Gloria in Excelsis Deo: Family Nativity Play

On Christmas Eve, after the tree trimming and lunch, we would run into the problem of what the kiddos could do before our simple fruit and cheese board supper and the Christmas Vigil Mass. If the boys went outside to play they ended up filthy and if they just sat around watching Christmas movies then there would be a rowdy mess at Mass. Neither of those options made for a very merry Christmas.

Then one year we discovered the answer for us was in the history of the Church all along! We just needed to go medieval for the rest of the afternoon and put on a family Nativity play. Ever ancient, ever new, and so on…

During the 10th century the performance of liturgical drama began as brief reenactments during the Masses of important holy days. These early forerunners of opera and oratorio were later lengthened and separated from the liturgy for performance outside of Mass. On Christmas Eve a popular subject for these paradise plays, as they were generally called, was the fall of Adam and Eve as it is also their feast day. Similar to our modern day Christmas trees, these plays used an evergreen tree with apples to signify sin and either unconsecrated hosts or sweet treats to represent eternal life. These Paradise Trees were used as a stand in for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and provide a possible origin for our ornaments today. Additionally the use of the evergreen trees themselves come from St. Boniface’s felling of the early Teutonic’s pagan Thunder Oak. So if you want to add a medieval touch to your Christmas decorations go find you some red baubles and candy canes for the tree on clearance!

One of the earliest preserved liturgical dramas was “Quem Quaeritis” that depicts the 3 Marys’ visit with the Angel at the tomb following the resurrection of Christ. While St Hildegard of Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum is a beautiful example of the later, more extended liturgical dramas of the 12th century. This masterwork follows a soul’s journey toward heaven as it wrestles with the devil and the virtues.

Our family Nativity play grew out of my love for Christmas carols and my sons’ excitement for imaginative play & dress up. As a child our church put on an Epiphany Musical, but our children haven’t had the opportunity. Each year, however, we do try to make it to Dallas for Grace Bible Church’s Journey into Christmas and to Fort Worth for the Boar’s Head Yule Log Festival.

The first is a walk through live nativity with with different scenes you stop by and listen to. And the second is a medieval style Epiphany pageant. Both are filled with beautiful traditional carols and elaborate costumes that give our children playtime inspiration for weeks. And these productions and our wee ones’ play were the model for our own Nativity play.

I looked to the Scriptures for all the script’s text and followed the narratives for the Nativity and Epiphany found in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew. For the words of St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary I drew from the Messianic prophets Isaiah and Micah. The verses of related carols and hymns are also sprinkled throughout as summaries and commentary. These carols also serve as a quick review for those likely to be heard later at Mass.

As my Christmas gift you I am sharing our Family Nativity Play, Gloria in Excelsis Deo, below. It can also be a fun activity to wrangle Christmas Day guests into before or after your Christmas Roast Beast. Or done as a special treat while visiting extended family over the holidays.

Historically we know the wisemen didn’t not arrive in Bethlehem with the Shepherds on Christmas night, but a lot of places go ahead and include the adoration of the magi with their nativity plays. I have included our family epiphany pageant as well to be a seamless continuation of your family nativity play or as another short, separate performance for the Solemnity of the Epiphany.

A resource page with recordings of all the contained carols is also provided in case some are unfamiliar to you or your little ones.

Don’t be surprised if they want to give a couple of encore performances with the characters recast. Everyone at our house wants to be St. Joseph!