Gift of Christmas


The Gift of Christmas is one of the largest Christmas pageants in the US, and is one of the top-rated Christmas-related events in the state of Texas. It takes place in the Worship Center of Prestonwood Baptist Church, in Plano, Texas. GOC is one of three major outreach efforts of Prestonwood, with the others being PowerPoint Ministries and Prestonwood Sports Outreach.
It usually has 500 persons, 70 pieces of orchestra and 100 behind-the-scenes technical crew members, a large number of who are volunteers. Each year there are around 12-14 GOC performances, most of which sell out. There are about 70,000 guests who watch production every year.

The performance

The GOC is divided into two acts, with no intermission between them.
The first act is oriented toward the secular observances of Christmas with children playing prominent roles in the scenes, while the second act is oriented toward the religious side of Christmas with adults playing prominent roles in the scenes. After the second act a Gospel presentation is given. The total running time for the entire GOC is around two hours maximum.
Past performances have featured:
The GOC stage includes an proscenium arch, and about of staging area including an orchestra pit. This is larger than the normal platform for Prestonwood's church services, requiring removal of 1,000 seats from the lower seating area.
However, even with the reduced capacity, the still-large sanctuary provides a suitable venue for GOC performances.