I firmly believe that children's Christmas pageants are icons of the Incarnation, vivid reminders of both the frailty and beauty of the human flesh in which the Spirit of God was pleased to dwell.
In our pageant this past Sunday we had:
One teenage chorister who nearly lit himself on fire by backing into the advent wreath
One very small angel who ran up to her Mom while she was directing the youth choir, yanked on her skirt and demanded to be taken to the bathroom RIGHT AWAY!!!
Two shepherds engaging in fisticuffs while processing down the aisle behind Mary and Joseph and
One third grade shepherd whose hat thingy kept slipping down over his eyes and getting more tangled and disheveled the more he messed with it. Finally people started laughing which so enraged this shepherd that his mother had to sneak up and take the hat away from him between musical numbers. (Ahem, this shepherd was my son and the mother sneaking onto the chancel to intervene was me.)
How about you? What have been your favorite Christmas Pageant Misadventures?
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My favorite happened at last year's Christmas Eve pagent when my 3 year old niece, robed up as an angel, pulled the robe over her head at the end of the service and flashed the congregation.
My son played Joseph when he was four or five. The play took place in our Fellowship Hall which had a manager for the play but had the usual seasonal decorations of a fake fireplace and Christmas tree.
When the narrator read that Mary and Joseph looked for a place to stay, my son crouched down and looked under the Christmas tree.
And, yes, he was trying to be funny.
oops, make that "manger"
proof-reading is wise.
This has been my favorite for years: one angel of the multitude of heavenly hosts, perched upon a hay bale high above the manger, puking. It's hard to forget. And she wasn't related to me.
My first year here we did a "Christmas around the world" pageant. At one point we were singing "Six White boomers" while the Sunday School teacher/superintendant led kids carrying cut out kangaroos around behind the communion table (note that we have a cross suspended along the wall behind said table).
I was getting ready to pause the taped accompanimetn at teh end of the verse when the person beside me gasped. The leader had head butted the cross. We watched it swing gently for the next couple of minutes while the pageant continued on...
That is pretty cute.
I like watching the class clown of every pageant who thinks the whole point of it all is to get as much attention as he can.
I was an angel in the third grade pageant (we still did that in public schools, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth),and as I came onto the stage, my wings fell off. I calmly picked them up and reattached them, and maintained my composure until the tableau was over and we exited stage left. Then, of course, I burst into tears. But the director consoled me, and for the rest of my elementary school career she referred to me as her "trouper".
My favorite was a video of my two nephews' participation in the pageant. The younger was 4 or 5, the older 7 or 8. The little ones had no speaking lines, just sheep costumes. All they had to do was look cute and adorable.
The sheep are all set in the manger area; enter Mary and Joseph (older nephew.) Younger nephew starts pulling hay off the bales and tossing it at older nephew. Pull, toss, pull, toss. This goes on for what seems to be a long time.
Then....deus ex machina...
From out of the video frame, an adult figure appears, scoops up younger nephew, and both vanish. The rest of the sheep look shocked (can sheep be cowed?) at the disappearance and behave themselves for the rest of the performance.
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