Christmas and New Year
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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
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- Michael Paul Weber
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Joe and his wife Marilyn have to travel across several States to get to a new job that Joe desperately needs after having been long-term unemployed. Their present-day story is paralleled by the journey of Joseph and Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
Style: Drama Duration: 30min
Actors: 7M, 6F, +V
To download this script, click here.
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- Larry Dye
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Sheriff Goody, J.I. Jill, Rap the Raptor, Bobbie Doll, Mrs. Tomato Head, Walkie & Talkie are toys that want to be loved by children at Christmas. However the prospects don’t look good with one shopping day left. In their attempt to escape a lonely Christmas in the store (not to mention fleeing from their arch nemesis Knock’m Bop’m Robot), they come across a rare nativity doll named Mary who points them to the real meaning of Christmas. This encounter re-evaluates their purpose resulting in joining their comrade Fuzz Lightfear in “Operation Toy Drop”. Follow the antics of our plastic and plush toy friends as they try to rescue Christmas.
Style: Light-hearted. Duration: 70min
Actors: 5M, 5F, 3VO
A royalty payment is requested for this script. To read the 1st Act free of charge, click here.
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- Lyn Morgan
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: This skit is set at a cooking competition where different characters whip up their version of Christmas. The audience can compare for themselves the emptiness of Christmas without the vital ingredients. (Note: This script contains quite a bit of Australian slang. If you need a translation, to fit the script to your own circumstances, don't hesitate to contact the author.)
Style: Light-hearted. Duration: 12min
Actors: 1M, 3F, 1M/F
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- Karen Colebatch
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Our Sunday school teachers were discussing how to have a nativity play which included the Wise Men given it is generally assumed the magi weren't there at the actual birth. I piped up with the idea of "Where were you when it happened" style interviewing and the final result is this Special News Report script. Possibly there is something similar out there but I hadn't found this web site or anything similar until after the fact.
The play is introduced with an audio-visual component which highlights our own contemporary society and some of its ideas about Christmas. It then flows into on-stage interviews with the people who were actually there, encouraging us to think about what Christmas really is all about. There's not a heavy emphasis on the Christmas story details, rather a focus on those who participated and their perception of events, trying to get the audience to internalise and relate to the ideas. It finishes with a final simple audio-visual component challenging the audience to experience Christmas the way it was originally - all about Jesus. I used Windows Movie Maker to put the video bits together.
Inadvertently it was also a great way to incorporate the older kids who were getting too cool to participate in the "little kid's" play. They loved doing the "television" stuff. We also used songs at points I've marked in the script. I haven't included the music details. You could use anything you like in those spots.
Style: Drama. Duration: 15min
Actors: 16+ M/F/C
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- Joanne Miller
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: These letters are being written by Mary and Joseph. The words in parentheses are them talking to themselves as they write.
Style: Drama. Duration: 8min
Actors: 1M, 1F
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- Westchurch Kids
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Bible characters come on stage in ones and twos and line up across the stage. At the conclusion all characters hear the baby Jesus cry and turn to look. (“Like the stone on the surface of a still river, driving the ripples on forever, redemption rips through the surface of time in the cry of a tiny babe.” – Bruce Cockburn, Cry of a Tiny Babe on Nothing But a Burning Light, 1991.)
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 10-12minNotes:
• This play works well with young children who don’t need to learn lines.
• This play can be performed with very little practice as the narrator directs activities from the script.
• This play can easily be adapted to suit the number and gender balance of performers by using different (or more or less) Bible characters.
Actors: 1N, 12C
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- John Siedenberg II
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: William Green had the perfect gift for his mother. It was wrapped and ready to go under the tree until a mugging. Stranded in town without any money or phone, William finds a friend in Joseph Fritz, a charity bell ringer, who shows him the story of Jesus from birth to death, and death to eternal life. In the end, William realizes that there is only one thing perfect, and he gave us "The Perfect Gift".
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 60min(?)
Actors: 14M, 4F, 1C +V
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- Susanne Ticknor
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: A reporter who struggles to believe in God because of hurts in his life gets some help from a neighbour and a special visitor.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 20min(?)
Actors: 3M, 7M/F +V
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- Alicia Wooden
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Newspaper editor Sam is having a hard time finding a story, but with the help from an unexpected visitor she is able to find the true meaning of Christmas.
Style: Drama. Duration: 30min
Actors: 8M, 4F, 3M/F + 2V
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- Yvonne deSousa
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Children waiting for their teacher (who’s late) discuss the fun they have at Christmas. Eventually they get round to realising what they are really celebrating.
Style: Drama. Duration: 10min
Actors: 4M, 4F, 1M/F
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- Ray Lombardi
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: When Emily's four friends stop by the house at Christmastime, Emily is in the middle of putting up the family's nativity. As she unpacks each piece she begins to explain the significance of the individual pieces, and the story then comes to life as we visit Mary and Joseph, shepherds and the wisemen. The children come to understand how the nativity points to the wonderful reality that Jesus Christ came to this earth to save them from their sins.
Style: Drama. Duration: 60min (?)
Actors: 8M, 4F, 2M/F
To read the full script and order this musical, visit www.lorray.com
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- Bob Denison
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: "Christmas Rapping" is a children's play suitable for Christmas. The birth of Jesus is depicted as if he were born today in a typical town or community. Raps and an unusual version of "Silent Night" make this an unusual and humorous play that at the same time causes the audience to focus anew upon the birth of Jesus.
Style: Lighhearted. Duration: 15min
Actors: 10-24C
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- Kim Williamson
- Scripts Since 2007
In traditional pantomime style. Our team want to mount a Nativity play, but the dastardly Natas and his crew are setting out to try and wreck it.
Style: Light-hearted. Duration: 60min+
Actors: 1N, 4M, 3F, 2M/F
To download a copy of the script, click here.
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- Bob Grinsell
- Scripts Since 2007
Summary: Three adult men at a shopping mall discuss Christmas and whether the Star of Bethlehem is true.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 15min
Actors: 3M
To read the full script, click here.
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- Amy Teichrib & Kelvin Bueckert
- Scripts Since 2007
Style: Lighthearted. Duration: 5-7 min.
Scripture: Matthew 7: 1-5
Actors: 3M/F
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- Kelvin Bueckert
- Scripts Since 2007
Style: Drama. Duration: 4min
Scripture: Matthew 1: 18-24
Actors: 1M
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- David Ralf
- Scripts Since 2007
Style: Drama. Duration: 7min
Actors: 4M/F