Can’t decide which holiday show to produce yet? We’re here to help! With options ranging from lighthearted comedies to heartwarming classics, it’s easy to find the perfect holiday show to bring joy and cheer to your stage.
Plays
The Dreidel Players Present… Best Hanukkah Show Ever! by Jeremy Desmon and Victor Wishna
A group of (mostly) Jewish theatre makers decide it’s time to do right by Hanukkah and create the best Hanukkah show EVER for playhouses and JCCs nationwide to produce every holiday season. You know, like A Christmas Carol… but Jewish-er. But what should it be? What stories should they tell? As they struggle to come up with a show before their first performance, we are treated to a series of sketches that will leave audiences of all stripes in stitches and begin a new holiday tradition.
Eight Nights by
Eight Nights follows Holocaust survivor Rebecca Blum and her family as they grow and evolve as Americans over the course of eight decades. In their Lower East Side apartment, Rebecca, her father, future husband, daughter, and more, celebrate each night of Chanukah: the festival of lights. They discuss marriage, friendship, parenthood, immigration, and especially, memory. With each passing year, Rebecca’s continued perseverance inspires her family, ensuring her legacy stretches well beyond the walls of her apartment.
Decked! by Ginna Hoben
It’s Christmas Eve, and Celia is at a breaking point. She’s unemployed, broke, and her only daughter wants to move in with Celia’s ex-husband and his much younger bride-to-be. Celia tries to drown her pain in alcohol and pills before her eccentric sister Louise shows up and makes Celia review her past, present, and potential futures. But Louise’s own past eventually comes to light and complicates Celia’s road to recovery. Decked! is an all-female dramedy about letting go and moving on.
Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big [Your Town Here] Christmas Show! by
Photo by Jim Cox, 2021 The Old Globe Production
One of the holiday season’s favorite tales has been transformed into a gut-busting, fun, and family-friendly theatrical experience that incorporates the details of your own theatre into the script. Take a spin with Ebenezer, all three Ghosts, Tiny Tim, and more in this music-filled show.
It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play adapted by Joe Landry
Photo by T. Charles Erickson, 2011 Long Wharf Theatre production
It’s a Wonderful Life is based on the story, The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern.
This beloved American holiday classic comes to captivating life as a live 1940s radio broadcast. With the help of an ensemble that brings a few dozen characters to the stage, the story of idealistic George Bailey unfolds as he considers ending his life one fateful Christmas Eve. (A Short Version of this play is also available.)
Winter Break by Joe Calarco
On the first night of Winter Break, nineteen teenagers, some who know each other, some who don’t, wrestle with friendships, breakups, loss, graduating, and finding their place in the world. Alternately hilarious and touching, Winter Break was slated for the 2020 Educational Theatre Association commission. (This play is the first in a cycle that includes Spring Break )
Coney Island Christmas by Donald Margulies, based on the story The Loudest Voice by Grace Paley
2012 Geffen Playhouse production
Pulitzer Prize-winner Donald Margulies weaves together nostalgia, music and merriment in this new seasonal classic. A holiday show for people of all ages and all faiths, Coney Island Christmas introduces us to Shirley Abramowitz, a young Jewish girl who (much to her immigrant parents’ exasperation) is cast as Jesus in the school’s Christmas pageant. As Shirley, now much older, recounts the memorable story to her great-granddaughter, the play captures a timeless and universal tale of what it means to be an American during the holidays.
Christmas Belles by
A church Christmas program spins hilariously out of control in this Southern farce about squabbling sisters, family secrets, a surly Santa, a vengeful sheep and a reluctant Elvis impersonator.
It’s Christmas-time in the small town of Fayro, Texas, and the Futrelle Sisters—Frankie, Twink and Honey Raye—are not exactly in a festive mood. A cranky Frankie is weeks overdue with her second set of twins. Twink, recently jilted and bitter about it, is in jail for inadvertently burning down half the town. And hot-flash-suffering Honey Raye is desperately trying to keep the Tabernacle of the Lamb’s Christmas Program from spiraling into chaos. But things are not looking too promising: Miss Geneva, the ousted director of the previous twenty-seven productions, is ruthless in her attempts to take over the show. The celebrity guest Santa Claus—played by Frankie’s long-suffering husband, Dub—is passing a kidney stone. One of the shepherds refuses to watch over his flock by night without pulling his little red wagon behind him. And the entire cast is dropping like flies due to food poisoning from the Band Boosters’ Pancake Supper. And when Frankie lets slip a family secret that has been carefully guarded for decades, all hope for a successful Christmas program seems lost, even with an Elvis impersonator at the manger. But in true Futrelle fashion, the feuding sisters find a way to pull together in order to present a Christmas program the citizens of Fayro will never forget. Their hilarious holiday journey through a misadventure-filled Christmas Eve is guaranteed to bring joy to your world!
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, adapted to the stage by Romulus Linney
An adaptation of the story of Ebenezer Scrooge’s journey from an embittered, ungenerous creature into a giving, caring human being at the hands of three spirits, who, one Christmas Eve, show him what life means. Of his new stage version of the story Linney writes, “When the Milwaukee Repertory asked me about adapting its new A CHRISTMAS CAROL for them, I did not remember actually reading the book, nor had I seen any of its numerous stage versions. I was only acquainted with the film starring Alastair Sim, done in England years ago, which I had liked, but only dimly remembered. So when I read A Christmas Carol, I was able to pretend I had never heard of the great story before. I was of course amazed not only at its beauty and durability, but at its blazing theatricality. It is part Hamlet …part Everyman…and part Charlie Chaplin. I vowed to stick to the bones of the story as closely as I could to take the evolution of Scrooge seriously, and to try and find, as he goes, the child within him that slowly emerges from his ordeal to such bountiful happiness.” This richly textured play brings the full spirit of the book, as well as those of Christmases Past, Present and Yet To Come, to life on the stage. Directions are included for a simplified version of the play.
Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!) by Michael Carleton, James FitzGerald, John K. Alvarez
Instead of performing Charles Dickens’ beloved holiday classic for the umpteenth time, three actors decide to perform every Christmas story ever told — plus Christmas traditions from around the world, seasonal icons from ancient times to topical pop-culture, and every carol ever sung. A madcap romp through the holiday season!
The Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon by Don Zolidis
Christmas: a time for magic. A time for the traditions we cherish. A time to watch as many original TV movies as a human being can possibly endure. But now with The Holiday Channel Christmas Movie Wonderthon, you can enjoy the sugar rush of six Christmas movies all at once! Welcome to Hopewood Falls, Vermont, where singles in adorable sweaters converge to look for love. Can disguises help royalty and/or movie stars find the down-to-earth connections they crave? Will evil city slickers destroy charming inns and/or Christmas tree farms? Isn’t it a little creepy for a meet-cute to depend on one person being in a coma? Grab a hot chocolate and your favorite wise single friend to find out in this wildly entertaining parody of holiday rom-coms.
Musicals
Santa Claus: The Musical; Book by Noah Putterman, Music and Lyrics by David Christensen and Luke Holloway
Photo by: Mikki Schaffner, Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati
It’s Christmas Eve! After 1,000 years of faithful service, Santa and Mrs. Claus announce their decision to hang up the big red suit and train a replacement. Enter Nick: a website designer and single dad to tech-savvy daughter, Bee. With pressures mounting–and a jealous, naughty elf thwarting their every move–will everyone in Santa’s Workshop come together in time for Nick to take the reins?
Jingle jam-packed with a sleigh full of fun, energetic, and original holiday music, Santa Claus: The Musical‘s heartwarming script and score put joyful audiences in the spirit of the season!
It’s a Wonderful Life – The Musical; Book and Lyrics by Keith Ferguson, Music by Bruce Greer
Based on the beloved 1946 film, this musical faithfully follows George Bailey’s life from his childhood dreams to his midlife disappointments and beyond, as we all take a journey to discover whether his life has mattered at all. Cinematically scored and theatrically staged, this adaptation breathes musical life into a familiar story, while retaining the warmth, humor, and pathos of the original. A new holiday classic for devotees and newcomers alike.
It’s a Wonderful Life is based on the story, The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern.
The Great Christmas Cookie Bake-Off!; Book, Music, and Lyrics by Rick Hip-Flores
The Great Christmas Cookie Bake-Off! combines the time-honored tradition of Christmas cookies with the ever-popular phenomenon of reality baking competitions. In this musical, eight young cookie chefs have been selected from all over the country to battle it out for first prize at the Cookie Coliseum. Just as no two cookies are the same, each contestant reveals their unique personality through song. Suspense mounts as the chefs are eliminated one by one, by three distinguished celebrity judges. Over the course of the competition, feelings of intense rivalry give way to virtues of charity, family, and forgiveness, as the chefs learn what really makes for a winning Christmas recipe.
The Land of Forgotten Toys: A Christmas Musical; Book and Lyrics by Jennifer Enchin, Music and Lyrics by Dylan MarcAurele
The Land of Forgotten Toys follows Grace, a brilliant young woman with big dreams and a passion for astronomy, who is stuck at a dead-end job at a toy store three days before Christmas. When she is transported to the Land of Forgotten Toys, everything changes. Christmas is in trouble—and it’s up to Grace and her rag-tag crew of forgotten and broken toys to save it!
Winter Wonderettes by Roger Bean
The Wonderettes are back! This seasonal celebration finds the girls entertaining at the annual Harper’s Hardware Holiday Party. When Santa turns up missing, the girls use their talent and creative ingenuity to save the holiday party! Featuring great ’60s versions of holiday classics such as “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” “Jingle Bell Rock,” “Run, Rudolph, Run,” and “Winter Wonderland,” the result is, of course, marvelous! This energetic and glittering holiday package is guaranteed to delight audiences of all ages.
Christmas Over The Tavern; Book, Music and Lyrics by Tom Dudzick
In this holiday musical we meet the Pazinskis, 4 kids and 2 parents living over a saloon in lower-middle class Buffalo, NY. Christmas 1959 is not very merry for the Pazinskis. Dad is going through a mid-life depression and refuses to buy a Christmas tree. Sister Clarissa is threatening to expel 12-year-old Rudy for performing a blasphemous one-man Nativity Scene where he plays all the characters as Hollywood celebrities. Mom wants the happy man she married returned to her, and the two teenagers, sensing their parents’ discord, are worried that this may be their last Christmas together as a whole family.
With comic songs and dream sequences, the Pazinskis come to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a family on this most stressful of holidays.
Sh-Boom! A Christmas Miracle by Roger Bean
It’s 1965. A few years ago, Denny and the gang achieved overnight fame when they won the WOPR Radio “Dream of a Lifetime Talent Search” as “Denny and the Dreamers.” After a few years of touring and having a taste of the big time, the fledgling group broke up over slights and grievances, mostly petty and non-existent. In this holiday sequel, the gang gets back together to perform again as a group for the Christmas Bazaar at Wally’s church. Denny and Eugene won’t speak to each other, Duke and Lois are in the middle of an un-acknowledged marital spat, and Wally is left to broker the peace for Christmas. Filled with great ’60s doo-wop hits and holiday classics.
