Christmas pageant logistics?

[MichelleinMaine]

Those who have kids in Christmas pageants, what do they have for rehearsals? (How far in advance do they start? How many? How long?)

This is my second year being in charge of our pageant (no small task in and of itself, lol.) Our church traditionally won't start rehearsals til after Thanksgiving and pageant is third Sunday in Advent. Rehearsals are after church Sundays. That schedule had been yielding 3 rehearsals, but with Tday so late, that makes 2. Let's see, first one is chaos anyway by its very nature and the next one dress rehearsal. Yeah, right. Last year I found one that had portions that could be prerecorded (and just a few older children with lines for the live part- I worked with them a couple times during the week.) Everyone loved it, yeah, now need to follow it up- ugh!

So- just wondering what others do? Do you start rehearsing before Thanksgiving? Have longer rehearsals? (We find after an hour, they are toast!)

OR, any suggestions for easy/fun pageants? We did Live from Bethlehem last year, though we did not do it lip-synch to the CD. The kids read the lines. I'm really tempted this year though to do another of the "instant" ones, with the lip synch. I worry about it being tacky (but if I've only got them 2 rehearsals, not sure the other options!)

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Ours just does one rehearsal I believe. Costumes are recycled from years prior.

The kids are just walking to a narrative that someone else is reading, so not much rehearsal is needed.

The children's choir rehearses for about 4-6 weeks.

ETA: our pageant is not a separate event/play. It is incorporated into a children's mass on Christmas Eve.

 

[BabyTigger99]

Our children's Christmas pageant is done at the family service on Christmas eve. Ages are 3 years old to about 6th grade or so doing most of it, with the older grades helping out as needed. We actually started working on the music two weeks ago for it (childrens' choir practices for 15 minutes every Sunday before Sunday School). The older grades (3rd - 6th) will be speakers, and they receive their scripts usually the second week in November or so, so they can start practicing at home. We have two major rehearsals. The first is the 2nd Saturday in December, and the second is just a few days before Christmas Eve. What works for us is having a large committee to help out. We have probably at least 10 committee/parents who help on a regular basis, and other parents that will step in as needed. Our pagents are typically 15 minutes long.

 

[laurie31]

Holy cow, we started rehearsing in August!!

I couldn't imagine having so few rehearsals, but then we do a full musical where the kids have 4-6 musical numbers, then several kids have speaking parts. The actors have extra rehearsals separate from the choir, to learn their lines and block their scenes, then we will have a few extra practices with the whole choir together (in addition to the normal Sunday afternoon ones) the 2-3 weeks before the program. Dress rehearsal is the Saturday before the program weekend, usually for most of the day (10-4) so we can go over it 2-3 times. We also serve the kids lunch, do a craft, and have our choir Christmas party with a birthday cake for Jesus, so it's not like we practice for that whole 6 hours straight.

Our program will be Dec 11, 12, and 13th this year.

 

[MichelleinMaine]

Holy cow, we started rehearsing in August!!

I couldn't imagine having so few rehearsals, but then we do a full musical where the kids have 4-6 musical numbers, then several kids have speaking parts. The actors have extra rehearsals separate from the choir, to learn their lines and block their scenes, then we will have a few extra practices with the whole choir together (in addition to the normal Sunday afternoon ones) the 2-3 weeks before the program. Dress rehearsal is the Saturday before the program weekend, usually for most of the day (10-4) so we can go over it 2-3 times. We also serve the kids lunch, do a craft, and have our choir Christmas party with a birthday cake for Jesus, so it's not like we practice for that whole 6 hours straight.

Our program will be Dec 11, 12, and 13th this year.

Oh my heavens, I'm glad I'm not in charge of that sort of production! I bet it's wonderful, but alot of work!!

Ours is a 30-45 minute play, it's the "sermon" during the service on that particular day. (No, we do not normally have 45 minute sermons )

I do like the idea of combining it with a birthday party for Jesus though... perhaps that would entice folks in for an extra rehearsal during the week some night...

 

[lovesmurfs]

I've worked on ours for the last 5-6 years. This year we started in mid September. It has 7 songs and drama, and we have about 20 kids. It's actually really a great program this year because it includes Sunday School lessons that go along with each of the songs.

We meet 9:30 - 10:30 and 11-12. First hour we work on music and choreography. They have donut time break, and then we do our lesson and craft.

For the drama, we have lunch for the kids at noon (several stick around just for the fun of it, too). We practice from 12:30 to 1:30, take a dessert break and then go from 1:50 or so to 2:30. We're starting drama practice this Sunday.

Kids love to have lunch together, made just for them, and the Sunday before the program last year, we took them ice skating after practice (our town has a free outside rink).