Christmas Message Delivered in Chappaqua Church Musical
Recounting the story of Christmas with a meaningful and entertaining message can be a serious challenge, even for a church.
For the second consecutive year, Grace Baptist Church in Chappaqua hopes to capture the message of the holiday not only for its parishioners but the wider community as well through a staged production in its sanctuary the next two Saturday nights.
A dozen of the church’s congregants comprise the cast of “Christmas is Relative,” a story of the McMillan family holiday reunion that is organized by the well-meaning but overbearing matriarch Aunt Fran.
Grace Baptist member Jason King, a longtime actor, is directing the production that will use some humor and music to augment the Christmas story for the audience. King actually turned the production into a musical by adding some traditional and familiar Christmas carols and by adding an original song written by cast member and Grace Baptist parishioner Jackie Serra.
“It’s a chance to be more creative with something and I think it’s an amazing way to tell a very cool story, the greatest story ever told, the story of Christmas,” King said.
“Christmas is Relative” was one of the annual original Christmas productions that King’s former church in Washington, D.C. created and staged over the past 25 years. A couple of years ago when King relocated with his family to Westchester and joined Grace Baptist on Orchard Ridge Road, he suggested to Pastor Larry Holland that the church present a holiday-themed production.
King said he chose “Christmas is Relative,” which lasts a little less than an hour, among several of his former church’s plays because he figured novice actors would be able to pull it off. The cast, which includes children, ranges in age from six to 77 years old.
Holland said he and the congregation were pleased with how last year’s production went and were excited to present another play. They invested in new lighting and other equipment to make the experience for the actors and the audience more enjoyable and professional.
The play is also a gift to the community, Holland said, since everyone is invited to attend regardless of whether they belong to Grace Baptist. While it is meant to be fun and entertaining, he hopes that the message of the holidays isn’t lost.
“My prayer is that everyone goes home a little bit less selfish, thinking about others and thinking what is the meaning of this time of year,” Holland said. “Not only do we have Christmas, but we also have Hanukkah, the miracle God did for the Jewish people, and as Christians and as Jewish people, we all believe in God and he’s the one we ought to thank. That’s the message.”
It was Serra, a current College of New Rochelle student and a Chappaqua resident, who approached King about writing an original song. That spurred the idea to infuse music into the production. She also wrote an original song for last year’s show.
“I just felt like adding a song, an original song, would add more to the whole play in a nutshell, really, because it would add more originality,” Serra said.
King mentioned that her composition is integrated nicely into the production.
“Jackie really studied the play, and so aside from me, no one really knew this play,” King said. “She committed the time to studying the play, to understanding the play, so the song that she wrote with the last character’s through-line leads off into the song.”
The second production of “Christmas is Relative” is scheduled for next Saturday, Dec. 12. It will begin at 7 p.m. Seating is free but on a first-come, first-served basis.
Grace Baptist Church is located at 12 Orchard Ridge Rd. in Chappaqua.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
