Maronite Christmas Pageant
Celebrate the Glorious Birth of Our Lord at your parish with a Maronite Nativity Pageant! Gather the children together and tell the story of the Nativity of Jesus in using Sacred Scripture and Maronite Liturgical hymns. The pageant provided is a basic retelling of the birth of Jesus with some Maronite hymns interspersed, as well as a few other popular Christmas songs. You can find all the files below to print and use, along with instructions, to help you put on your own Nativity Pageant.
Let us know if you have any questions. We are happy to help you out in any way we can: info@monasticcreations.org
Children of St. Maron Parish in Youngstown, OH in 2023
How to put on the Pageant. First establish what date you want to have the Pageant. One suggestion is to have it on a Sunday after the main Divine Liturgy, and maybe on the same day as a parish Christmas party. If your parish is praying the Maronite Christmas Novena at the end of the Divine Liturgy, you can ask Father to release all the children in the pageant before the Novena starts. This will give them enough time to get dressed and be ready to perform at the conclusion of the Novena.
If you don’t want to have the pageant on Sunday, you could have it on a Saturday or maybe in the evening one night after the Christmas Novena. and maybe serve refreshments after the pageant.
Whatever works for your parish, once you set a date, plan for at least three rehearsals before the actual performance. We recommend you ask the children to register beforehand and give you their preferences for roles. Then, on the first rehearsal you can assign roles. The first rehearsal should be a basic run-through of the pageant. You may like to have the children just sit together and you can read through the pageant, each child with speaking parts reading their lines. Then you can run through it again, but this time with movement. We recommend the first rehearsal taking place in a social hall or other space outside the Church.
The Pageant. The next file to download is the complete pageant with director notes and a diagram on the last page to help you understand the movement of the play in the Church. The pageant can be performed wherever you find it is best, so simply adjust accordingly if you are not using your Church.
The Narrator is a very important role as he/she helps to ensure the pageant flows properly. Here is a special printout of the pageant for the Narrator to follow. We recommend printing it on single paper (not front-to-back) and putting in a three-ring binder.
It can be difficult for some of the children to memorize their parts, so here is another file you can download and print (on single page). Then cut out each child’s parts and glue or tape them to a 3×5 index card to help them say their lines during the pageant.
The Angel Choir. It’s wonderful to have a full choir of angels to sing the hymns. You may want to recruit some parents and Church choir members to help out the children, especially if many are small and can’t read yet! Download and print the Angel Choir booklets below. Print the cover on white cardstock so it will last many years, and the angel wings on the cover make the booklet cute and fun to hold!
If you would like to get the congregation/audience involved in the singing, you can print out these extra music sheets to pass out before the pageant begins.
Costumes! There are many different places you can go to get costumes for the pageant, or you can even make your own for many of the parts. One place we recommend for purchasing costumes is at Oriental Trading Company. It is fun to have lots of sheep and angel costumes on hand so all the little children in the parish can join in the pageant. If you need help, just reach out and let us know: info@monasticcreations.org.
