What are your favorite holiday memories? Decorating cookies with Grandma… tucking the kids into bed and settling down for a long night of trying to figure out how to assemble a Barbie dream house… How about great theatre? 2009 holiday offerings include a special seasonal edition of Gazillion Bubble Show and The Gayest Christmas Pageant Ever! Meanwhile, all of us at OffBroadway.com are reminiscing about a few beloved holiday-themed shows that have played Off-Broadway over the last fifty or so years. In alphabetical order:

BLACK NATIVITY
In 1961, Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes scored a late-career triumph with Black Nativity, a re-imagining of the traditional Nativity story with a cast made up entirely of African-Americans Though The New York Times criticized the slight plot, audiences responded positively to the musical's soulful arrangements of classic and new holiday songs. The show premiered at the 41st Street Theatre, and later transferred to the York Playhouse at 61st and 1st Avenue (not to be confused with the current home of The York Theatre Company at 54th and Lexington). Black Nativity has gone on to become a holiday tradition in many communities, including Boston (where it is celebrating its 40th anniversary season) and Seattle, where it's been a mainstay at the Intiman Theatre for over a decade. A critically-acclaimed revival starring André De Shields was produced by The Classical Theatre of Harlem at The Duke on 42nd Street in 2007.  (Photo of revival production with Mr. De Shields: Rahav Segev for The New York Times.)

A CHILD’S CHRISTMAS IN WALES
and other holiday shows at The Irish Repertory Theatre
Christmas is a time for traditions – the heirloom tree ornaments, the perennial gift of fruitcake, and of course, theatre. The Irish Repertory Theatre has established a nearly-annual tradition of presenting holiday-themed shows, and over the past 15 years, they have presented their adaptation of A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Dylan Thomas’s memoir of spending the yuletide in Cardiff, six times. The Irish Rep’s other seasonal offerings over the years have included A Celtic Christmas, The Bells of Christmas, and Christmas with Tommy Makem. And in 2006, they produced a revival of the theatrical adaptation of the classic film Meet Me in St. Louis, which, though not strictly a holiday story, features the song “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” one of the most devastating seasonal songs ever written.

CHRISTMAS AT THE IVANOVS’
Something of an anti-Christmas show, this piece of Russian absurdism takes place on Christmas Eve. While bathing the family’s children who range in age from 1 to 82, the nurse has had enough with the 32-year-old child’s boasting about the size of her breasts and insulting of the nurse’s private parts, so the nurse beheads her with an axe. Will the family (incidentally named Puzyrov, not Ivanov) be able to have a happy Christmas despite this tragedy? Classic Stage Company, under Artistic Director David Esbjornson, presented this festive little play by early 20th century avant garde poet/playwright Aleksandr Vvedensky in 1997.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL
There have been thousands of film and stage adaptations of Dickens’ seasonal chestnut, starring everyone from Jim Carrey (in the animated version currently in movie theatres) to Mickey Mouse, the Muppets, Patrick Stewart, and in what many people consider the ultimate adaptation, a 1951 film featuring Alistair Sims. Off-Broadway has also seen at least three versions of the story, including a 1992 version at the Perry Street Theatre, written by and starring Orson Bean (best known as a panelist on the TV game show “To Tell the Truth”), and a 2005 kid-friendly musical adaptation from Theatreworks USA at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. At left: Herndon Lackey in Theatreworks USA's version of the story, photo by Joan Marcus.

FORBIDDEN CHRISTMAS
Over its 30-year run, the ever-evolving Forbidden Broadway skewered all things theatrical, but for the holiday season in 1991 and 1992, creator Gerard Alessandrini altered the show’s scope a bit to include, among other holiday-centric songs and parodies, a skit that featured miserly critic John Simon as Scrooge, with Ethel Merman as the Ghost of Christmas Past and Stephen Sondheim as the Ghost of Christmas Present, in addition to Topol pondering life “If I Were a Gentile Man” and Andrew Lloyd Webber in a Nativity scene that featured pop star Madonna as... well… The Madonna.

THE LONG CHRISTMAS RIDE HOME
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel asserts that this work, which ran at the Vineyard Theatre in November 2003, is not Christmas-themed, even though it takes place during the holiday season. Dramatizing a road trip by two parents and three young children to visit the grandparents, Mark Brokaw’s evocative production depicted the children as bunraku puppets (designed by Basil Twist) manipulated by the actors who later played the adult versions of these characters. Photo at left: Mark Blum, Enid Graham, Will McCormack, Catherine Kellner, and Randy Graff, photo by Carol Rosegg.

SANTA CLAUS/A CHRISTMAS ORATORIO
Off-Broadway impresario Lucille Lortel, in association with ANTA (American National Theatre and Academy) presented a one-performance only event in December 1957 at the Theatre de Lys on Christopher Street (which was eventually re-named in honor of Ms. Lortel). The double-bill featured Anglo-American poet W.H. Auden's work A Christmas Oratorio and a reading of Santa Claus, e.e. cumming’s allegorical morality play, in which Death and jolly old Saint Nick decide to trade faces for a day.

THE SANTALAND DIARIES
In 1992, an unknown humorist appeared on NPR to read a hilarious, barbed account of his experiences as an elf at Macy’s. The broadcast was a huge hit and led to the author of that essay, David Sedaris, writing several best-selling books of semi-autobiographical stories, including Me Talk Pretty One Day, Naked, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, and more. In 1996, The Santaland Diaries was transformed into a one-man play at the Atlantic Theatre Company’s Linda Gross Theater, courtesy of adapter/director Joe Mantello (who already had Love! Valour! Compassion! under his belt and would go on to direct Take Me Out and Wicked), with sets by Ian Falconer, who has since become a literary sensation himself with a series of children’s books about the pugnacious pig Olivia.

STRIKING 12
The indie pop-rock-trip Groovelily (Gene Lewin on drums, Brendan Milburn on keyboards and Valerie Vigoda on electric violin) collaborated with bookwriter Rachel Sheinkin (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) for this critically acclaimed musical about a modern urban grump who discovers Hans Christian Andersen’s story “The Little Match Girl” on New Year’s Eve. Performed by Groovelily, Striking 12 ran for two months at the Daryl Roth Theatre, and was nominated for the 2007 Lucille Lortel Award for “Outstanding Musical.”  Photo at right: Gene Lewin, Valerie Vigoda, Brendan Milburn.

THAT TIME OF THE YEAR
Everywhere you turn, there’s another Santa in a store window, another Nativity scene, and another Christmas-themed show to attend. What’s a Jew to do? The creators of That Time of the Year met this community halfway with a musical revue celebrating both Christian and Jewish traditions with original songs such as “Rock & Roll Hanukkah,” “Under the Mistletoe,” “Mama’s Latkes,” and a fruitcake-themed lament. Laurence Holzman and Felicia Needleman contributed lyrics to music by a wide range of composers in this York Theatre Company presentation from 2006. The original cast album has just been released, and the show will return to The York for five performances December 18-20, 2009.