Christmas is right around the corner and many churches are in the final planning stages for all of their special Christmas programs and special services. Many times these plans include additional sound, lighting, video, and scenic elements.
I love Christmas. While Christmas is the celebration of Christ's birth for Christians, it's also represents a time of love, family, and peace to those that are not. This makes perfect sense to me as God the Father sent Jesus Christ to earth because he loved us as family and desires for us to have peace and joy.
I know you are now asking yourself what this has to do with scenic pieces. Well Christmas has some of the most iconic visuals associated with it, visuals that evoke a particular feeling to people or provide a reminder of a particular event in the birth of Christ.
First there would be the star, representing the star that appeared over Bethlehem on the night of Christ's birth as well as being what led the wise men to seek out the new King. Another iconic symbol is the angel. Of course it was the angel that first proclaimed Jesus's birth and the choir of angels that heralded His arrival. There is the manger scene, the candy cane, the snowflake, Christmas ornaments, but out of all visual elements that evoke the feeling of Christmas, the Christmas tree has to be at the top.
So why do I mention these obvious visuals of Christmas? Well they can be quick, inexpensive, and easy adds to your special program that are readily recognized and instantly evoke feelings and memories of Christmas. In the midst of such a busy time at most churches, quick and easy is especially important.
Things like Christmas trees are inexpensive and readily available at any box store. Many can be purchased pre-lit and some are even pre-decorated. This means that all you have to do is put them together and plug them in. You can group them together, using different size trees, and they do a good job of adding a great Christmas visual, as well as hiding plain walls or equipment that you want to hide.
Additionally things like stars, snowflakes, and angels can be readily purchased from commercial Christmas decoration suppliers or cut from artists foam board and painted. They work well when hung and many commercial products can be purchased pre-lit.
Large dimensional ornaments can also be purchased and used. These generally are lightweight, easy to hang using monofilament line or tie line, they take light well, and are generally inexpensive.
As you are looking to add stage visuals one of the things that you have to keep in mind is scale. A small home oriented decoration would get lost on a large stage so you need to look at large pieces that will read well on a large stage. Of course the opposite can be true of small stages. Large commercial pieces on a smaller stage might actually be too large.
Of course scenic designs for Christmas aren't limited exclusively to Christmas trees, cutouts, and ornaments. Many people use plants such as the poinsettia and the ficus tree as well as drape, painted backdrops, and hard sets.
I generally find that the sets around Christmas tend to have a softer look using more drape and natural wood then sets used other times of the year as they tend to give a little bit warmer, inviting feel to a stage versus a more “hard” translucent plastic based set, although as in all things there are exceptions to this and any set that works for your application is fair game. All in all you are trying to add a visual flair that supports the message of Christmas.
I hope that the process of designing for Christmas is an easy process for you and that your design brings peace and joy to the many that will see it.
