The Story of Cinderella
. . . a message for Christmas. (Resource Pack 129) Key Stages 2, 3 & 4
Visual aid: Cinderella costumes
I did this Christmas assembly with older children, and they loved the pantomime theme.
Each actor dresses in costume and rises from their chair, as if they are little children, to deliver their lines. Then they sit back down. (Source unknown to me, but I did see this one in a Mother's Union concert once.)
N: The story of Cinderella, I am the
Narrator.
C: I am Cinderella.
P: I am Prince Charming.
U: We are the ugly sisters.
F: I am the Fairy Godmother.
C: I am beautiful.
P: I am handsome.
U: We are ugly.
F: I am good.
N: Scene 1 The Kitchen.
C: I am sad.
U: We are going to the ball.
Clean our shoes.
C: Alright!
N: End of Scene 1
N: Scene 2 The Kitchen.
C: I am sad.
F: Why are you sad?
C: I am not going to the ball.
F: You may go to the ball.
C: Alright!
N: Appear one coach
(N sits and stands again)
N; Plus accessories
F: Be back before twelve.
C: Alright
N: End of Scene 2
N; Scene 3 The Ball
U: WHO’S THAT?
P: She’s beautiful
(P sits and stand again)
P: Will you dance?
C: I must go!
N: Dong!
C: I must go.
P: She has left her slipper.
N: End of Scene 3.
N: Scene 4 The Kitchen
C: I am sad
N: Enter Prince Charming.
P: Try this.
U 1: It fits.
P: It doesn’t.
U 2: It fits
P: It doesn’t
(P sits and stands up again)
P; Try this.
C: It fits.
P: It does. I love you
C: I love you.
P: Marry me.
C: Alright.
(C sits and stands again)
C: I am happy
U: We are sad
P: I am married.
F: I am still good.
N: The end.
C: Alright.
And the message? At Christmas, pantomimes are so popular, popular with old and young alike.
They fill us with joy and a sense of fun and laughter.
But just as Cinders was banished to the kitchen, so we see more and more today how Jesus, the One who IS the reason for this season, is too being banished, and pushed to the sidelines!
We look at Christmas cards, and wonder where he his image has disappeared to? And rather than the words, ‘Merry Christmas’ we read ‘Seasons Greetings’
We gaze at shop windows and their Christmas displays, and very rarely find him there. Some Charity shops ban reference to Jesus, but allow Hallowe’en themes to dominate. Christmas lights are now known as ‘Celebrity or Winter lights. Bibles are banned from hospitals. Museum dating systems read BP not BC.
One character did not appear in our pantomime today. He is called Buttons. He always was a friend to Cinders, loved her and made her known.
We can do that today with the Christ child who is fast disappearing from the scene. We too can make him known, when we say our Yes to all that God wants to do in our lives…just as Mary did.
There are mouths he wants us to feed, there are broken lives he wants us to mend, a natural world he wants us to care for, and messed up people he wants us to free.
Then, as the hymn says, ‘Jesus will be born in us today!
A Merry Christmas to you all,
And may the peace and joy of the Christ-child be with you all.