Tales of Christmas past at the United Presbyterian Home

A wonderful description of the Christmas Pageant of 2015 provided by Gwen Ying:

To be brief, the pageant was wooonderful in its intergenerationalness. Mary and Joseph were 89…Dick and Betty Colby. Jesus was a 6-week old baby girl, on loan from the UP Day Care. The sheep were children, ages 4-9, also on loan.

They wore woolly sheep-like caps. There were five ancient shepherds, between 85 and 90. The Wise Men looked great, carrying their gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

There were 7-9 angels. A special angel carried in the baby, who had begun screaming before her entrance. The angel carried her in, complete with bottle to calm her. That’s about it. Esther Bordwell read the scripture. After she completed each verse or so, the characters walked in at the appropriate time, and the audience sang one verse of an appropriate carol.

The costumes were excellent. Nothing untoward happened. Oh, we had a 12’ by 15’ backdrop of a manger scene, with hay, donkey, and two sheep. That really added to the authenticity…$20 from the Oriental Trading Company! A friend and I played the music before the show started, and afterwards. One resident, Dave Brown, who has Parkinson’s, wrote and sang and played guitar on a solo. I gave the greeting, and the closing (Unitarian).

We, impromptuly, sang “Let There Be Peace on Earth” after the closing. Everyone, staff, maintenance , food service, and all those who participated, as well as the overflow audience, really was happy with the event.

Christmas memories are wonderful to share. Enjoy your memories and continue to create those special moments this year! Merry Christmas to all!