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Christmas Chats and Dramas (no 1)
Wise man’s ‘room’ background and side walls painted onto cardboard (see backdrops showcase for more images).
Explorers from the East - (drama)
For Leaders:
This drama was written to be performed solo, although you could act it out with a couple of folk. Here is a photo of a collapsible shack that can be used in all sorts of guises. The wise man starts off in this space and tells his story. A star was put on a pole (not in the picture). When the wise man moved off on his journey he took the pole and star with him. (This drama was very effective both in KidzKlub and all-age family service.) Obviously, you can improvise your wise man’s setting with just a simple painted back-drop to create a bit of atmosphere.
Drama:
Hello, my name is Ezekiel and I want to tell you what happened to me and my friends 2000 years ago when we first got involved, with what you call Christmas.
I lived in a place called Persia, which is far away in the East right over the other side of the world. The towns and cities around where I lived were surrounded by desert with miles and miles of sand. People didn’t travel in cars or buses or on trains in those days, we went from place to place on camels or donkeys.
People called me and my friends, wise men because we looked into things that were going on around us (putting on the crown). Sometimes today we are even referred to as the three kings.
Night sky background for drama download PowerPoint from bottom of this page.
Two thousand years ago there were no proper roads or street lights, like today and at night time it was really dark outside with very clear skies across the desert. At night when it was dark, we would look up into the sky at the stars. There were no telescopes back then so we just looked with our eyes. We got to know the night sky very well and would sit together pointing out the moon, stars and planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury,
One night something happened that changed our lives forever. After dark we went outside as usual to look at the stars. That night there was something different about the sky, a brand new star had appeared. We were so excited, what could this mean, where had it come from? The star was brighter than all of the others and appeared to be pointing west towards Israel. After staring into space at the star for a while, one of my friends suddenly said that he believed the new star was there because a new king had been born. You know what, I can’t remember why he thought this but we decided we should follow the star and go see the new king.
Early the next morning we got up and packed our camels. We took blankets, food, money, clothes and presents. Yes presents were important. Gifts for the new king. We travelled through the day and were so pleased when it became dark again and we could see the star clearly against the night sky.
(Move off from the wise man’s house and wander across the front of stage or hall to centre stage.)
For weeks we followed the star, across the desert, through towns, along rivers, over mountains. Finally, after travelling hundreds of miles and for many, many days the star appeared to stop still over Jerusalem in Israel. There was a palace in Jerusalem, and kings live in palaces so we called in, thinking surely this new king would be here?
Props for Herod - crown and some kind of fancy chair or draped chair for throne.
(Sit back down and put crown on - for the Herod bit.)
There was a king in the palace, but not the baby king we had been looking for. His name was Herod, he asked us why we were looking for a baby king, how did we know about Him, where had we come from, when did the star we were following first appear? Herod called all of his priests and religious leaders together and asked them what they knew and where this baby child would be born. The priests said that in their books and scrolls it said that this new ruler would be born in Bethlehem. The king sent us on our way saying, “when you have found the baby come back and tell me so that I too may go and see Him.”
So we left the palace, and went to Bethlehem following the star that was still there right in front of us. It led us right to the house where the baby was living with His parents Mary and Joseph. When we saw the star above the house we were so excited. We had travelled for weeks and weeks, hundreds of miles and finally we had arrived.
In the house we found the baby with His parents. We dropped on our knees and worshipped Him. God had guided us by the star and brought us to the very spot where the young child was. The child’s parents told us that His Name was Jesus. We brought our gifts, I gave my gold and there was frankincense and myrrh also from my friends.
After spending time with Jesus we left the family. That night we had a dream from God in which he said to not go back to Herod’s palace, Herod wants to harm Jesus. So we travelled home on our camels another way. Our lives changed forever, we had met Jesus, the king of kings, the Son of the living God.
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