The Inter-Mountain photo by Heather Bonnett The cast and crew of Mama’s Family pose for a photo Sunday after the performance.

The Inter-Mountain photo by Heather Bonnett
The cast and crew of Mama’s Family pose for a photo Sunday after the performance.

ELKINS — Laughter filled the air during The Elkin’s First Church of the Nazarene’s “Mama’s Family Christmas” play on Sunday evening.

The play was based off of the hit TV show “Mama’s Family” episode “Santa Mama.” Thelma Harper, a.k.a. Mama Harper, comes to the rescue when her son, Vinton Harper, volunteers to be Santa Claus at the mall and loses his voice after practicing his Ho Ho Ho’s too much. Mama steps up to play Santa in order to keep the children from being disappointed, even though she isn’t in the Christmas spirit.

The entire cast was composed of members of the church. Each one bringing to life the characters of the TV show. Mama was played by Kathy Brake, Iola by Cathy Burgess, Vinton by Jeff Kyle, Sonya by Kyatt Bailey, Maynard by Isaac Shepler and Maynard III by Roco Shepler. Dory was played by Olivia Gardner, Thomas by Luke Thompson, Maynard’s mother by Leah Shepler, Thomas’s mother by Katrina Thompson and Leah was played by Leah Dyer.

Upon entering the sanctuary at the church, where the play was held, every attendee received a tea light candle to use later on during the show during the song Silent Night.

In between the acts, the audience was entertained by none other than the Raytown Nazarene Church choir, who performed several classic Christmas songs to bring out the holiday spirit in everyone.

Spectators from across the area came to see the performance and packed the house, leaving standing room only.

“We had a full house, God really blessed us,” said Burgess, who, in addition to playing Iola, was one of the directors of the play.

During the Christmas Eve Service portion of the evening, Katrina Thompson brought the house down with her performance of a Christmas Hallelujah.

“Our real goal for this play was to get the real meaning of Christmas out, which is about the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. We do that through humor, but that was the underlining goal to have the true meaning of Christmas presented to everybody so they could reminded of how much he loved us and how much he was willing to go through and be with us not only as a baby but to die on the cross for us,” Burgess said.

Attendees received a special treat at the end of the night. They were greeted while they were exiting the building by the entire cast and given candy canes with a special meaning attached to them: “Look at the Candy Cane What do you see? Stripes that are red like the blood shed for me. White is for my savior who is sinless and pure. Candy cane shape is for Jesus My Lord, that’s for sure. Turn it around and a staff you will see. Jesus my shepherd was born for me.”

“This isn’t just about entertainment but our goal as a church is to present the gospel, Jesus Christ, to the community. That is first and foremost whenever we do a Mama’s Family play,” Burgess said.