Your church wants to put on a pageant this December. You want more than kids as shepherds in bathrobes and tinsel-winged angels. Sure, they're cute, but you want your congregation to know why the baby Jesus matters.

You want to show the real meaning of Christmas: the story of the coming of Christ into the world, Jesus born of Mary, the Son of God.

It is easy to go wrong in a play about Christmas. In a heartbeat things can get too sweet, or too preachy, or downright tacky.

Despite the best of intentions, plays can even take our attention away from Jesus. Focusing too hard on modern problems like materialism, they can almost forget to show the world-changing story of the coming of Christ.

So you fear that your play will aim too low. You fear missing the once-a-year opportunity to help people see and feel the story of how our salvation began to be revealed.

Gary Neal Hansen's Christmas Play tells the whole biblical story of the coming of Jesus in the Bible's own words. It weaves all the relevant Gospel passages into one seamless drama.

This is the story of the Light coming into a world of shadows -- the Light that darkness can never overcome.

Gary Neal Hansen is the award-winning author of Kneeling with Giants: Learning to Pray with History's Best Teachers (InterVarsity, 2012), and Love Your Bible: Finding Your Way to the Presence of God with a 12th Century Monk (Climacus, 2015). He serves as Associate Professor of Church History at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary.

Connect with him (and get free books!) at GaryNealHansen.com