The program created “quite a buzz at Colonial Woods,” Chapman told Baptist Press. The church set a high-attendance record of almost 140 people in worship — the largest crowd in the last seven years for a small church that consists predominantly of retirement-age members.

Jenny watches television as her dad again comes home from work late — hours late. He plops in his favorite chair and tries to read the newspaper as Jenny’s mom goes off, ranting about her husband missing dinner and the long hours he’s working.

Red-faced, Jenny’s dad spews venom about a tough work environment and the need for overtime hours to pay for Christmas presents.

A commercial plays on the family’s television about a musical presentation at the mall and an appearance by Santa Claus.

“Can we go, can we go, Daddy? Can we pulleeeze go?” Jenny begs her father.

The parents’ argument continues, then ends with a weeping young Jenny who says between sobs, “Please, please, I really need to see Santa this year.”

Jenny’s father reluctantly agrees.

Though fictional, the troubles in Jenny’s family represent an all-too-familiar scenario, so Tim Chapman, minister of music at Colonial Woods Baptist Church in Lawrenceville, Ga., decided to write a skit about Jenny and her parents’ troubled marriage as an introduction to the Colonial Woods’ annual Christmas musical Dec. 12.

Chapman and his wife Alice were driving back from Florida when the idea struck him to write the script and to compile and arrange the selections for the musical as well as to compose an original song.

Alice Chapman played Jenny’s mother. Other characters included Colonial Woods’ pastor Don Mulkey as Jenny’s father, Jake; Katelyn Berger as Jenny; and Bill Wells as Santa.

Driving north on the interstate, Tim verbalized the script as Alice typed it on a laptop computer. “God just gave it to me; it really was a God thing,” said Chapman, who is webmaster for Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, Ga.

The Colonial Woods musical undergoes a scene change as ushers and deacons transform the platform from a family living room to risers at a mall. Then the ring-ting-tingling of tiny bells peals from the back of the auditorium. The church’s choir members meander up the middle aisle ringing bells and shaking hands of congregants.

As the singers assemble on the platform, Chapman welcomes everyone to the musical presentation at the “mall.” The church choir-turned-community choral group sings, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” at the start of a feel-good selection of secular and religious Christmas songs after which Chapman introduces Santa Claus, who has been in the church foyer.

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The source for this document was originally published on bpnews.net—however, the original URL is no longer available.]