Church Christmas Play

Our church has been planning a Christmas play for a few weeks now. I’ve only seen a few plays in my life, and up until now I’ve never actually been in one, so when they asked me if I wanted to be one of the three shepherds, I was a little nervous! Fortunately, it was the perfect kind of play for a first-timer because of how simple it was: there were no speaking parts – it was more of a nativity scene with live singing. 

The day before the play, on Saturday, we had a dress rehearsal. My mom made the shepherds’ costumes, and though she claimed they looked like a child had made them, I thought she had done a good job. With the exception of the rubber band securing my turban giving me a headache, the rehearsal was a success! Asher and I played shepherds, and Ayla was the main angel, standing over the manger scene.

Originally, Matthew was not going to be in the play, and stayed home from the rehearsal, but a little while after my mom, sisters and I arrived, the pastor asked if Matthew could be in charge of the sound booth. In all honesty, my Mom threw him under the bus volunteered him for the job— but that’s what mother-in-laws are for, right? Ha. To make a long story short, he ended up driving there and joining us.

After the rehearsal, we stayed up late cleaning the house and making meringue cookies for the post-play potluck.

We accidentally slept in the following day, the day of the actual play, no doubt due to having stayed up so late the night before. I’m a little ashamed to admit that we woke up around the time we should have been leaving! We threw on church clothes at top speed, gathered up the cookies, and rushed out the door. No harm done, fortunately: a few cast members, including the director, arrived after us. whew.

When we got to church, I noticed Ayla was curled up in my mom’s lap and was trying to recover from feeling carsick. At the last second, she had to resign the role of “lead angel” to another little girl. I felt bad for her because she sadly regretted it afterwards, and quite a few tears were shed, especially when she saw the twinkle-light angel wings and halo being fitted on the new angel. But she cheered up and was back to her smiley self when the carsickness abated and she was able to join the other angels around the manger.

Matthew’s dad and youngest brother were able to join us and it was a special treat to have them there. It was his dad’s first visit to our church. Sadly, his mom was not able to come because she wasn’t feeling well. We missed her being with us, but there’s always next time.

I think the play was a great success! We should’ve thought to bring the big camera, but it only occurred to me on our way home. Instead, phone pictures and videos snapped by mom will have to suffice, as I was busy being a shepherd!