A very cute children's Christmas play
by the award-winning Portuguese author Dulce Rodrigues
With its twist on characters from the holiday season and its foreign setting, Father Christmas has the Flu may appeal to a wide audience. Both adults and children may be entertained by this charming play.
Set in Father Christmas’s house in Sweden, this play takes place in that holiday season. Regrettably, Father Christmas has come down with the flu. How will he deliver the presents?
His assistant Elf dreams of playing Father Christmas for one night but Mrs. Christmas and her husband don’t think it’s a good idea….
Angry because the Christmases did not think he was responsible enough to deliver the presents, Elf plays a prank on the substitute. Yet Father Christmas has no idea that this has happened until his replacement arrives in desperation.
The book also features a recipe of Mother Christmas Chocolate Cake and a few easy drawings for Christmas decorations, and the Christmas carol “We wish you a Merry Christmas” is sung at the end of the play.
Book cover illustration by the Belgian painter Willoos.
Softcover | 6 x 9 in | 80 pages | ISBN 9781452074788
Ebook | 233 KB | ASIN B004CRTEDQ
Reader's Age: 7-8-9 yrs old (Third and Fourth graders and above) Publisher UK:Authorhouse UK Publisher US:Authorhouse US Categories:Children's Books > Litterature and Fiction > Fairy Tales > Christmas Play > Young Readers #Kindle eBooks #Children's Books #ChristmasPlay #ChristmasLegends #StoryTelling #Adventure&Action #Barry4Kids
Worksheets on this funny kids’ book are available to teachers, parents and children at the educational website Barry4kids.
About the Author
Award-winning author Dulce Rodrigues is the happy grandmother of two lovely little girls. She has authored eighteen children’s books published in several languages (including Chinese), two travelogues, and a novel.
She also has contributions in international anthologies and writes regularly on the web. She speaks six living languages and translates most of her own books.
Born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal, Dulce Rodrigues received a scholarship to study at the Goethe-Institut in Germany, and one for a scientific course with the Open University in the UK, and wound up living in many different countries around Europe.
Now retired after a career that included working for NATO and as a translator for the U.S. Military, she currently lives a little everywhere in Europe.
She was awarded a few literary prizes : while the Honourable Mention awarded at the 2013 Hollywood Book Festival
came from the US, eight other prizes came from Europe, including Honourable Mention at the 2013 London Book Festival.
A few of her kids' plays were performed in countries in Europe. After publishing her first children's book, she created the educational website www.barry4kids.net (in four languages) for children to learn with fun.
In addition to writing she enjoys travelling, gardening, photography, music, and pets. She also has a passion for History and for all forms of Art that transmit Beauty.
Dulce Rodrigues is a member of international cultural and literary associations and she collaborates regularly with Journal BomDia.eu (Luxembourg),
ACPS (Strasbourg) and Short Kid Stories (Ireland).
Please visit her at www.dulcerodrigues.info.
THE PEDAGOGICAL INTEREST OF PLAYS AS READING MATERIAL IN A CLASSROOM FATHER CHRISTMAS HAS THE FLU, as any of Dulce Rodrigues’s kids plays, is written not only as a reader’s entertainment, or as a source for stage performance.
It can as well be used for reading in a classroom, or for after-school programs: scripts are held by the readers; lines don’t need being memorized. The stage in this particular could be the front of a classroom; an actual stage isn’t needed.
The focus is on reading the text with expressive voices and gestures. Children love it!
The author’s own experience has shown her that children and juveniles with no deep interest in books, and who struggle with reading, gain confidence and get involved in reading as they practice and master simple theatre scripts.
With these experiences in mind, any of Dulce’s plays is aiming to help teachers and students stage it if they so wish.
FATHER CHRISTMAS HAS THE FLU was written to be performed by actors before an audience of children, young adults and families. The three-act version is also ideal for a cast of eight to twenty children with language and memory skills or for a mix of adults and children, for fun and entertaining.
The medium-sized version (first two acts) is more appropriate to be performed by children aged 8 to 12. The short version (act three) is a good entertainment for little children, and it can be performed as an independent one-act play under the title The Miracle of Saint Nicholas.
Performance rights: 20 EUR (Schools and amateur groups. Professionals, please contact the author)
Performance (in Portuguese language) by a group of teenagers of the Portuguese Cultural Centre of Esch/Alzette, in Luxembourg.
Following performance on June 14, 2008 also in Esch/Alzette for school children and teachers.
Performance (in French language) by a group of children of the high school at Tismana, Romania.
Other performances, namely at the end of the school year and on August 15, 2006 at Svinita,
a small town in the southern part of the country, on the shores of the Danube, during the Festival of the Fig.
