be used at any point throughout the year.
Duration: 20-25 minutes
Actors: 12 (5M, 3F, 4M/F)
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- John Steele
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A humorous play in which animals in the manger discuss the arrival of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus.
Style: Light-hearted. Duration: 20min
Actors: 11+ M/F