Christmas program stories?

[binny]

Our Christmas proagram was yesterday at Church. They did the usual parade of babies and only 1 was fussy which was amazing.

Then they brought up the 3 and 4 year olds they all get lined up on the stage and are doing the waving to mommy and daddy thing. Then this adorable little boy who was all dressed up in a sweater vest and tie and khakis does his best angry look and screams " STOP LOOKING AT ME!!!!"

I'm sure his parents were embarrassed but it was adorable!

I thought man that is something My kids would have done! LOL


Do you have a program story?

 

[GEM]

What's a "parade of babies"?

 

[binny]

The parents all come up and show off the babies. The pastor introduces all the little ones and their parents. That way all the kids are involved in the program.

 

[barkley]

my kids have always attended christian schools so from preschool on there have always been 'christmas programs'. i recall one year when ds was around 2 and we went to see dd in the yearly 'extravaganza'-we are sitting in the audience and the procession of preschoolers comes marching down the aisle-all having been told 'just make sure to follow the person in front of you'. the 'line leader' happend to be a little girl who had been in the toddler center with ds the year before and absolutly loved him (always refered to him as 'mybaby')-well she catches sight of him and starts walking towards us, excusing herself as she walks down the pew and past the people seated next to us...all the while the rest of the kids do exactly as they were told-they follow her and we end up with a parade of kids up the aisle and log jammed into one of the pews

our school's program was satuday night-during one portion the 1st graders exited to change into costumes (they were portraying mary, joseph and the wise men)-the little girl who played 'mary' comes out in a very reverant manner (i think she got tutored to walk slowly and like a 'lady' ),takes her place and the kids start doing a song, then one of the kids sez 'hey mary-did you forget something?'-'mary' starts checking herself out, touches all her costume peices and shakes her head no. one of the kids then says in a loud voice 'what about baby jesus'-'mary' looks into the manger realizes there's no baby and runs off stage-she returns at a full run and throws the doll they've dressed as 'baby jesus' into the crib where it lands upside down and bounces a couple of times

 

[binny]

That is priceless!

 

[debster812]

Not a "Christmas Program" story per se, but a "Christmas Season" story.

At our parish, the 9:30 Mass is the Children's Mass. When the priest gives his homily, he calls all the children up to sit around the altar, and talks 'to' them, rather than 'at' them. It's really VERY nice.

Well, we now also have the Advent Wreath, and yesterday there were 2 lit candles on it. (you all can see where this is going, no?)

One of the little ones (about 4) bumped the table, and it started to go over. One of the bigger kids (5th or 6th grade) saw it happening, jumped up, reached over the littles, and grabbed the wreath. The table went down, but he held onto the wreath, and the candles. No harm, no foul. When the priest thanked him by name, publically, he turned 100 shades of red, and was MORTIFIED.

Just a little excitement on the 2nd Sunday of Advent....

 

[Scutapipig]

A few years back, we had a wise man who simply did not want to be a wise man. He walked over to baby Jesus, threw his present at him, and then proceeded to stand in his spot for the rest of the program with his arms folded....and his back to the audience.

Then there was the year my son was a shepherd and wore his sandals. Being a kid who hates shoes (and clothes, for that matter), he took his sandals off, laid on the floor and proceeded to "dance" his sandals in time with the music.

 

[disneymom3]

barkley--very funny stories!

We had our programs yesterday too. I directed the one for the 1st through 5th graders actually. The only mess up we had happened at both performances of it actually. One kid had no clue what his cue was and he blew it both times. Guess that is what happens when you skip practice to go to basketball more than half the time.

Our little ones sang in the morning and were darn cute. One little boy, right before they started yelled out "I'm smiling mom!" He must have been reminded. DS could see me and everytime I raised the camera, he would stop what he was doing and look at me and smile. I wanted to get an action shot!

 

[U2_rocks!]

The Infants Dept. of the school just had its 3 plays - 1 for each class level, Reception, Middle Infants and Top Infants (which would be the US equivalent of pre-K, K and Grade 1). Katie is in Middles and Logan in Tops.

Katie's play was amazing - excellent performances by everyone! I was so proud of my 5 yo who was a co-narrator (as well as her fairy role) at the last minute, filling in for someone else, and she was the loudest, clearest and most expressive speaker of them all! I'm not just biased - many people told me that after the play. Her play wasd a made up story about Santa granting the children of Barbados snow for Christmas. It was very entertaining!

Logan's play was the Nativity Story with a slight twist - one of the characters was a grumpy shepherd who was lazy, didn't want to do anything, always complained etc. However, meeting the angel Gabriel and then going to see baby Jesus transformed him completely. The kid who was supposed to play the grumpy shepherd cried and wouldn't go on stage, so they had to substitute another little boy, who didn't know his lines well, didn't know what he was supposed to do etc. The other kids would prompt him, the narrators would wait on him etc. It was cute how they all tried to help him.

The Receptions play was full of fumbles! No wonder - most of them are only 4, and for some it was their first time on stage in front of people! They messed up lines, did funny things etc. They weren't subtle about prompting either - on a few occasions a kid with a speaking role would look around blankly, not remembering what he was to do next, and some kid from the back of the stage would yell what he was supposed to do or say! I wish I could remember some good examples!

It was a really sweet morning though, seeing all the adorable kids putting their all into singing, dancing and acting!

 

[amy4bruce]

I have been involved for the last few years in Unitarian Universalist Christmas pageants. These are not as strictly religious as others. For example, for three years running, we told the kids that they could wear any kind of animal costume they wanted for the manger scene. So we get turtles, dinosaurs, really anything you can name. Mary's donkey, a child in an Eeyore costume, was once too scared to come out. I spent a few minutes coaxing him from the stage.

One of my favorites was a polar bear. Her parents were new to the church. The polar bear was three years old, but tall enough to look older. We had no idea how young she was. Five minutes into the pageant, she got bored and began to wander around the set, looking into things. Her parents were sure they were going to be kicked out of the church. This was my first pageant as director/narrator, and here is where I had my epiphany - it's not great theatre, it's meant to please the parents. So I said, "Yea, there were shepherds in the field, and polar bears, too." Got a great reaction.

Another time, we had a shepherd with Down's Syndrome. Things were fine until we realized that he was totally attracted by dolls, including the Baby Jesus. He kept stealing it and diapering it. For the performance, someone got a duplicate doll and gave it to him, thinking that it might distract him. Nope. In the middle of the pageant, he jumped up and stole Baby Jesus. We just kept going and laughed about it later.

Our "Winter Lights" pageant, covering Advent, Dwalli, Chanukah, Solstice, Santa Lucia and Kwanzaa, not to mention UU traditions, is this Sunday. We have more adults and older kids in it than usual, and I'm not directing (but I do sing the blessings over the Chanukah candles), but I'm sure that something will make it memorable.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

barkley and scutapipig, you guys have me .

This makes me think back to when I was in 7th grade. My parents went to a Lutheran church where they draft middle schoolers to serve as altar boy/girl every Sunday, as well as during special church services. One of the ones I got drafted for that year was a Christmas eve mass. As I was leading down the altar with my big pointy candlesnuffer in front of me, one of the things I had to do was snuff out the 4 candles on the Advent wreath. One of them refused to go out. I snuffed and I snuffed till my snuffing arm was sore. And then I attempted to snuff some more. But it just WOULD NOT go out. So finally, I got a bright idea in my head as to how to get it to go out. I stood on my tiptoes and blew it out.

One year, I think when I was in HS, Mom's church had their annual children's Christmas pageant and they had three 5th graders playing wisemen sing "We 3 Kings of Orient Are". On the 'Oh Oh Oh Star of Wonder..." part, the wisemen decided to get silly. They leaned first one way, then the other. It totally had the audience cracking up.

TOV