Thanks to the children at St. Jude Church in Boswell, Okla., and their annual Epiphany play, this parish celebrates the Christmas season in its entirety every year. “In our society, Christmas ornaments often come down the day after Christmas,” says this mission parish’s CCD director Bonnie Eastwood. “But here at St. Jude we are the lone ones saying, ‘Christmas isn’t over! It just got started!’”

“We miss the richness of the Gospel story if we miss the Epiphany story,” says Father Bob Poandl, who pastored this mission and its parent, Immaculate Conception Church in Hugo, until it was turned back to the Diocese of Tulsa in the summer of 2003.

The Magi challenge us “to come and seek the true meaning of Jesus as a king and a redeemer,” Father Bob continues. “We should learn from them how to experience what they experienced, that Jesus was a savior who died for us all, even the non-Jews.”

The Boswell play has been held annually since 1982 when it was started by Providence Sister Joseph Fillenwarth, then the pastoral associate at St. Jude and now pastoral coordinator of Glenmary’s mission in Vanceburg, Ky.

The Christmas season for Boswell Catholics begins with the mid-December posadas, a Hispanic tradition that re-enacts Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter. The season concludes in January with the Epiphany play.

By observing the holiday in this fashion, “we have a chance to reflect on the reality that we’ve prepared for: Jesus’ birth and the fulfillment of God’s promises,” Father Bob says.

Initially, Sister Joseph penned a play about the Holy Family for Christmas. “But with so many people gone at Christmas, we moved it to Epiphany,” she says, and changed the focus to the story of the Magi. “The whole point was to make the children aware of the Christmas story, to let them be part of it.”

Anytime a child gets dressed up and can pretend to be someone, “there’s a little excitement there,” says Bonnie Eastwood, who now produces and directs the play. Students take turns portraying Mary, Joseph, the angel and the shepherds as well as the three kings. Older youths help by narrating the play or serving the Epiphany Mass.

“The little kids react by telling people, ‘I get to be in the Epiphany play!’” reports Bonnie. “The older kids say, ‘Do I have to do this again?’” But afterwards, she laughs, “They’re always so glad they’ve done it.”

“Everybody has a part,” Father Bob says. “The kids’ parts are to portray a shepherd or the Blessed Mother, and the adults help provide the singing. It’s the whole congregation doing it.” He explains to the children, “Everybody has their ministry, and that participating in the play is a ministry to the Church.”

The play was also designed to help foster a sense of community at St. Jude,” Sister Joseph says. “Everybody works together on the play—and that fosters ownership of the church.”

She remembers how the adults would be laughing so hard because they didn’t know what the little ones were going to do. “We were like a family at St. Jude, so it was like having your own child up there taking part in the play.”

“Traditions are important to a community, but I found it very important in a mission like Boswell,” she says. “It’s marvelous to hear that they have kept up the custom.”

Today, the Epiphany play is so much a part of the community’s identity that it helps identify St. Jude as a family, Father Bob says. “I hope that we are creating wonderful memories that these children will pass on to bring a sense of the richness of the newborn Savior to their own children.”

Bonnie Eastwood, who took over as catechist in the early 1990s, says she doesn’t know “anything different” than the Epiphany play. For the young people growing up in the St. Jude community, there isn’t any other way to celebrate Christmas.

“I’ve always thought it was cool to have the play,” says Will Pitts, a college student home for Christmas. His mother, Mary, helps coordinate the CCD program and, in the 2002 play, his brother, Alex, was a shepherd.

“For me,” he says, “the play makes Christmas more alive.”

Jo Anne Flores Embleton writes for Catholic East Texas, the newspaper for the Diocese of Tyler, Texas.