DLTK's Christmas Plays
A Crossword Puzzle

© written by Leanne Guenther

This is a 15 to 20 minute play about Santa's reindeer.  Activities during the play include 3 songs, some speaking roles and some simple line dancing.  You're welcome to use it free of charge for any school, church, daycare, etc function but please don't copy it and sell it to people -- it's meant to be free *smile*.

Parts:

You can let the kids come up with their own costumes.  I've given some ideas

Speaking/Acting/Dancing Parts:

• School Boy - just regular clothes but holding a crossword puzzle and pencil (homework).
• Little Sister - I picture this character in a girlish outfit, with pigtails, holding a teddy bear and licking a lollipop.  If you have fewer actors you can skip little sister and give all of her parts to the School Boy.
• Dad - I picture dad in a business suit with his tie loosened (like he just got home from work).
• Mom - I picture a modern "stay at home mom" -- jeans, sweatshirt and a ponytail with an apron on working on supper (peeling potatoes or stirring a pot or holding a cookbook).
• Grandpa -  I picture grandpa and Uncle Joe sitting in the corner playing checkers.  My grandpa always used to chew a toothpick.  Whenever he talked he'd take it out of his mouth and wave it at the person he was talking too.   You might want to grey the hair a bit.  Maybe suspenders holding up his pants.
• Uncle Joe - a lot like grandpa.  If you have fewer actors you can skip Uncle Joe and give all of his parts to Grandpa.

Acting/Dancing Parts:

• Santa - Santa should look like Santa *grin*.  You might want to change him from his Santa hat into a cowboy hat during the last verse of the last song (during the line dance).
• 8 Reindeer:  Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen - these are the "hollywood reindeer". 
  • I picture Dasher and Blitzen as the boys and the rest as the girls.
  • You can buy or make reindeer antler headbands.
  • Safety pin a fun fur tail on the back of each reindeer.  Just cut a teardrop shape from brown fun fur to make the tail.
  • Add scarves (maybe matching ones made out of shiny green or silver material).
  • Dress them all in matching clothes -- maybe white shirts and black pants or skirts as that should be something most of the kids would have.
  • Each of the 8 reindeer should have a poster board sign with their name on it.  Maybe some green, silver or red sparkles glued around the edge of the sign
  • maybe even have them wearing sunglasses to get across the hollywood reindeer idea.
• Rudolph:  A boy.  Same antler headband, black pants and white shirt costume as the 8 reindeer only with a red nose.
• Leroy:  A boy. 
  • Antler headband or if you're really eager, modify a John Deere tractor hat to have antlers.
  • overalls
  • a red scarf around his neck
  • you might want to have him be a bit dirty like he's been working in the field

Dancing Parts:    

• Western Dancers aka Good ol' boys and girls (optional):  Jeans and western shirts.  Cowboy hats and cowboy boots.

Singing:  

• Choir - everyone else

It's up to you whether you want your speakers/actors/dancers to sing too.  You'll likely find they have enough challenge doing their acting/dancing without singing at the same time so you might want to have them focus on the acting/dancing and skip the singing.

The Play

To start:  Mom and Dad are making supper.  Grandpa and Uncle Joe are playing checkers.  Little Sister is watching Grandpa and Uncle Joe.  If you don't have an Uncle Joe, make dad play checkers with Grandpa. 

School Boy is frowning at his crossword puzzle.

School Boy:  I need some help with my homework *sigh*.

Mom:  Sure honey, what do you need?

School Boy:  I have to finish this Christmas crossword puzzle but I'm stuck on one question.  How many reindeer have pulled Santa's sleigh?

Dad:  That's an easy one -- eight.

Little Sister:  Eight?

Dad:  Yup.  Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen

while dad is listing them Little Sister and School Boy can be counting them off on their fingers.

Choir:  Thirty-two Feet and Eight Little Tails

• During the song, the 8 reindeer hold up the sign with their name on it when it is mentioned.  So if you arrange your reindeer in a line in the same order they are listed in the song, it should look like "the wave" everytime the song repeats their names.
   
• When the song says "Thirty-two feet and eight little tails..." the reindeer should all kick their right leg up, kick their left leg up and  then turn around and wiggle their behind (their tail) -- sort of like a show girl dance.
   
• When the song says "Santa laughin Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho" Santa should come into view from the side, hold his big tummy and say Ho ho ho....  and then duck back out of view (this happens twice)
   
• During the rest of the song the reindeer can just sway back and forth or march on the spot whichever you prefer.
   

Scene Change:  Light fades from the reindeer and moves to the family again (if you have a light). 

School Boy:  Uh dad...

Dad:  Yes son?

School Boy:  Eight doesn't fit.

Dad:  It doesn't?!

Mom:  That's because nine reindeer have pulled Santa's sleigh, dear (pats dad on shoulder)

Little Sister:  *giggle*

Choir:  Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

•  During the first verse, when their names are mentioned, the reindeer should hold up their signs
   
• When Rudolph is first mentioned he should step out onto the middle of the stage
   
• During the second verse, everyone should point at his nose
   
• During the third verse, the reindeer should be laughing, snickering, gossiping and pointing at Rudolph and shaking their head NO if he comes to play with them
   
• During the fourth verse, Santa comes on stage and talks to Rudolph who nods his head yes and looks proud
   
• During the fifth verse, all the reindeer should come up and shake hands with Rudolph or pat him on the back
   

Scene Change:  Light fades from the reindeer and moves to the family again (if you have a light). 

School Boy:  Oh oh

Dad  What's wrong?

School Boy:  (fidgets) Nine doesn't fit either.

Mom:  Are you sure you're spelling it right?

Little Sister:  *giggle*

School Boy:  Mooommmm.... (your typical exasperated "mom")

Grandpa:  There's 10 (gruffly)

everyone looks surprised that grandpa said something ... he usually doesn't talk when he's concentrating on checkers.

Little Sister:  I didn't think Olive counted

Mom and Dad:  Olive?

Little Sister:  Yeah!  *giggle*  You know... "All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names"  (sing the line from Rudolph the Red nose reindeer)

Mom:  Olive the other reindeer?  Oh!  All  of  the other reindeer.  Very cute dear.

giggles and snickers from mom, dad, brother and sister

Grandpa:  Hmpphh.  I don't know about any Olive.  Tenth reindeer goes by the name Leroy.

Brother and sister look at each other and say  Leroy!? in surprise.  Mom and dad look at each other and raise their eyebrows.

School Boy:  (in shock) Hey!  Ten fits!!

Uncle Joe looks up from his game and nods in agreement with grandpa.

Grandpa:  Well you've all heard the story about Rudolph and his nose.  But I'll tell you a Christmas tale that never has been told.

Uncle Joe:  You may think you've heard it all.  But you ain't heard nothing yet...

Scene change:  light fades from family and onto stage

Choir:  About that crazy Christmas that the North Pole can't forget.

Choir sings verse two while Rudolph and Leroy "talk" on the phone on stage.  You might want to put an ice pack on Rudolph's head or wrap him in a blanket to get across the idea that he's sick. 

Pause song after the second verse (where it says he jumped in his pick up truck).

Scene change:  light returns to family

School Boy:  Pick up truck!?

Little Sister:  Reindeer don't drive trucks, they fly!

Grandpa  *chuckle*  Leroy ain't one of them hollywood reindeer like Dasher or Blitzen.  He's a workin' class reindeer.

Uncle Joe  Ayup.  Leroy works 365 days a year not just on Christmas Eve.  A pick up truck comes in mighty handy when you don't have a magic sleigh and a bunch of elves to help haul yer stuff around.

Uncle Joe and Grandpa nod to each other in agreement.

Scene change:  light returns to stage

Choir sings verse three while the 8 reindeer, Leroy and Santa act it out on stage (8 reindeer snicker and point at Leroy and then Santa steps in to say Leroy's the boss)

Choir sings verse four (which is actually the chorus) while Leroy works on getting all the reindeer into position and teaches them the line dance (while they struggle and can't get the dance right...  They get better at it as the verse nears an end).

Choir sings verse five -- for the first 4 lines Leroy and the 8 reindeer finally do their line dance perfectly together.  In line 5 (which mentions Santa), Santa joins the group and starts line dancing too and you see the family starting to arrange themselves to join in

Choir sings verse six (which is actually the chorus being sung a second time) -- the family starts doing the line dance in and all of the Western Dancers run onto the stage with the reindeer and/or with the family and join in too.  (depends on your space and how many Western Dancers you have) 

And that's the end!!

The Line Dance

The difficulty of your line dance depends on the age of your kids.  If you have a fairly eager group you can even let them design their own!  (maybe that can be a job for your Western Dancers to do).

Here's a simple one to get you started:

Tap right heel on ground and then return to standing position
Tap right heel on ground and then return to standing position

Tap left heel on ground and then return to standing position
Tap left heel on ground and then return to standing position

Hop, hop, clap  

Wiggle, wiggle, clap        (wiggle wiggle = swing hips left and right)

That sequence should take you the length of:

And it was Leroy the Red-Necked reindeer
Hooked to the front of the sleigh

So it would work like:

And it was Leroy
Tap right heel on ground and then return to standing position
Tap right heel on ground and then return to standing position

the Red-Necked reindeer
Tap left heel on ground and then return to standing position
Tap left heel on ground and then return to standing position

Hooked to the front
Hop, hop, clap  

of the sleigh
Wiggle, wiggle, clap

Question:  I am trying the Christmas play on your site with my sixth grade class.  There are two songs I have never heard and would like to know if there is such a song with music.  They are "Thirty-two feet and eight little tails" and "Leroy the red-necked reindeer." Please answer as soon as possible so I know if I need to start looking.  Thanks.

Answer:  You can purchase the sheet music to 32 feet & 8 little tails at http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0043210&bd=Index&bl=/SheetMusic/index/GuitarPianoVoice/html/defaultT.asp (though I'm sure if you had a book of many Christmas songs you'd find it... perhaps one of the parents has it). You can print the first page of the music off from the site for free (the chorus) if you need to check whether the difficulty level is appropriate for your pianist/guitarist. There are other versions of the music as well (mostly with just the melody, but I found this to be the best for someone who can play piano fairly well).

Leroy the red-necked reindeer is a country and western song by Joe Diffie. You can buy his Christmas CD at most music stores or through Amazon (again, depending on the music tastes in your part of the world, you might be able to get it from one of the parents) 
http://spikesmusic-christmas.spike-jamie.com/pdf/LEROY-THE-RED-NECKED-REINDEER.pdf has the guitar chords if you're interested in having the music played instead of using the CD. I haven't found piano music for it.

Printable version of these instructions