Christmas is a time for traditions. But not all traditions work for all churches. The church I pastor seldom does Christmas plays. And when we do, they’re anything but traditional. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But we live within driving distance of Disneyland, Hollywood, major music venues and massive megachurches. I can literally hear the fireworks from some of the world’s biggest, most famous, multi-million-dollar Christmas spectacles from my backyard. Teenagers in bathrobes singing “Silent Night” can’t compete with that. So we don’t try. Instead, we stick with simple get-togethers. And sometimes we’ll come up with an idea no one else has tried and give it a shot. The most successful Christmas skit we’ve ever done is one I wrote a few years ago.
If there’s one thing I know about small churches, it’s that a lot of what we do happens in that last-minute scramble. If your church is looking for an off-beat way to re-tell the Christmas story, here’s an idea for a Christmas skit. It’ll help people see the birth of Jesus as told in the Gospels in a way they’ve never seen it before—while honoring the biblical narrative.
The premise of the Christmas skit is that there’s an entire epic’s worth of wonder, joy and excitement packed into the very few verses that make up the biblical Christmas story. All you need is two actors willing to go a little over-the-top and two non-speaking volunteers. The only props are a laptop (or a notepad) and a phone. The only staging needed is a desk and two chairs.
Here’s the entire script of Christmas skit. It lasts about 20-25 minutes.
It’s also available to print as a PDF version.
