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Directing the Perfect Christmas Pageant on an Overseas Military Base

So why did one parent complain?

Mary DeVries
The Memoirist
9 min readDec 7, 2024

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Photo by Monstera Production: https://www.pexels.com/photo/cute-asian-girl-in-angel-outfit-7139176/

Okay, so we nearly lost some sheep, the angels ran amuck, and Mary was a bit whiny. Do you really think the original nativity wasn’t a chaotic mess? Read a little more Bible, watch a bit less Hallmark, and you’ll appreciate my directorial vision.

The full-blown Nativity Play or Christmas Pageant is a dying art form in the United States of America. Who has time for all those practices? Not modern families whose maneuvers require more color-coordinated calendars, spreadsheets, and moving parts than D-Day planning.

Ironically, an overseas military base gave me all the ingredients needed for my personal best Christmas pageant ever.

The bar for success in a children’s Christmas program on an overseas military base is low. Give parents a chance to see their darlings in the spotlight, let kids play dress up, and help everyone forget for a moment what they are missing by being far from deployed parents, extended family, and stateside traditions.

No one does nostalgia and Americana quite like military people posted abroad.

I’ll never forget the 2011 Holiday Tree Lighting ceremony. All the kids running around indistinguishable in one of the three coat styles…

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The Memoirist
The Memoirist

Published in The Memoirist

We exclusively publish memoirs: The creative stories unpacked from the nostalgic hope chests of our lives.

Mary DeVries
Mary DeVries

Written by Mary DeVries

I delight, despair and write about a life lived around the world. Fueled by Yorkshire Gold tea.

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