How Many Sundays Until Christmas?
You might be asking the question
It’s too early to be thinking about the Nativity story. Isn’t it?
Not if you’re a Sunday School teacher, vicar or pastor, wondering about nativity plays for December.
This is the time of year I start to receive emails, Facebook messages, texts and WhatsApps asking me if I have a nativity play that is ideally both funny and biblical.
I do.
It’s not hard to make the nativity story funny. Making it the right kind of funny is harder but possible. We don’t want to laugh at the story or, heaven forfend, God. The laughter is the joy and delight of God condescending to become a man and live among us. As is often the case in comedy, the laugh comes not from the event itself, but the reaction to the event. The laughter is in the shepherds and the wise men who can’t quite comprehend the enormity of what they’re seeing.
Virtual Nativity
This has been the tone of every nativity I’ve written since I wrote my first in 1997 during my third year at the University of Durham. It was called Virtual Nativity which, for mostly pragmatic reasons, was performed as a radio play to a packed-out Assembly Rooms. It went down very well with some admittedly tipsy students. Like most comedy shows I did at university, it probably didn’t start until 10 pm.
Virtual Nativity was recorded on a proper audio reel by a delightful sound engineer called Paul Noble, a mature student who had worked for the BBC before deciding to get a degree. The posters were, if I do say so myself, brilliant. The design was based on the Jamiroquai album cover of Virtual Insanity. I still have one somewhere.
The Shape of Things to Come
I didn’t know it at the time, but within a few years, I would be writing comedy for BBC Radio 4 which was recorded in front of an audience. 25 years later, I’m starting work on my eleventh radio series with Milton Jones, which we will be recording before Easter next year. Sitting in the audience during the recording is still a nerve-racking experience. You’re always on tenterhooks until you get that first laugh.
But I’ve also been writing nativity plays ever since. Our de-churched society still finds the story endlessly fascinating. Let’s make the most of that.
The shepherds are stupefied. The wise men are gobsmacked. And Herod is sent into a murderous rage. In fact, I’ve written a nativity play that deals with Herod who is normally avoided for obvious reasons.
So. If you want a nativity play that works as part of a Sunday service, you can get my latest two here, available as a Word Document, so you can rewrite, add, change, edit or delete according to your needs. (Just don’t ask me to make the changes. And you don’t need to ask permission!).
Who’s the Greatest? is a short nativity play telling the Christmas story from the point of view of The Wise Men and Herod. It is based on Matthew 2:1-8 & Isaiah 9:2-7.
Saving Christmas – A Family Nativity Service tells the Christmas story from Joseph’s point of view (Matthew 1:18-25). This is not a play but a leader-led service with audience interactions, a few volunteers and some readers who’ve ideally been primed.
They’re here. The cost is up to you. You can pay what you like. You might want to pay nothing, download them, and if you decide to use them, you can go back and make a contribution. Or you could buy something alongside it, like the Audio MP3 of A Monk’s Tale, or the streaming MP4 of The God Particle or Water into Wine which, let’s be honest, you’ve been meaning to watch for a while, right? The link’s here.
Mercifully Short
If you want more options, a load of other plays Christmas readings and sketches for puppets were gathered up and turned into a book called Mercifully Short. The published, Kevin Mayhew, suggested the title. I didn’t like it at first as it sounded dismissive but I’ve warmed to it. It’s not on Amazon. No idea why. You can get it from the publisher, Kevin Mayhew, but I have some copies you can buy directly from me – and they aren’t doing any good sitting on my shelf. Get a copy – and physical signed copy The Gospel According to a Sitcom Writer while you’re at it – HERE.