A Christmas Play

The weekend before Christmas we had the annual Christmas program at our church.  Traditionally the kids all practice during Sunday school and put on a play for all the adults.  Brad is in charge of Christian education at church right now and he wanted to do something a little different.  Partly because he thought it would be fun and partly because he didn't want to take away from Sunday school time trying to learn parts for a play.  Brad and I had seen several instant Christmas programs in a catalog and they sounded really cute.  The idea was that with 1 hour of prep time you could put together a play that would involve everyone in church.  Basically it was a version of forced family fun (a long standing tradition in my family).  Forced family fun is when someone or a group of people plan a fun activity or craft and everyone has to participate unless you have a legitimate medical excuse why you can't participate.  99% of the time everyone has fun once they give in and participate.

Anyway, Brad's mom and several other volunteers offered to be scene directors and help lead the play activities on that Sunday for the play.  They made costumes ahead of time and really made it so there didn't need to be an hour of prep time before the play, because realistically we didn't have a full hour for prep time.  Everyone loves a Christmas program but they love it less if it lasts for 2+ hours.  Unfortunately I didn't get to participate.  My children know the church nursery exists and are way too active to sit still for a prolonged period of time, so we spent time in the nursery and went back up just in time to see the program.  Vince tried to be in Grandma's group for the play but he was way too distracted by being up on stage and seeing his cousins sitting close to the front.  He loves them all but Keith is his only boy cousin and he is older and Vince thinks he is pretty cool.  So Vince left the stage and went to give Keith a hug.  It was cute, but I would have preferred he stayed on stage.

 I think all but a handful of people participated in the program and I heard nothing but compliments about the program and everyone did a great job!   I was very excited for Brad that his slightly out of the box idea worked and that everyone had such a great time.  It was a wonderful way to get people at church to bond in a new way with people they might not normally spend time with, doing an activity slightly out of their comfort zone.

I have already heard ideas for next year's program...