More Blessed To Give

There are eleven children who are gathering to give their Sunday School teacher her Christmas presents. They decide to open them and see what everyone is getting her and one little girl is embarrassed because her gift is home-made. She is rediculed for being poor and making something so mediocre. The teacher shows up and teaches them about the first gifts and having the right giving attitude. She asks them about the very first gift that started it all, the gift of God’s Son bringing the gift of eternal life. A happy ending with the poor girl’s gift being praised by the teacher, and the mean child does a turn-around and makes a drastic change.

About 15-20 minutes in length. Easy to add or delete characters. (11 children, one adult)

 

CAST:  (Mostly girls, but some can be changed to boys easily.)

ALLISON:  This is the largest part for your most experienced actress.  Plays a girl who gets what she wants, takes charge, and doesn’t care about someone’s feelings… but also undergoes a transformation.

ABBY:  This part is the sweet girl who doesn’t have a lot but has a good attitude about things.  Some acting range is good.

ZOË
SARA
SAVANNAH
JENNIFER
REBECCA
TIFFANY
MELISSA
BILLY
JASON

MISS ROGERS:  The teacher.

MOTHER AND FATHER:  Optional walk-on at the end.

 Excerpt:

JENNIFER: What did you get her, Abby?

ALLISON: Oh, that’s right. We haven’t seen Abby’s yet. She’s the
only one left.

ABBY: Miss Rogers is going to be here any minute!

ZOE: I’m watching. I’ll let you know the minute I see her coming.

ALLISON: Hurry up, Abby. Let’s see it!

ABBY: I don’t want to show it. It’s for Miss Rogers.

Allison, Sara, and JENNIFER: Show us, Abby!

Rebecca, Billy, and SAVANNAH: Come on, Abby!

TIFFANY: Please!?

ABBY: (pulling it out of the bag) Okay. I got her this.

ALLISON: What is it?

SARA: You got her some material?

ALLISON: (grabbing it and opening it up) Oh… it’s an apron. Did
you buy this?

JENNIFER: It looks home-made to me.

SAVANNAH: Did you make that Abby?

ABBY: I don’t want to say.

ALLISON: Huh?

SAVANNAH: Come on, Abby! You can tell us. Did you make it?

ABBY: Yeah.

SARA: It’s pretty, Abby.

ALLISON: But she made it! Why did you MAKE Miss Rogers Christmas
present?

JASON: What’s wrong with that?

ALLISON: A gift should be a sacrifice. If it doesn’t cost you
anything, then it isn’t really worth giving.

JASON: She had to buy the material.

ALLISON: Material is cheap.

ABBY: It was all my parents could afford. The material was left
over from some dresses that my mom was making for us girls.

ALLISON: That’s too bad. But at least you should have asked your
mother to make a dress or something. That might be a little more…
well, you know..

ABBY: Mom said it would mean more to Miss Rogers if I made it myself.
We always make out presents. I can’t make dresses yet. But aprons
are pretty easy. Besides, there wasn’t enough material left to make
a dress big enough for Miss Rogers. That takes a lot of material.

ALLISON: Well, I wouldn’t know. But don’t worry about it, there are
a lot of really nice things here. She won’t hardly notice.

JASON: Is that a very nice thing to say?

ALLISON: Whatever. It’s no big deal.

SAVANNAH: Do you think Miss Rogers cooks? I was wondering if she
would even use an apron.

ALLISON: I’m trying to think if my mom has one or not.

ABBY: My mom wears aprons all the time.

SAVANNAH: Well yeah, your mom would.

ABBY: I have one, too.

SAVANNAH: But not all women like to cook. You have to think about
who you are giving your gift to.

ABBY: I guess I didn’t get a very good gift. I thought it was okay
when I thought of it.

SARA: Did it take you a long time to make it?

ABBY: Not too long.

JASON: I think it’s nice, Abby.

BILLY: Hey, Jason, maybe Abby can make you one, too. (they all laugh)

ZOE: Here she comes! (They all put the bags and gifts on the table
and sit down as Miss Rogers enters)

MISS ROGERS: What’s this? What’s with all the gifts?

SARA: They’re for you! We all decided to give you gifts for
Christmas.

MISS ROGERS: How sweet! Well, it is funny that you should do that,
because that is just what I wanted to talk to you about today.

ALLISON: Aren’t you going to open them?

MISS ROGERS: Well there are so many, it would take the whole class
time, and we are already late. I will have to open them all at home.
I might even wait till Christmas. But since we are talking about
giving gifts, who knows why we do this at Christmas time?

BILLY: It’s tradition.

MISS ROGERS: Okay… yes, it is a tradition. But even traditions start
some place, does anyone have any ideas?

SAVANNAH: Wasn’t there a real person named Saint Nicholas who gave
presents to children?

MISS ROGERS: I believe that might be true, but even he didn’t start
the idea. Anyone else have a guess?

SARA: Because it is nice and it makes you feel good?

MISS ROGERS: That is a good answer, but not what I am looking for.

JENNIFER: Because it is better to give than to receive?

MISS ROGERS: That is a very good principle. Do you know who said
that?

JASON: My dad says it.

JENNIFER: Was it Jesus?

MISS ROGERS: Yes! That’s right. Jesus was the one who said that.
Actually, He said it is more blessed to give than to receive. But
now you are on the right track.

JENNIFER: So that wasn’t it?

MISS ROGERS: Think about it. Who gave the first Christmas gift?

BILLY: Oh! I know! Was it the 3 wise men? They gave gifts to Jesus!

MISS ROGERS: Now you’re cooking! They gave the first gifts and I
think it was what they did that started all the gift giving at
Christmas time. It was years later, when Christians wanted to make
Christmas a holiday about Jesus’ birthday. It was just a holiday
called Winter Solstice or something like that. We don’t really know
what day Jesus was born, but they picked a day and called it Christmas,
which puts Christ in the holiday. But there was really one more
gift before the wise men brought theirs. Do you know what that was?
(pause)

Several kids: No, tell us!

MISS ROGERS: It was God giving us the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ.
As you all know, God’s gift of His Son, was so that He could die on
the cross and take away all our sins. Let’s all say John 3:16
together…

All: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.

MISS ROGERS: If we receive His gift of salvation, we will have
eternal life. But we have to take the gift. He offers it freely,
but He does not force us to take it.

BILLY: Who wouldn’t want that gift?

MISS ROGERS: Well, that’s the way you and I look at it, but there
are many who don’t take the free gift that has been offered to them.
What if I were to say to all of you, “these presents look real nice,
but I don’t want them.”? And then I just walked off and left them
here.

TIFFANY: That would be crazy!

MISS ROGERS: But so many people are like that. They won’t take the
gift.

JENNIFER: So then they won’t have eternal life will they?

MISS ROGERS: That’s right. We only have eternal life if we take
God’s gift. How would it make you all feel if I didn’t take your
gifts?

All the kids: It would make us sad. We would feel really bad. We
would feel awful.

MISS ROGERS: Just think how it must make God feel when people reject
Jesus. But I want to thank you all for being so kind and thoughtful
to me. I feel so blessed to have you all in my class, and I want to
thank you all for this expression of love you are giving to me. That
is the proper attitude of giving. As you know, the wise men brought
very nice gifts to Jesus when He was born. They did not expect
anything in return. He was the new born king, and they wanted to
honor Him and worship Him. When we give gifts, we should be thinking
of the other person, and not what nice thing they may give us in
return. After all, it is Jesus’ birthday. So we need to think
about giving something in the spirit of what Christmas really means.
I know a family that does not give gifts to each other at Christmas.

MELISSA: Don’t they believe in Christmas?

MISS ROGERS: Oh yes! They believe. They celebrate Jesus’ birthday.
They have a cake and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. But they don’t
give gifts to each other. They explain to the children that when it
is their birthday, they will receive a gift, but this is Jesus
birthday, so we need to give to Jesus.

JASON: How can you give a gift to Jesus?

ALLISON: By putting money in the offering plate.

MISS ROGERS: Well, that is one way. But what they do, is they find
a very poor family, and they buy presents for them. Because Jesus
said that if you do something for the least of these, His brethren,
you do it for Him. I’m not saying you should do that, I think it
just gives us something to think about.