Every year at about this time,for onr night, my church is taken over by a bunch of loud, over active and enthusiastic kids just itching to get on stage and give everyone their version of the Nativity. Believe me, there is something unique about the Christmas story when it is acted out in a broad black country accent.
We start practicing in November giving us about 7-8 weeks to get it right. Every year I vow not to get stressed out with the rehearsals and every year I break that vow. At the dress rehearsal it was absolute chaos! No one was listening (including the staff), the kids were rioting and when we did get started it seemed to drag on for ohours! At one point I had to run to the sound desk and tell the engineer to switch the star on as we had three wise men walking round the platform supposedly following a star that was lighting their way. On the actual night of the performance I went into the changing room and informed the organisor that it was five minutes to the start and that we were starting on time. I returned three minutes later to find them doing last minute rehearsals! Who does rehearsals two minutes before the start of a performance. What little hair I have left suddenly got very grey!
Our version of the nativity this year included fairies! Yes, you have read it right -fairies. I have scoured the New Testament and can find no mention anywhere of fairies. But as they say in the newspaper trade, why let truth get in the way of a good story? Our angels were cute little girls dressed in white with the inveitable tinsel round their heads. Mary and Joseph were played by two youngsters who are brother and sister in real life and as usual, we had the fake fire for the shepherds who again as usual you could not hear unless sitting right next to them. One of the three kings could not get near enough to the mike to sing so eventually forced his way to the front.
But, because it was kids acting and giving their best, the congregation loved it! They applauded every song, laughed of the mistakes and missed most of the scripted jokes - but hey, no one is perfect. It was a good evening, even though during the serving of light refreshments afterwards untold mince pies were trampled into a carpet that is notoriously difficult to clean.
I have memories of very many nativities (most of them bad - only kidding). One of the most vivid is where the cast had to do a dance routine with some music from Grease as a background. Where on earth John Travolta fits into the Christmas story is beyond me but there you go.
O.K. to finish this blog, I trust you have smiled at the descriptions given and maybe even remembered similar situations you faced yourself. If so, I have achieved one aim in writing this blog - the other is to remind you (if you need it) that Christmas is not about who gets what, who can eat or drink the most but that Jesus Christ was born to bring us peace and reconciliation with God. He was God's gift to the world.
