Traditional
Created by: / St John’s in the City
Number of speaking parts: / 2
Duration: / Medium
Includes: / Carols / Sound Effects /
Grandmas, why was Jesus born in a stable?
St J’s Kids Pageant 2005 10am service.
(Based on suggested pageant from the Whole People of Curriculum 1997)
Set up: Communion table removed, small platform in place
Ladder: covered in Hessian standing below pulpit (this will act as stable during pageant)
Grandmother & Child: in pulpit with child sitting on edge
appx 5 Innkeepers with doors: in place behind their ‘doors’ (fridge boxes) placed around front of church
Mary and Joseph: in place behind door by piano
Child: Tell me, Grandma, why was Jesus born in a stable?
Grandmother: Well, a long time ago the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus made a
law that everyone must go to the city of his ancestors to have his name recorded there. So Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem, the city of Joseph’s ancestor King David.
It was a long journey by donkey, especially as Mary was going to have a baby. At last, one chilly night this poor couple came into Bethlehem. It was getting dark and it was bitterly cold.
Mary & Joseph & donkey enter through door by piano & begin walking up
the aisle…
Grandmother: Mary and Joseph had to find a place to stay the night. So they knocked at
one door after another, looking for a room…
Mary & Joseph knock on doors as they pass, asking for a room for the night.
Grandmother: …but every tavern and inn was full.
Mary & Joseph knock on door 5 (last door behind lectern)
Grandmother: Until finally an Innkeeper took pity on them and although he had no rooms left in his inn he led them to a small shed where animals were sheltering out of the wind and sleet.
Innkeeper ushers them around the fridge box to door behind lectern
Sound person: get taped cry ready
Grandmother: In the middle of the night, after everything was quiet, and all the lanterns had been blown out in the main building, a cry was heard.
Sound person: (10 secs only of crying, fade after 7 secs)
Grandmother: (Pause for 5 secs of crying baby then as sound fades continue)
So that’s how it happened that it was in a stable, among the oxen and cow, that
the baby Jesus was born.
Mary & Joseph & Baby Jesus stay out
Light person: All lights on.
Star carrier: Star appears at lectern door & WAITS UNTIL SECOND HALF VERSE 1
Hymn: Oh little town of Bethlehem (verses 1 & 2 only, verse 1 Choir solo)
Innkeepers: Exit down the 2 aisles
Star carrier: During second half of Verse 1 leads M, J & baby to front of pulpit (under ladder covered in Hessian). Mary & Joseph sit on a bench
Climb the ladder and sit on top
Angels: When congregation start singing, Enter down both aisles & gather around the
family, fuss over baby then some climb up the ladder
Grandmother: Suddenly light and sound filled the air. The parents were amazed. The small stable roof seemed to open up. A bright star, brighter than all the others in the sky, twinkled and sparkled directly above them. A host of angels hovered, their wings gently moving back and forth, their faces glowing as they welcomed the child.
Hymn: Away in a manger
Grandmother: Then Shepherds with their sheep came crowding through the door,
Shepherds/sheep Enter down both aisles
Grandmother: Rough, burly men, who had been startled by more angels. They entered with their sheep baaing and milling close behind them.
Pause until shepherds & flocks are in place…
They had come to see the child who had been proclaimed a Saviour & to offer him praise.
Grandmother: And some time later, a procession of 3 Kings, wise men from foreign lands, arrived with their attendants trailing after them.
Kings & retinue Enter down both aisles
Grandmother: Now followed camels and servants, great trunks full of supplies, strange instruments with which to read the stars, maps rolled on parchment, books full of strange writing, boxes of marvelous, exotic food and gifts encased in gold and silver.
Pause until all are in place.
Mary & Joseph sat humbly, as each wise man knelt in turn, and paid homage to the child, a child born in a stable. So you see that’s how it happened, the first Christmas when Jesus, God’s beloved child, came to this world to be among us.
Child: Can we go and see him?
Grandmother: Of course, lets!
Grandmother & child: get up & during the next hymn kneel before the baby & stand with St J’s Kids to sing hymn
Hymn: Somebody’s Birthday
Yr 6 farewell & acknowledgement of St J’s Kids leaders: Children sit at front for this
Final Hymn:
Morning tea in Conference Centre: Adults: Christmas cake & Tea/coffee
Children: Strawberries & icecream.
A chance for the congregation to see the St J’s Kids’‘patch’