Do Not Be Afraid: A Christmas Pageant

So good!
We used this pageant with over 30 children and youth, and a brand-new director. The message was thoughtfully written, it was fun and accessible for the children and youth, the audience loved it, and the director loved how well-designed it was. It was really easy to plan and execute the play, and the background images were a great addition. If you need a play that's flexible, fun, enjoyable for a wide range of ages, this is it!

so much fun
In a year of disappointment and changes, it was so much fun to work on this virtual pageant! It brought together a number of adults, youth and children in our congregation "virtually" - so we could see each and delight in each other, while living out the ancient story of our faith. Thank-you so much!

Exactly What We Needed
The virtual pageant brought so much hope, joy, and connection to a season that was desperately lacking all three.

The script was funny and easy to learn, the online tools were so helpful, and the support of the Facebook group made everything even easier.

So glad we took the plunge and bought this. There were even comments that we might want to do a virtual pageant again (even if we are NOT in a pandemic.)

Bravo, Illustrated Ministry!

Love!!
This pageant brought us so much joy this Christmas- we had to get pretty creative to make it work for our congregation, but luckily the script was flexible enough that we could pull it off! Our families had so much fun with their scenes, and everyone in our congregation loved it!

Kudos
The breaking it into scenes and tips/suggestions made the curriculum very flexible, easy to adapt and use. The modern twist was appreciated as well as its openness which enabled families to be creative with it. The congregation loved it!!

So Much Fun With This Pageant!
We decided to host a diocesan (Episcopal Diocese of Vermont) pageant this Year of COVID and this pageant made it so easy! We farmed out scenes to various parishes and they were able to be as creative as they wanted with each one. One of the loveliest bits was having four different sets of parents and children acting out the bedroom story-time scenes. It was a wonderful visual of every family across the whole church telling the same story on that night. And, this being Vermont, we had a real stable and lots of sheep! Thank you so much for showing us how this could be done with integrity to the scripture, laughter, and Zoom.

Encouraging and Fun for Everyone!
This pageant was fun, engaging, encouraging, easy and flexible! It brought so much to our congregation! Thank you!

So much fun!
The kids of our church had such a fun time doing a zoom recording of this pageant. It was touching, it was funny, and the perfect length for this medium. Our whole community loved it!

Virtual Christmas Pageant Was AMAZING
A HUGE thank you to Illustrated Ministries for providing such a touching and funny script along with the backgrounds for our virtual pageant. I received an outpouring of gratitude from church members who were blown away by our pageant.

Best Ever - Virtual Christmas Pageant Shined a Light into our Christmas Eve
The Virtual Christmas Pageant was extremely well received by families who participated; staff and congregants.
BEST EVER Christmas Eve - Over 400 views during Christmas Eve enjoyed the Christmas Story in a new way. What a Gift!
The intimacy and creativity of families who invited us into their homes was a blessing this Christmas! and kept us connected in new ways.
The easy format and script made it simple for families to do at home, along with instructions for recording from our staff.
Our faith community would LOVE to see an virtual Easter offering.
THANK YOU!

Thank you!
The virtual Christmas pageant was excellent! It helped bring a bright light to a very different Advent season. It was a highlight for our virtual worshiping community. The backdrops, script and direction notes were well-planned and easily executed. Thank you!

very engaging for the families
I didn't know how well this would work, but it was amazing. The families loved the scripts and appreciated that the telling of the story was not the standard Mary and Joseph going to Bethelem and angels, shepherds and wise people arriving. The flexibility of the script was also very helpful. Our coordinator is thinking of doing this next year instead of an in-person pageant.

Bravo for making an old story new and fresh!
We thank you for the creativity of your script while keeping it Biblically based. It was great fun to do in our church-- especially since we could not gather together for corporate worship on Christmas Eve. We had grandmothers and toddlers and all ages in between share in the pageant. Our church was able to reach unchurched folks all over the U.S. and in Europe. Thanks & Blessings!
Pastor Laurel

Everyone loved it!
The church where I serve typically does a family service and a service geared towards the "lifers" who love the choir and organ. This year, the virtual service I made with the pageant ended up being our only option due to a covid outbreak among staff. I recruited families a couple of months out and an editor in our congregation put everything together - the script was super flexible with our needs and preferences as a congregation, so I was able to incorporate some of our favorite songs and elements very easily.

I was worried that those who "don't go to the kids' service" would hate it... but they LOVED it! I might not ever break them of the habit of calling it the kids' service, but they were impressed with how relevant AND worshipful the pageant was. Thank you, Illustrated Min!

Flexible and Faithful
I know I used this Review Title before, but that is the best way to describe how we received this script. Thanks so much for the amazing work you all are doing helping to keep the rest of us afloat! Big blessings!

It was the BEST!
Our Christmas Eve tradition is a no-rehearsal-needed, minimize-family-stress celebration of the Christmas story, with scripture, carols, and costumes for the kids. The Virtual Christmas Pageant gave us a way for families to contribute their creativity--still with minimal stress--and stay safe at the same time. Everyone was so creative and adaptive! No one had too much work. Lots of people were involved. It brought smiles and tears to many. Thank you for your imaginative work!

Wonderful Christmas Program Experience for all!
A Virtual Christmas Pageant by Illustrated Ministry was such a wonderful tool for us to use to put our Christmas Program together this year! It was so easy to use and it gave us so many options for how we could put it together; we could really make it our own!
We were also able to involve so many people in a variety of ways. Everyone who was involved and everyone who watched the finished projected had a WONDERFUL experience!
This was such a great way to share the amazing story of Jesus' Birth!

Virtually awesome!
Our church prepared (AND completed) "Do Not Fear" - a Virtual Christmas Pageant, and presented the premiere of the video via ZOOM to over 40 families on Christmas Eve!
Countless other families viewed it later - and three scenes were used as Teachable Moments during our December worship services (all online, of course).
This pandemic has limited our activities. But God has no limits! Thank you for providing an outlet for our children (and their families) to participate in a Christmas Pageant in 2020!
Blessings and JOY!
Nancy Dickson - Millbrook UMC - Raleigh, NC

Best Christmas Pageant Ever!
Loved this pageant. You guys did a great job writing this. I loved how you joined the current with the past. It gave enough structure for the less creative and in the same time it lent itself easily to creative adaptions. The script was simple enough for all ages to participate yet had meaning. It was very helpful how you gave us a planning guide and tips along the way. The idea of a virtual pageant was a bit scary because of all the technology but I am so glad that I took on the challenge. Thank you so much IM for all the support that you gave with this pageant and for a quality pageant.

Great Script/Easy to Perform
We loved doing this virtual pageant this year. What a great idea! We kept it low key with one rehearsal and doing it live on Zoom one Sunday morning in Advent. The kids had fun and Jesus was born, so we met our goals.

Do Not Be Afraid
Thank you so much for giving congregations the possibility to do a Christmas program! Do not be afraid was so accessible and allowed us to be creative in ways we wouldn't have tried prepandemic. We were able to include kids from more than just our church and surprised a grandparent by include family from overseas. While we prefer in person, this was a fantastic solution.

Simple to Do But Really Creative
This pageant was basic enough that any congregation could do it, but allowed lots of room for creativity and experimenting. We had eight families that took on various scenes and simply recorded them on their phones. It worked really well, and we used it in place of a sermon on the third Sunday in Advent. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE5-Mh1bTyM

The highlight of our year
In the summer of 2020, when I realized we would not be having a pageant this fall, I started dreaming of writing my own Zoom pageant: a very Covid Christmas. Imagine my bliss when I encountered this script. The script came with thoughtful and very helpful tips for production success (i.e. reminding all families to shoot in landscape/portait consistently, etc) that our creative team felt confident from the start. We had 29 kids participate from 15 families, all filming scenes from their own homes. The script is, as I have come to appreciate from Illustrated Ministries, theologically accurate and profound. Also profoundly flexible and funny. I have loved the variety and ingenuity other congregations have displayed in their versions, and the community support of the popup fb group. Our congregation has been raving about our pageant, calling it a highlight of our year. Yes, it was a big investment of time, but such a positive investment.

Meaningful, Inspiring and Fun
Like many congregations, we had no on-line presence until COVID. We have learned a lot. When I said we were going to create a "virtual Christmas pageant" folks had no idea what I meant, but they went with it. It was an amazing, intergenerational experience. We didn't use the green screen options, because, quite frankly, I have no idea what they are or how to use them....we went low tech. Families of birth, families of choice, singles, ages 5 through 75 all participated. Some filmed on their I-Phone, others had me stop by the house and we filmed outdoors while I was masked. One of you youth played a saxophone solo of "Go Tell It on the Mountain" that we used as our prelude. Another youth played, "Still, Still, Still" on her harp and her college-age sister, the piano. Their aunt sang a solo in Italian. We also had a 5 year old sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" as the lead into the story of the Magi. All these pieces were interspersed between the scenes. One of our college students did the editing. At the end I invited people not in the pageant to send brief video clips of them saying "Merry Christmas" and that was our Blessing/Postlude. It was a fantastic experience. I have folks asking when we will do another virtual pageant because they want to be a part of the experience.

Everyone loved it
This was a great, flexible, adaptable script. It came together fabulously. There are short roles for younger children, lots of long parts, but not a lot of in between parts. Thankfully some of our young students developed reading skills during our time apart, and they did great. I assigned most scenes to family groups to minimize editing. Everyone picked out their own costumes, and it was wonderful. Thank you so much for offering this!

Fantastic, flexible and faithful fun
This pageant was absolutely perfect for the unique circumstances of 2020, but will be equally wonderful for in-person or digital productions in future years. We had more than 20 households in our congregation who participated—around a third of our congregation. Everyone had a blast making the roles their own, and it came together so well in a pretty short time frame.

I also appreciate the inclusive language, historical context, and genuinely hilarious humor in the script itself. I’ve directed our Christmas program for years, and usually end up writing my own dialogue because some of the prepackaged options out there are either too cheesy or just not feasible for smaller congregations without lots of time and resources. Other than a few minor tweaks to fit parts to people, this is the first time I’ve felt a script was excellent as written.

I hope Illustrated Ministry will continue to create these programs and we will continue to use their other great resources as well.

Amazing!
This resource is great in many ways:
1. The script is well written. It's very accurate, appropriate for all ages, and still interesting. Even funny sometimes!
2. It's flexible. The multiple scenes mean that churches can use which parts work for you. As a former school drama director, it would work as a stage play. It could work as a " no-rehearsal" live pageant. We used it as a pre-recorded "movie". It could even be adapted for zoom.
3. It's interesting! Most pageants which are biblically accurate are dull. Not this one! Super cute with funny parts!
4. It's adaptable. Use stuffed sheep or make the pastor the sheep. Include as many angels and magi as you'd like. People from 6-60, all genders and reading ability can participate.

**The backgrounds make the whole thing seem more expensive and professional than we are.

We strongly recommend!