My Favorite Christmas Play

I’ve enjoyed working with the kids on every play that we have performed, but of course one play has to be my favorite. And that play is 2018’s A Haunted Christmas.

Our first brainstorming meeting was a few days before Halloween and the day after our Trunk or Treat event, so spooky was on the kids’ minds. They chose to go with a haunted house theme for a retelling of the Christmas story. We brainstormed some characters and plot elements, and then Kids Connection was done.

Immediately afterwards, I ran into Pastor Jon and told him the theme. I’ll always remember his stunned silence, and then he just said, “Okay.” I hope that by the time we performed the play, it lived up to whatever his expectations were when I told him that.

This play is my favorite for many reasons. It is chock full of jokes and puns, with one almost every line. There are several moments of quick wordplay that are humorous in the delivery. And the play ends with the perfect button joke at the end.

My favorite joke is the two parter when Joseph meets the scarecrows and tells them not to eat his brain because “It’s useless and in terrible shape.” And then afterwards tells them he didn’t mean it about his brain, saying “It's actually in very good condition. I mean, I've hardly used it-” before Mary interrupts him.

It also is one of the few plays that deviates slightly from the traditional Christmas story. Rather than having the Herod subplot end with a note by the Wise Men that they’ll go a different way home, Herod and Henchghost are stopped by the force of light.

Read the script below.