Summary: Mother and daughter are wrapping a Christmas gift to a relative. Mother insists on correct wrapping technique, and daughter wonders why a gift should be given to someone they obviously don’t like.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 5min
Actors : 2F
Characters: Woman and teen
Script
( Mother and daughter (Tanya) are at table. Daughter is disgustedly starting to cut the paper for the gift while mother is supervising.)
Mother: Wait a minute...you have to put the gift on the paper before you cut it...you can’t guess at how much you need.
Daughter: (rolling eyes) Okay...(puts box on paper - with no interest. Acts like she is try- ing to position it on paper)
Mother: (reaching in to help) ...like this...you’ve got to roll the paper out more...
Daughter: (puts down scissors, sits back and crosses arms)
Mother: (picks up the scissors and cuts the paper) See, it’s not that hard...you just have to...(stops and looks at Tanya)...what’s wrong?
Daughter: (Stone faced) nothing. Mother: It doesn’t look like “nothing”. Daughter: I’m okay. I’m just bored.
Mother: Oh, you don’t have time to be bored. We’ve got a lot of presents to wrap here...Look, I tell you what...you hold the paper on the box while I tape it up....(begins to wrap the box) Come on, you can do this...
Daughter: Alright... (disgustedly leans forward and heavily puts her finger on the edge of the paper while she looks off in the distance)
Mother: that’s better...I’ll have you wrapping gifts you can be proud of before long!
(mother’s happy at her apparent victory)
(Pause while wrapping continues...)
Daughter: Mom, isn’t this uncle Dave and aunt Terry’s present?
Mother: (answers while she wraps) Um-huh....
Daughter: Don’t you hate them?
Mother: (surprised, stands and looks at Tanya) NO! I don’t HATE them! What makes you say a thing like that?!
Daughter: Mom, don’t have a melt down!...
Mother: I’m not melting down, I just don’t know where you got that from...
Daughter: Well, we only see them once a year...
Mother (sitting down): Tanya, they live in Pittsburgh...we just can’t make that trip.
Daughter: And, you and dad always talk about how crude and loud they are...
Mother: (resumes wrapping the gift and finishes taping it) Well, that’s not the way I’d put it, but they are “different”...we just have to love them a little more...(smiles at her ability to recover)
Daughter: (stands up) But that’s my point, mom...you don’t see them but maybe once a year, and just that one time is a royal pain! Why do you give them a gift? You can’t honestly say that you love them...
Mother: (completely composed now - stops wrapping) Tanya, come and sit (pats
Tanya’s chair)
(Tanya sits)
Mother: This is something you need to know about Christmas and gifts...you give gifts to your family because it’s Christmas, not because you are close, or because you want to give them a gift. It’s the right thing to do...it’s what families do.
Daughter: Mom, that seems so cold...
Mother: (handles the wrapped gift) I just believe that keeping the tradition going is as important as what the tradition is all about. Maybe, someday, Dave and Terry will under- stand that family is about keeping things going even when we don’t want to...just like we do...
Daughter: (skeptical) So, you’re saying....
Mother: (points to wrapped gift as she interrupts Tanya) I’m saying that sometimes, dear, a gift is all you have between you and someone else...
............................................................................
© Fred Lane, Crosswind Community Church, All rights reserved
This play may be performed free of charge, on the condition that copies are not sold for profit in any medium, nor any entrance fee charged. In exchange for free performance, the author would appreciate being notified of when and for what purpose the play is performed. He may be contacted at: