I Believe In Christmas

Follow closely and I’ll try to explain: Keith comes to the clubhouse of his friends (the puppets) and asks for help because his friend, Angela, does not believe in Christmas. The friends decided to put on a play about Jesus’ birth to help convince her. There is a lot of puppet interaction as we watch the play come together. Pappy becomes the director and he gets a little stressed. Keith and Angela come to watch and Pappy keeps stopping the play to make corrections, suddenly a director comes up from the audience to stop the whole play we are watching. He talks to Pappy and the other actors, like the girl playing Angela (Kelly). She has questions about being a Christian and that perks up everyone, but just then, they all freeze. Two slightly older girls walk on stage and one of them is saying how she is Kelly. That is when you realize that the entire play was just a story this girl was telling her friend. The play continues, as they share the gospel with Kelly and they get back to their bible play and the end where Angela invites Jesus into her heart. But Kelly goes off the script and does it for real. So this is a story of how Kelly got saved doing the Christmas play. Are you confused? Well, so are the puppets at the end. A bit of humor and a salvation message.

Cast of 14 characters, 8 male and 6 female. (at least 9 puppets) Age and gender can vary. One set.. no scene changes. 45-50 mins.

 

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

ACTORS: KEITH, ANGELA, THE DIRECTOR, KELLY (FEMALE PART) AND KRISTIN.

PUPPETS:
MALE CHARACTERS: PAPPY (old man), JUSTIN (young boy), AARON (bearded bible character), KEVIN (bearded bible character), MITCH (Isaiah looking), JOSEPH

FEMALE CHARACTERS: CONSTANCE (any age, but mature is better), LISA/MARY (biblical Mary), INNKEEPER’S WIFE (old woman bible character)

EXTRAS: A baby puppet or a doll wrapped up. Animal puppets: Sheep, donkey, cow.

Excerpt:

KEITH: (Entering) Hello? Anybody here? Pappy?

PAPPY: (A grandpa puppet comes out) Keith? Is that you? How ya
doin’, Sonny?

KEITH: Hi Pappy! I was hoping you would be here today.

PAPPY: Well I’m here! You betcha! You just step right up and tell
me what’s on your mind, Sonny Boy!

KEITH: Wow, really?

PAPPY: Why shore! I ain’t got nuthin better to do than to talk with
you, Keith, my boy! What seems to be on your mind today? What is
it that you is just itchin to talk about? What sort of thing is
goin on in your life that brings you by my little place, and pulls
me away from watchin one of the most excitin games I ever did see
on the old TV….

KEITH: Oh, I’m sorry, Pappy! Were you watching a game?

PAPPY: No, I was just pullin your leg, Keith my boy! Never mind me…
just havin some fun with ya. I will not tease you anymore, I
promise! Well, at least not until the next time. Yuk yuk.
What can I do for ya?

KEITH: Well, Pappy, you see, it’s like this: I have this problem,
you see. I have a friend who doesn’t believe in Christmas. I tried
to talk with her, but she just keeps arguing with me about it and
we get nowhere.

PAPPY: Don’t believe in Christmas? Why I never heard of such a
thing! How could somebody not believe in Christmas?

KEITH: She says that it is all a fable, and none of that stuff is
really true. I thought you might be able to help me to convince her.

PAPPY: Wow, that sounds really serious. This is someone’s eternal
destiny that is in question here. If she doesn’t believe that the
Christmas story is real, then she probably doesn’t believe in Jesus
either.

KEITH: Well, she says that she believes that Jesus was a real person…
.but she thinks that the stuff about his birth was all made up to
make for a nice Christmas story. She puts it all on the same level
as Santa Clause and Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph and all that.

PAPPY: Oh dear! We got work to do! We need to put our thinking
caps on and come up with a good plan to get this gal back on the
right track! What’s her name?

KEITH: Angela.

PAPPY: Angela? Why that is a very pretty name…and it has angel in
it. But she don’t believe in angels? We gotta do something for
dear Angela! Constance! Constance, come out here!

CONSTANCE: (A girl puppet enters from a different area) Pappy!
What are you hollerin about? Oh, hi Keith! I didn’t know you were
here. Would you like some tea?

KEITH: Oh, no thanks. How ya doing, Constance?

CONSTANCE: Well, I’m doing just fine, thank you very much! That
was so nice of you to ask. Yes, indeed, I am doing mighty fine.
Much better in fact, now that you are here. Are you sure you don’t
want any tea?

PAPPY: Constance! Stop with the chit chat…. Keith came to us with
a real problem.

CONSTANCE: Problem? What ever could be the matter, Keith?

PAPPY: Her name is Angela.

CONSTANCE: Oh! You are having girl troubles?

PAPPY: No! You silly! He came to us because this girl, Angela does
not believe in Christmas!

CONSTANCE: Oh dear! That is a problem!

KEITH: I was hoping you could help me with a way to get her to
understand the truth.

CONSTANCE: Prayer is the most important thing. We have to keep
this Angela in prayer. God will soften her heart! And we can pray
for you too, that God would fill you with His Spirit and give you
wisdom to share the right words with Angela.

KEITH: Yeah. Okay.

PAPPY: Do you think you could bring Angela here?

KEITH: Bring her here? Well, I could try. But I don’t know if she
would come.

CONSTANCE: Well, she might come if there was something special going
on for her to see.

KEITH: Something special?

CONSTANCE: Yes, I think we should put on a special presentation for
Angela.

PAPPY: Special presentation? What ever are you talkin about,
Constance? What presentation?

CONSTANCE: I think we should put on a play. We’ll gather everybody
together and we will put on a play about the Christmas story. I
think we have lots of costumes around here, and enough people to
play all the parts…. It would be fun as well as a way to get the
message of God’s love across to Angela. Do you think she would come,
Keith?

KEITH: I could ask her. But I would hate for you to go to a lot of
work just for one person. And what if she changes her mind and didn’t
come at the last minute?

CONSTANCE: Then we will just have a good time doing the play and
learning our parts and telling the best story in all the world to
tell. The story of Jesus!

KEITH: Maybe I could invite all my friends. Everybody loves to
watch a play!

CONSTANCE: Well, that would be fine. But let’s focus on Angela!
She is gonna be a believer by this Christmas! Let’s believe God for
that! You know that He wants it to happen!

KEITH: Wow… that is so neat that you guys will put on a whole
Christmas play just for my friend!

PAPPY: I’m going to go and get the others… we all need to be in on
this! (He exits)

CONSTANCE: You know, Keith, sometimes when we do something like a
drama, it opens up the story in a new way, and the Holy Spirit is
able to break through those hard hearts and touch them in a special
way to believe the gospel message. Sometimes we can talk till we
are blue in the face, or give them something to read… but they don’t
want to read it, or have them hear a sermon, but some are not used
to listening to stuff like that. When they see a drama… it tells
them the story in a way they are more accustomed to. Kids watch a
lot of TV and videos, and see stuff acted out all the time. This
could really be a powerful tool to touch Angela’s heart.

JUSTIN: (A boy puppet enters) Hey! What is this I hear about us
putting on a play?

LISA: (A girl puppet dressed as Mary enters) I’m ready! I got the
costume and everything!

CONSTANCE: How did you get that on so fast?

LISA: When I heard “Christmas play”… I hurried and put it on…and it
fits! So can I play Mary?

AARON: (A boy puppet dressed as a bearded bible character enters)
Look at me! I got the beard and costume and everything. I could be
a shepherd or… a wise man…

MITCH: (A boy puppet dressed like a prophet enters) I could play
Isaiah the prophet who foretold of the coming Messiah!

KEITH: Wow! This is great! Look at all the great costumes! It is
like you were all sitting around just waiting for me to show up with
my problem. You all have everything you need! How did you know?

LISA: Know? We didn’t know anything! Don’t be silly, Keith.

KEITH: Well, you don’t all just go around wearing those costumes all
the time!

AARON: Actually, we do.

KEITH: You do?

AARON: Yeah… we don’t get much excitement around here. Most of us
look like this all of the time.

MITCH: I look like this all the time.

KEITH: This is so exciting! I can’t wait to tell Angela that she
is invited to a special Christmas play put on by all my friends.
When can you do it?

JUSTIN: How about tomorrow?

EVERYONE: Tomorrow??!!

JUSTIN: Oh, too soon? Okay… how about next year?

CONSTANCE: Justin! Something in between, I believe. We need
time to put a script together, and practice our parts… but we will
get right on it… give us 2 weeks!

KEITH: Okay! I’ll be back later to see how it’s going! Thank you
so much for doing this!

CONSTANCE: I’m going to get started on that script! Bye, Keith!
(She exits)

EVERYONE: See ya, Keith! Bye! (Keith says “bye” and exits)

MITCH: So do you think he got suspicious?

LISA: Of what?

MITCH: Of me! That I spend every day of my life looking like Isaiah
the prophet!

JUSTIN: So what? All he cares about is that you look the part and
we are doing a play for him.

MITCH: I better go and make sure that Constance writes me into the
script. We have to have Isaiah the prophet; I don’t look like
anybody else in the story! (He exits)

AARON: Hey! I have an idea! Maybe we could get some live animals!

LISA: Live animals? Where are you going to get live animals?

AARON: I have a friend who has a farm. He might be able to get us
some cool animals to use in the play.

LISA: Animals are hard to take care of. Are you going to be in
charge of making sure they are okay and cared for and can get on and
off the stage without any problems?

AARON: Yeah! That’s not hard. I should go and talk to him. He has
chickens and geese and a rooster… and a horse…

JUSTIN: Wait a minute! None of those animals are even in the story!
Does he have a donkey?

AARON: I don’t know if he has a donkey. I don’t think I ever saw
one there.

JUSTIN: Does he have a cow for the manger scene? Or what about
some sheep for the shepherd scene?

AARON: I don’t think so, but we could use the dog.

JUSTIN: You mean dress the dog in a sheep costume?

AARON: Oh, that might look like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

JUSTIN: And what about camels for the wise men?

AARON: Camels are really hard. I don’t know anybody who has a
camel on their farm.

JUSTIN: That’s because no one has a camel on their farm! Camels
are from the Middle East and Egypt and places like that!

AARON: That’s pretty far, huh?

LISA: Maybe we should be thinking more about props and sets and our
lines, and not worry about animals.

AARON: I guess you’re right. Maybe we can get some guys to dress
up like the sheep and the camels.

LISA: And who is going to make those costumes? Not me!

AARON: Wait a minute! Didn’t you hear what Constance said? We
gotta do this for Angela?

JUSTIN: I came in late. Who is this Angela anyway?

LISA: I don’t know. I wasn’t in here either.

AARON: Maybe she is some big Hollywood producer or a talent scout
or something! We need to do a really good show! We might be
discovered!

LISA: The only think they will discover is how bad you are!

AARON: Hey! I resemble that remark!

JUSTIN: Do you really think she is some kind of hot shot like that?

AARON: Well, she must be somebody pretty important for us to put
together a big Christmas play in just two weeks!

JUSTIN: Hey! Maybe Angela is Keith’s sister and she is dying of a
rare disease, and this will be her last Christmas play that she will
ever see.

LISA: Oh, how sad!

AARON: Justin just made that up!

JUSTIN: Well, it ain’t any worse than your talent scout from
Hollywood!

LISA: Whoever she is… we are doing the play for her and that’s all
that matters!

AARON: I’m sure there is a good reason! For Angela!

LISA AND JUSTIN: For Angela! (They all exit)