h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My children performed in the chuch Christmas Pagent - an elaborate affair with costumes, special effects, props and its own soundtrack.

Perhaps I'm turning into a curmudgeon, but wouldn't it be nice if the kids would have sung traditional carols in traditional arrangements with speaking parts being part of the Christmas story from the Bible instead of dressing up the wise men like Elvis, Garth Brooks and James Brown?

Still, after weeks of practice the kids did an outstanding job. My little one even remembered most of the hand motions that went with each song.

Perhaps they were trying to say that Elvis, Garth Brooks and James Brown were wise men?





Perhaps not...


That sounds like a very unusual Christmas Pagent they had.

I believe the word is 'contemporary'.

I wonder who came up with that idea, anyway?

The church stage mom who wants her kids in the leads of every pagent. Of course then she needs to direct and produce the extravaganza...



It's called a life and I wish someone would have given her one for Christmas...

We did all sorts of funky Christmas shows in church when I was a kid, never the traditional "pageant".

We did:

"Christmas on Angel Street" -- street boy shoplifts to buy a Christmas present for his sister
"The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" -- based on the books about the neighborhood bullies who join the church pageant
"6th Grade Scrooge" -- just what it sounds like
"365 Days of Christmas" -- about celebrating the meaning of Christmas all year
"What in the World is Christmas" -- about Christmas traditions in different cultures

Plus some others -- I actually still have the music for all of them, somewhere. We did two big musicals a year, 3rd-8th grade -- one Christmas, and one in the Spring -- some of the spring ones were religious, some were just shows like Annie.

As a kid, that was a lot more fun than doing the same pantomined pageant year after year, which is what happened at my friends' churches. The musicals became a reason why kids wanted to come to Wednesday Bible Study, as that was the group the musicals were chosen from -- we eventually had about 100 kids coming every Wednesday after school for Bible, music, sports, crafts, study hall, and dinner.

I understand what they're trying to do with the "contemporary" pageants - make it more relevant to people today by having the characters dress in more current styles, or drawing on contemporary issues. There is a time and place for that... but I'd much prefer a more traditionally costumed and staged Christmas pageant/play, even though it certainly doesn't have to be the exact same pantomimed thing year after year.

A couple of years ago, our church did an original musical (written and directed by the choir director) called "Would You Believe an Angel?", but the characters in it were very traditional, beginning with the part in Luke about Zechariah burning incense in the temple when Gabriel appeared to him and told him that Elizabeth was going to have a baby at her advanced age, and continuing on through Gabriel appearing to Mary, and finally the angels appearing to the shepherds.

It dealt with each character's reactions to the angels and what they were told by the angels, being imaginative while staying true to scripture. It wasn't at all stodgy though, there was even a bit of humor tucked in here and there.

Several years earlier, they did a more traditional pagent outdoors, but it was not pantomine, there were speaking roles and even a little singing.

A lot of people liked the show.

I really do wonder if I'm not turning into a curmudgeon. At least that's what my mom thinks...