Anyone else do family holiday plays?

[mountainjogger]

About 15 years ago, a family member came down with a terminal illness. To lighten the mood, I wrote a Christmas play. Actually, the first one was a mock newspaper with funny stories about family members.

Our family get together at Christmas is about 35 -40 people. Over the years, we have ditched the gift exchange in favor a group donation to a charity, and just get together for lunch and the Annual Christmas play.

After doing remixes on the classics (A Night Before Christmas, Scrooge, It's a Wonderful Life,), we have evolved into stories about the stupid stuff we each do during the year. When someone does something embarrassing, I usually get an email, sometimes with pictures. My spouse and I then come up with stories to go with the embarrassing moments and weave them together with a theme for a Christmas play. As long as we also poke fun at ourselves, everyone takes it well, and looks forward to it. Just finished this year's and went with Darwin Awards Season II.

May sound strange, but it works. And each time a member of the latest generation gets old enough to read, they want a part also.

So, no anxiety about giving the right gift for a gift exchange. Just getting together for a some fellowship and a few laughs.

Anyone else do something similar?

Oh, and I almost forgot. Happy Holidays to everyone!