A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Christmas at Home

Short Play, Comedy  /  4w, 3m

Joseph Hayes

The day before Christmas finds the Burgess family busy with preparations and poignantly aware that this is the first year the members of the family will not be together; son Johnny is in Chicago, and Grandpa had died last summer. But the Burgesses do not feel sorry for themselves; they realize how h…

Christmas at Home

Request license
Get the Script
  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    4w, 3m
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Christmas/Holiday
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Appropriate for all audiences

Details

Summary
The day before Christmas finds the Burgess family busy with preparations and poignantly aware that this is the first year the members of the family will not be together; son Johnny is in Chicago, and Grandpa had died last summer. But the Burgesses do not feel sorry for themselves; they realize how happy and well off they are. In humorous and touching scenes, we see sixteen year-old Julie falling in love for the first time; eighteen year-old Emily receiving a proposal of marriage; twelve year-old Janet learning the real meaning of Christmas.

EMILY BURGESS - 18 years old; a strinking looking girl with soft eyes and an appealing wistfulness. Quiet, reserved, graceful.

JULIE BURGESS - 16 years old; a girl full of vitality and fine spirit; lovely in a bruque way; in high school; quick, eager, young mind.

JANET BURGESS - just 12; lively; a delightful mixture of child and adult; still youngishly chubby; quick and ready sympathies and emotions.

JOHNNY BURGESS - a boyish 21; athletic, with eyes that crinkle with life and amusement and a sometimes sad sensitivity.

DOCTOR TOM BURGESS - just past 50; the father; a fine doctor of the old-fashioned and real variety; impractical and humanistic.

MRS MARGARET BURGESS - not yet 45, but looks it in a graceful way; pleasant mixture of practical realist and womanly sentimentalist; wise and lovely; her faimly is her life.

RALPH WEATHERLY - 17 years old; not particularly handsome but engaging and typical, with a wide, pleasant smile and a slight uneasiness.

  • Setting A living room.

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $65 per performance

Scripts

Available Formats:
Get the Script

Add-Ons

Take a look below at how you can enhance your show!

Authors

Joseph Hayes

Joseph Hayes
Joseph Hayes (August 2, 1918 – September 11, 2006) grew up writing novels and plays in his native Indianapolis, Indiana. His most successful work, The Desperate Hours, was turned into a novel, a Tony Award-winning Broadway play, and a film, which in 1956 won the Edgar Award f ...
View full profile

Now Playing