Created by: / Sandra Foote
Number of speaking parts: / 7 (or more)
Duration: / Short
Christmas Play: by Sandra Foote.
Great for churches with small number of multi aged children/teens.
The angel roles, shepherds and the bible reading roles could be done by a single person. So you only need 7 or more children, teens or adults.
If you have more fit them in as non speaking angels or shepherds. You could have up to 10 speaking angels if you divide the angel’s parts more.
Characters:
Main speaking roles:
God
Angel 1
Angel 2
Angel 3
Angel Gabriel
Bible reader 1
Bible reader 2
Bible reader 3
Bible reader 4
Bible reader 5
Smaller speaking roles:
Mary
Shepherds: Any number, best role for the littlest children.
Other roles:
Joseph
Up in the pulpit God is talking to two (or more) angels.
Angel 1: (looking up)
I don't think these people on earth understand you at all Almighty and Loving God. You created them and have blessed them and loved them. You gave the beauty of creation all around them, to remind them to search for you and yet they keep doing crazy things that hurt each other and themselves.
Angel 2:
You used people such as Moses and the Prophets to lead them to you and yet they rejected them. Perhaps they are beyond help.
God:
I love them, and I always knew they would need more.
Angel 1:
You gave them the 10 Commandments, and they can't even keep those simple rules. It's hopeless; they're never going to understand.
God:
I have another plan. It's been a secret plan that I've had all along. I am going to send them my only be loved Son.
Angel 2:
Look what they did to the Prophets. I don’t think they are to be trusted. They didn't listen to the Prophets. I don't think they will even listen to your beloved son. I remember what Isaiah said
Bible reading 1:
This reading is from Isaiah chapter 53 verse 6.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
Angel 3:
If you send down your son they might kill him.
God:
They will but my beloved son will show them what I am like and make a way for those who believe in Him and follow Him to become my close friends.
Angel 1:
I do not understand that, how can it be. You, oh God, are so perfect and holy, loving and kind, full of grace and mercy. Yet they are so evil. Even when they are trying to be good, they fail miserably.
God:
It is my good and perfect plan, now go and call Gabriel. I have an important message for him to tell Mary.
(Gabriel goes and talks to Mary, and she kneels to the ground.)
Gabriel:
Do not be afraid Mary, God is pleased with you. God has a surprise for you: You will have a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David and he will rule over Israel for ever, his kingdom will never end.
Mary:
But how can this be?’
Gabriel:
The power of the Highest will hover over you; Therefore, the child will be called Holy, Son of God. And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth is having a son, old as she is? Everyone thought she could not have a baby, but now she is six months pregnant. Nothing, you see, is impossible with God.
Mary:
I am the Lord’s servant and am ready to do whatever He wants.
May everything you say come true.
(Gabriel walks back to where God is.)
Angel 2:
She is so young for this important job. She's not even married, her fiancé will disown her and the community will stone her. It will be a scandal over your Son’s life.
God:
Come here Gabriel I have a message for you to tell Joseph.
(Gabriel arrives.)
God:
Go and give Joseph my message, to take Mary as his wife.
(Gabriel goes down to the steps to talk to Joseph)
Gabriel:
Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save his people from their sins.
(Gabriel goes back up the steps)
Angel 1:
I understand, this is what you said through the Prophet Isaiah.
Bible reading 2:
This reading is from Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14. The virgin will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us.
God:
Joseph is a good man. With my help, he will protect her.
Angel 2:
It will be so hard for him to protect her. In this violent place your son may not even make it to be born. Mary and Joseph are young and poor. If Jesus were to be born in a palace, to be born a king's child, then he would have soldiers to protect him.
Angel 3:
And who will even know your beloved son has been born?
God:
My son's coming has been foretold for thousands of years.
Bible reading 3:
This reading is from Micah chapter 5 verse 2. But you oh Bethlehem, from out of you will come the one who is to be ruler in Israel, who is coming from old from ancient of days.
Angel 1:
Yes, but Mary and Joseph live in Nazareth and didn't the Prophet Micah say he would be born in Bethlehem, in King David’s city.
God: Don’t worry, I've got it all sorted.
God: Gabriel I need you to take this group of angels to go and tell Bethlehem's shepherds about my son's birth.
(during this reading Mary and Joseph walk up one aisle and down the other to sit behind the manger)
Bible reading 4:
This reading is from Luke chapter 2 verses 1 to 9: In those days a law went out from Caesar Augustus that a census should be taken. So everyone had to register in their ancestors town. Joseph, who was a descendent of David’s, went from Galilee, from Nazareth, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, to be registered with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant. And while they were there the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. In the same region, there were shepherds out in the fields, watching over their sheep by night. Suddenly an angel appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone brightly around them and they were afraid.
Gabriel
(takes the other angels down the steps to the shepherds):
Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for everyone. To day in the town of David, a saviour has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a Manger.
GROUP OF ANGELS:
Praise God in heaven! Peace on earth to everyone who pleases God."
ALL SHEPHERDS:
Let's go to Bethlehem and see this wonderful thing that the Lord has told us about.
(The shepherds walk up and down the aisles while song or reading then kneel in front of baby Jesus’ manger.)
Bible reading 5: They ran to the village and found their way to Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby lying in a manger. The shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. All who heard the shepherds expressed astonishment but Mary treasured these things in her heart and thought about them. Then the shepherds returned to their fields singing praises to God for all they had heard and seen.
Angel 1:
What are raggedy tagged bunch of poor shepherds. Do you want us to proclaim to the kings and rulers of the world as well, and to warn them that they had better look after your beloved son?
God: Don’t worry, just watch.
Angel 2:
Is it going to be left to a bunch of very ordinary and somewhat scruffy people to let the world know about your son?
God: That’s the plan.
Angels sing this first, then all children & tweens, then congregation will join in and sing:
Go tell it on the mountains over the hills and everywhere
Go tell it on the mountains that Jesus Christ is born.