Went to a church on the Upper West Side today with some friends, and attended the wonderful and witty Christmas pageant put on by children from different Sunday school age groups. The kindergarteners appeared as a line of angels in home-made costumes singing "Go tell it on the mountain." First and second graders imagined Joseph at the census trying to explain that he was not the biological father of his son Jesus.
This group here did a kind of numerological catechism (four evangelists, ten commandments, etc.), with a key to its often obscure references offered by the boy on the end; this was for the number five. Young teens did a Harry Potter-themed skit (the one who cannot be named is tricked into zombiehood by the choir director). High schoolers had a skit about not being able to agree on a script for their skit. Wonders of youth!