You’re Dreaming! A No-Practice Christmas Pageant

This pageant was designed for maximum flexibility–you can have multiple kids in the same role; you can incorporate costumes and props or not; you can teach the congregation the two refrains or just narrate it all yourself. However you use this pageant, I pray it resurrects for you the chaos and surprise of that first Christmas!

If you choose to have the congregation involved in the responses, I suggest splitting the room in two and having one side shout out “you’re dreaming!’ and the other “it’s true!”. You can point to each side to prompt them.

A long, long time ago, God made the world and all its people, and called everything and everyone good. But eventually, bad things started happening. People were mean and sad and scared. Some people thought the world would just get worse and worse and worse forever. 

But there were other people, people who had faith, who thought that God would do something to save the world. One of those people, Isaiah, wrote about all sorts of unlikely, though wonderful, things—flowers that grew in deserts, lambs that cuddled up with lions, and a Prince, not of war, but of peace. 

“You’re dreaming,” people said. 

But Isaiah still believed. 

Then, a long time ago still, God sent an angel to a girl named Mary. (invite Marys forward) “Hello!” The angel said. “I’ve got good news! God has chosen you for a special mission. The savior is coming at last, and you are going to be his mom.”

“You’re dreaming,” Mary said, “I can’t be God’s mom!”

But the angel looked at her and said, “it’s true!” With God, all sorts of things we think are impossible become possible. 

So Mary decided to be brave, and she said yes. 

Mary had a fiancé named Joseph. (invite Josephs forward) His great-great-great and lots more greats-grandpa was a king, but he was just a carpenter. When he heard that Mary was pregnant, he worried about it and even thought they wouldn’t get married anymore. But one night, while he was sleeping and everything was dark, Joseph had a dream where an angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Joseph! Mary’s baby is God’s child, and she will need your help to raise him. This baby will be Emmanuel, God right there with you on earth.”

“You’re dreaming,” people said. And “it’s true,” he was dreaming. But the what he heard in his dream was true all the same. 

So Joseph got brave, and he and Mary stayed together after all.

Now, when Mary was pretty pregnant, a politician made a new rule: everybody had to go back to their family town and be registered so they could pay taxes. 

“You’re dreaming!” Mary said. “I can’t walk all that way pregnant!” But they had to go, or they’d be in trouble. So Mary and Joseph went on a long, long journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  (stomping noises)

And when they got to Bethlehem, there were so many people there that all the rooms were full! There was nowhere for them to stay, even though Mary was about to have her baby! Finally one innkeeper gave them a space in a stable, a place where animals lived. (invite animals forward and make animal noises)

The animals tried to welcome Mary and Joseph, but of course animals can’t talk, so they only made animal sounds. 

The cows went mooo. 

The sheep went baaaaa.

The donkeys went hee-haw.

Joseph looked around the stable, turned back to the innkeeper, and said,  “You’re dreaming! She can’t have a baby with all these animals around.” But “it’s true” – she did. Jesus was born right there in the dark and shadows of that old barn, and Mary and Joseph were overjoyed. Mary wrapped him up tight against the cold, and all the animals—the sheep and cattle, the donkeys and even the mice—came up to see the newborn King.

Now while Mary was having her baby, only a few miles away, a group of shepherds were watching their sheep at night, making sure they were safe from wolves. (invite shepherds forward) Suddenly, out of the starry sky, an angel appeared to them, too! The angel said “Don’t be afraid—I’ve got good news! That savior you were waiting for is here, born tonight. You’ll find him in a manger where the animals feed.” And then there was a whole choir of angels, praising God!” (invite angels forward and Gloria noises)

“You’re dreaming!” one shepherd said to another. “Would God really pick us, to be the first ones to go see our Savior? We’re just the sheep guys.”

“But what if it’s true?” said another shepherd. “We don’t want to miss our chance. This sounds amazing!”

So the shepherds went off to find the baby. And when they found him, they wanted to tell everyone how great he was. 

So there was Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus, and the animals and the shepherds. And high above them all shone a star, bright in the night, and it was a special star. A long, long way away some wise people saw it and knew it meant a new king had been born. (invite magi forward) So they set out on a long, long, journey, bringing some strange baby gifts with them—gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Once they got lost, because they went to the palace, instead of to where Mary and Joseph and Jesus were. When the king in that palace—whose name was Herod—heard that a new king was born, he said “you’re dreaming. I’m the only king around here.”

But the magi said “it’s true! We saw the star and came to worship him.” 

So Herod sent them to look for the baby, and eventually the magi found Jesus and his parents. They knelt and worshipped him, and gave him their gifts, and they were filled with joy. 

And so, maybe everything about the way Jesus was born seems like something out of a dream—angel visions, shepherds and magi, peace on earth, a baby in a barn—but if you take a peek at that baby’s face, glowing with the love that God has for everyone of us, you might just realize the best gift all –

it’s true! It’s all true. 

So go ahead and dream. With God, dreams come true. Amen.