''The Glory of Christmas'' was an annual musical performance of the story of the

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performed between 1981 and 2009 at

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

time in the

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Garden Grove, California Garden Grove is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States, located just southwest of Disneyland (located in Anaheim, CA). The population was 171,949 at the 2020 census. State Route 22, also known as the Garden Grove Freeway, ...

. The show was cancelled from 2010 on after the church filed for bankruptcy, following the cancellation earlier that year of a related show, ''The Glory of Easter''.

History

In 1980 the Crystal Cathedral was dedicated. In 1981, ''The Glory of Christmas'' premiered at the cathedral. The cathedral seated 2,736 for church services, but only seated 2,508 when holding the large Glory of Christmas set. Installing the production set took a month of preparation, including lighting load-in, angel track installation and rigging, as well as set construction. The cathedral's pipe organ has 287 ranks of pipes, 16,000 individual, 549 horizontal trumpet pipes in the east and west balconies and 5,000 additional pipes in the south balcony division, making it the largest collection of such pipes in the world. More than 300 volunteers dedicated over 160 hours each to ''The Glory of Christmas'' as both cast members and volunteer ushers.

Performance style

The performance was in the style of traditional Christmas pageants but on a grand scale with the feel of a

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show. Costumes, such as those of Roman

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s or the

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, were professionally designed and produced. The musical numbers included Christmas songs such as "

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", "

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", and "

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", and featured orchestral accompaniment. The vocal style of the performances ranged from operatic to gospel.

Special effects

Animals played an integral role in the production's recreation of the ancient land. Camels, horses, a yak, a llama, a baby water buffalo and many sheep and goats took part in the performance. Angels, as many as seven at once, "flew" on a high-speed flying gantry. Some flew as high as and were able to travel as fast as . In each scene involving angels, they rapidly exited to the farthest and highest points in the Crystal Cathedral, some from the center of the audience and roughly above the floor. A high-volume smoke machine was used to generate a storm cloud above the audience.

Ballet

Throughout the performance, dancers performed ballet-type movements and various interpretive dance choreography.

Recordings

The 1993 production, directed by Paul David Dunn, was recorded and exists in tape and disc form.

References

External links

Best 'Glory of Christmas' moments, Orange County Register
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glory Of Christmas Christmas onstage Religion in Orange County, California Orange County, California culture