Holiday

34 pages

4 m, 10 w, 3 flexible

Holiday cheer is driving Queen Malvinia crazy! The former evil stepmother of Snow White’s story is now somewhat reformed, and rules over the kingdom of Happily Ever After. But ever since all the traditional fairy tale characters began getting along, demand for the Queen’s various potions on her website have fallen off drastically. So she’s thought of a new way to boost sales. With the help of Cinderella’s stepsisters, and Wolfgang Amadeus Toothful, alias the Big, Bad Wolf, she throws a Christmas Eve party. Though the Three Little Pigs try to keep the mood hap...

60 pages

24 - 30+ flexible, doubling possible

A guy with an invisible drum, a medieval restaurant host who won’t break character, a milkmaid who just wants to get rid of some cheese, and a dancing snowflake in the world’s ugliest costume. These are just some of the characters you’ll find in “And a Partridge in a Pear Tree.”  This 60-minute holiday play weaves together 12 five-minute scenes based on the well-known verses of the Christmas carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” With a basic set and hugely flexible cast from adults to children, this play uses humor an...

52 pages

3 m, 8 w, 6 children, carolers and skaters

Adapted from Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic novel. Four of literature’s most famous sisters, nurturing Meg, rebellious Jo, sweet Beth and spoiled Amy, must endure the absence of their father while he is away ministering in the Civil War. Under their mother Marmee’s wise and tender care, the girls learn many lessons – including the real meaning of Christmas – as they experience both the painful and the beautiful that life offers. Full of memorable and varied music with richly drawn characters, “Little Women – A Merry Christmas” is a family-friendly timele...

64 pages

5 m, 4 w, 3 girls

"Dear Editor, is there a Santa Claus?"- a question innocently asked by 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon. Christmas was coming and all was right with the world ... until her friends mischievously fill her in on the "facts" about Old Saint Nick. Who could tell her the truth? Not her father, a doctor who is always fighting against old world cures. Not her teacher, who is already fed up with Christmas even though it hadn't arrived. So Virginia writes a letter to the editor of The New York Sun, for her father always said, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Virginia'...

41 pages

Flexible cast up to 42

Here's an hour-long adaptation of the Charles Dickens' novel that's as practical as it is entertaining. While staying close to the original novel in dialogue, this version adds additional speaking roles. Along with the hard-hearted Scrooge, the Christmas Spirits, the Cratchit family and the beloved Tiny Tim, there are carolers, goblins, and guests as well as two storytellers, Mrs. Candlewick and Mrs. Peartree, who help keep the action flowing. Because the cast is so flexible, you can combine roles for a small cast or expand it into an all-grade performance. C...

26 pages

4 m, 6 w, 1 flexible, 1 child

The Hillsdale Community Theater wants to produce "A Christmas Carol," but they don't have enough actors to play the extraordinarily large number of parts. So their undaunted director, being resourceful (if not totally realistic), has triple and quadruple-cast the roles. And since everyone in sight has been recruited, the cast also fills in as costumers, stagehands and technicians. The impossibility of this situation brings tensions to a comical head as the final rehearsal invites one calamity after another. "Scrooged Up!" provides a Dickens of a time for ever...

42 pages

3 m, 3 w

Amber has invited her whole family to her new home to have the "perfect family Christmas." She has decorated her house, carefully planned the meal, and even ironed her shoelaces! Once her brother, sister, parents, and curmudgeon of a grandfather show up, though, nothing goes right. When a last-minute accident prevents Amber from making Christmas dinner, it falls upon her kitchen-challenged siblings to take up the slack, with hilarious results. Just when the dinner can't get any worse, it ends up with a twist or two that makes it, indeed, the perfect family Ch...

55 pages

4 m, 5 w, 2 girls

J. D. Morse has been looking high and low for a special Christmas gift for his grandson. Finally, as a last resort, he wanders into Nick's Emporium, an old-fashioned store chock full of all sorts of gifts and knickknacks. He has a hard time explaining to Nick what he's looking for, but finds himself falling under the old storekeeper's spell. Just when Morse is about to buy something, he runs to the street to chase kids away from his car. When he returns, he finds the store suddenly dark and quiet. A policeman then shows up to run him off because, "This place ...

62 pages

4 m, 5 w, 11 youth (approx. 5 boys, 6 girls)

Laurie McKinnon is determined that everyone should have a normal Christmas, especially while the eldest son is away serving in the military. She rushes about making sure everything is ready for the impending arrival of the extended family, although her husband, Jim, and teenage daughter, Kelsey, are unconvinced of the need to impress everyone. Meanwhile, youngest daughter Emma arrives downstairs in full camouflage makeup. Her mother is less than enthused. Visitors soon trickle in. Laurie’s very pregnant sister with her husband, who gets lost easily; Jim’s bro...

36 pages

2 m, 7 w, 3 boys, 2 girls, optional extras.

Two ladies in a rest home are arguing. Florence, who has never had a real family Christmas, fantasizes that a family would come along and take her in for the holiday, but of course no family would put themselves out that way. Yes, they would, says her roommate Myrna who has had years of storybook Christmases with her five children. To prove their differing viewpoints, they invent the fictitious Genevieve, a little old lady in a rest home near Myrna's children in Idaho. If one of them will agree to take “her” in, Florence will really believe in Christmas. Dram...

23 pages

(3 m)(2 m, 1 w)(1 m, 1 w)

Too much sugar this Christmas season? This trio of 10-minute plays provides the perfect antidote, a fun and funny twist to the holiday season. In "Another Turn of the Scrooge," (3 m) the old curmudgeon we all know and love pays the price for his first good deed as his life takes yet another Christmas turn. In the second play, "The Man Who Shot Santa Claus," (2 m, 1 w) a man on trial for killing Santa Claus is defended by a slick lawyer, who argues that Santa had it coming! In the final play, "Gift of the Magi - The Untold Story," (1 m, 1 w) reality sets in ju...

52 pages

9 characters plus carolers and Munchkins

The main characters of Oz are mixed with the mean Miss Gulch, who is about to foreclose on the farm. Knowing they need the help of the Wizard, they make the trip to Oz, only to find a sign - "Closed for Christmas." They decide to have Christmas in Oz and the Wicked Witch reappears. Dorothy gives her her first present ever, magic slippers, and the witch is so overcome with joy that she becomes a better person. When Miss Gulch arrives to foreclose, she is invited to share their Christmas. They all learn that the best way to celebrate Christmas is to share it wi...

66 pages

Widely flexible cast

A father tells his young daughter a story of Ebenezer Scrooge on his terrifying and exhilarating journey to discover the true meaning of Christmas. But we do not realize until the end that the characters in this adaptation are more real than ever before. The covetous old miser who finds his heart turns out to be the little girl’s Great-Uncle Scrooge, and her father is Tiny Tim, an even kinder, more insightful soul as an adult than he was as a child. This unique adaptation, infused with popular Christmas carols, is sure to make your audience feel alive with ho...

43 pages

Flexible cast (minimum 15 actors)

"The Christmas Café" is set in a restaurant where Betty, the waitress and cook, serves customers from three different familiar holiday stories: "The Night Before Christmas" by Clemet Clarke Moore, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, and "The Nutcracker" by E.T.A. Hoffman. In "All of the Other Reindeer," Blitzen is burned out and upset that he's always last on the team. The other reindeer have suggestions: Cupid thinks he needs a love life; Donder suggests a good stock portfolio, Prancer thinks an exercise regime is the answer. Baffled, the other reindeer ...

44 pages

5 m, 4 w - 1 optional

Detective Vic Torious is called to the Broken Leg Theatre where the leading lady has suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. The theatre’s Christmas extravaganza was her return to the stage after a long hiatus. Clearly, she did not disappear of her own volition, but where is she and who is responsible? From a visiting Hollywood producer, to a jealous understudy, to an ex-fiance, to an opportunistic scriptwriter, eight different suspects remain at the theatre awaiting detective Vic Torious’ arrival. His pun-filled inquiries take the audience on a hilarious seri...