Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?

By Michael & Deb Wehr

Summary

Friends are making a banner to welcome home a soldier and discussing how Christ is being taken out of Christmas.

Characters

Charity
Hope
Christian
Joseph

Script

(Setting: A group of friends are sitting around a table working on a welcome home Banner. Letters and glue are on the table in front of them.)

Charity: I still have Christmas shopping to do. I think it's ridiculous the way stores are putting out Christmas stuff earlier and earlier each year. I saw a Santa statue right next to a Frankenstein mask before it was even Halloween. Maybe Santa is trying to scare people into being good.

Hope: When I was a little girl, I think there was a law that said you couldn't put out any Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving. They used to pile it all up in the back room and then: !Poof! The day after Thanksgiving all the stores put their Christmas stuff out. (Sighs). Those were the good old days.

Joseph: (Knocking on the door).

Christian: (Crosses to answer the door). Hello, Joseph. We've been working on the "Welcome Home" banner for Johnny. You can help us put on the finishing touches.

Joseph: I am so glad Johnny got leave to come home from Iraq during the Christmas season. It must be so hard for those who are still overseas.

Charity: It's hard enough the rest of the year, worrying about them and missing them. But to think of them all alone at Christmas is just too sad.

(Getting a little teary eyed, she reaches for a tissue).

Christian: It is a lot harder to find gifts for them. And you never know if it will arrive in time. I'm glad that Johnny is coming home, so I can just hand him his gift.

Hope: Well I've got everybody's gifts, including Johnny's right over there. All wrapped.

Joseph: So you've got this gift-giving thing all wrapped up, eh?

Charity: Christian, why do we give each other gifts on Christmas? It's not like it's our birthday.

Christian: Well, Charity, Christmas is about giving gifts because of the first Christmas gift.

Charity: You mean like the Santa Bear I got from grandma for my first Christmas when I was just a baby?

Hope: No, silly. He means like in prehistoric times when they used to give each other new clubs, or stone tools. (She starts walking around making caveman motions & noises). Ugh! Here, Dino. Deeeeno? Mom have you seen my Velociraptor? ... Mom? ... MOM!?

Charity: Now I remember. The first Christmas was when Santa first got all the reindeer together and taught them how to fly. I saw it all on TV. He went around giving people presents, because he was such a (New York accent) nyce guy. It was really Santa Claus' birthday, but he wanted kids to get gifts on his birthday, too. We probably give each other gifts, because we are following his example.

Christian: Hope, you know all that stuff about the North Pole and flying reindeer are just stories.

Joseph: Now wait a minute. You all know better than that. Christian, would you please continue telling these "Silly Suzies" when the REAL First Christmas was.

Christian: The first Christmas was when Jesus was born to Mary and Joseph in the manger in Bethlehem. That's the FIRST Christmas Gift I was talking about. God's gift to us was Salvation wrapped in Baby Jesus. Now that's really a gift we all need. God came down to earth in human form: Jesus. So, as a human, Jesus could pay the penalty for our sins and everyone who believes in Him can spend eternity with God in heaven.

Hope: That really is an awesome gift. It's strange that people don't mention that more.

Charity: You know what's REALLY strange? Santa Claus isn't real but people think he is, and Jesus IS real and people think he isn't. They don't believe Christmas was Jesus' Birthday. They say Jesus was just a made-up story.

Joseph: I know what you mean, Faith. At my job, they no longer call it a "Christmas" break. We are asked to refer to it as a HOLLY-day Break. Just who is this Holly that we are getting time off work for?

Christian: Holly Berry?

Charity: Hollywood?

Joseph: Holly-olly-oxen-free?

Hope: (In a sing-song tone) Holly -lu-jah!

Joseph: You can make fun all you want. But it scares me that they are trying to make it illegal to put up a nativity scene in public places.

Christian: I know that people don't like making a scene. But surely you're kidding about it being illegal to display the manger scene with Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Aren't you?

Joseph: I'm afraid I'm not. And please don't call me Shirley.

Hope: I think they are trying to take Jesus out of Christmas any way they can. Have you seen the way they spell Christmas now? (Hold up card). They put an "X" in and make it "X"-mas! They cross Christ right out of it!

Charity: They might even start calling it (Holding up a letter Y) "Y"-mas.

Christian: Or, (holding up a Z) "Z"-mas.

Joseph: I think this conversation has gone a bit (holding up an A) "Uh"-miss! Christmas has come to mean shopping, getting gifts, Santa Claus, and decorating your house with lights. What happened to the REAL meaning of Christmas?

Christian: Everybody gives and gets gifts, we light up our city and run up our electric bills, Santa's story is told over and over in many ways, but we can't show Christ in the manger in public.

Joseph, Hope & Charity: WHOSE BIRTHDAY IS IT ANYWAY!?

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Scripture References (New International Version, NIV):
John 3:16    16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Matthew 1:21    21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,[a] because he will save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:23    23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”[a] (which means “God with us”).

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(C) Copyright Mike and Debra Wehr, all rights reserved.
This script may be used without royalty payment, provided no charge is made for admission to the performance. In return the author would like to be told of any performance. They may be contacted at debra.e.wehr@gmail.com