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Christmas Plays

© Dave Brandl

And so this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another play published. And a new one just begun.                (with apologies to John Lennon)

I love Christmas - the traditions, the seasonal warmth, the magic, and the bright eyes of expectant children of all ages. And as a playwright, it is very, very good to me. Christmas plays are a major annual niche market.

Ordinarily, plays need to be in a catalog for several years before they develop their following. Others take off quickly. I have had the fortune to have some of my plays follow the latter route, and it is primarily due to the publisher.

My first Christmas play to be published was Miracle on 34th Street, by Eldridge Publishing Company. It was published in the spring of 1995, and so had only a few months exposure before its first Christmas season. That first year there were about a half dozen productions. But in each year since, it has had about 25 to 30 productions in cities across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. During all this, Eldridge has been very good at promoting the play, getting it reviewed in magazines such as Stage Directions, and generally keeping the marketing going steadily.

They are continuing this work with the other Christmas play of mine that they've published, A Christmas Carol.com. In its first year, it too had a handful of productions. This Christmas is its second season, and I'm curious and anxious to see what the numbers will turn out to be.

Another publisher with good marketing skills for the plays they publish is Pioneer Drama Service, which in 1999 published Too Wrapped Up For Christmas, my fourth Christmas play and the first published by them. In just the few months this play has been in their catalog, it has already logged sales nearly half that of their best sellers. Once again, the publisher is responsible for active marketing of the script.

My other Christmas show is actually a trilogy of one-acts. It's called A Christmas Lottery, and is published by Encore Performance Publishing. One unique aspect of this show is that a lot of its interest has been generated from places on the web where I've included it in online play resources, particularly the Small-Cast One-Act Guide Online. This site lists one-act plays with casts of four or fewer, and two of this trilogy fit that bill, How Can They Call It A Fixed Income When We're Always Broke? and Bus Stop Baptism.

The copyright of the article Christmas Plays in Playwriting is owned by Dave Brandl. Permission to republish Christmas Plays in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.