by Rainier Wong

Created on: November 23, 2010

Christmas is the time to celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the best ways to celebrate this special occasion is by having a Christmas play. Such play may or may not contain the message of salvation. As one who has acted in a Christmas play before, I believe I have enough expertise to share with you some ideas on how to present an enjoyable and yet meaningful Christmas play.

Firstly, decide whether you want to base your play entirely on the Bible or something that is written by a professional playwright. If you are using a play that is not based directly on the Bible, make sure that what is included in the play does not contradict with the teachings of the Bible. If you base the play on the Bible, you may want to include something that is not usually found in a Christmas play including Mary's song which is found in the 46th to the 55th verses of the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke and the wise men's audience with King Herod which is found in the first to the seventh verses of the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.

If you plan to have a large scale production, having a planning committee is definitely is of a great help. Each member of the committee can be given a different responsibility. For example, a member can be in-charge of getting the costumes made and the another member can be in-charge of finding the most suitable actors. A committee is useful to ensure the everything is in proper order including getting the most suitable actors, getting the most appropriate costumes, the most appropriate backgrounds. You may also get some useful and creative ideas for the play from each member of the committee.

Identify the characters you want  to be in the Christmas play apart besides the baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the angel, the shepherds, the three wise men, and the inn keeper. You may want a few children to dress up as sheep. You may also want to include the character of King Herod in the play. Once you have known who the actors for the play will be, get someone to design the costumes for them or ask the actors who know how to sew or design to design the costumes for themselves. If the actors are children, you may encourage their parents to sew the costumes for them.

You may also get someone to be a narrator for the play. The narrator may read a passage from the Bible before the scene that is relevant to it or someone in your church may write out his or her own narration without changing the original meaning found in the Bible. For example, the narrator may say "Mary and her husband Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem which at the time was under the jurisdiction of the Roman Empire  to register themselves for the census decreed by the Emperor Augustus" instead of reading what is written in the Bible. If your play is to be a tool for outreach, you may get the narrator to read out the sixteenth verse of the third chapter of the Gospel of John during the nativity scene when every actors who are supposed to at the scene are already present.

Any play will be more enjoyable if there is a backdrop or a theatrical scenery relating to a particular act or scene. Therefore, the next thing is to do is to get someone to design the background and the scenes including the manger scene, and the inn. Alternatively, you may also want to have a scene where the  wise men met King Herod asking him where Jesus was.

A play can be more enjoyable if music is involved. Therefore, you may want to include the singing of a Christmas carol for every scene in the play. The singing may be sung only by the actors or by the entire congregation. It is best to sing a carol at the end of each scene before moving to the next one.

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