Bruce & Jennifer Searl

“Thank you so much! Count me as a fan forever!”

“Outstanding, professional, fun, innovative, creative and full of life!
I highly recommend A Mouse Christmas to all Churches who would like to have a fresh, creative production that can be a breath of fresh air for any congregation or community.
Our Pastor was extremely pleased with the incredible turnout, parents were absolutely delighted and many people were genuinely touched by the event!
“A Mouse Christmas” was an outstanding success for our Church.”

I thought you’d appreciate this little ditty composed by someone who is a real novice at this directing stuff….shows my state of mind the night before the pageant as I was finishing up the costumes. (Note I substituted Grand parents for Mama and Papa)

WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?!?!?!?
7 Mice, 6 lambs, 2 horses, a cow, a pig and a chicken. Did I really think
we could MAKE all of those costumes?
And those SONGS…..did I really think they would LEARN them?
A FIREPLACE? WHY DO WE NEED A FIREPLACE? What’s that? You want STOCKINGS?!?!??! And you say there aren’t enough STOCKINGS for the number of MICE?
No, Jason, you don’t need to hold the microphone for everyone else to speak into.
Alright, kids, be honest with me…..how many of you have NO idea what the words are to this song? How many do? Ok, Those of you who KNOW the words, sing…..those who don’t, don’t. (That should do it, right?)
What the heck do you MEAN we have to get the three and four year olds in there with “Away in a Manger?”
Yes, Mary, you can wear a pillow under your outfit because Mary is, after all, pregnant. And yes, Joseph, it’s ok to use the word “pregnant.” Except for you, grandpa, you can substitute the phrase “with child” if it makes you uncomfortable to say “pregnant.”
I’m sorry you didn’t get to be a Lamkin, Tara, maybe next year.
Jason, if I have to tell you one more time to put that microphone down, I am reassigning your part. (Surely they don’t know that the programs are already printed)
Please, please, please stop tearing up the hay. We need to have some left for the manger. Sorry, Katherine, I didn’t know you were allergic. Remind me next year and I’ll make sure you aren’t in the manger scene.
Mr. Sound Man, please just do as I say.
The lower you play the music, the lower they will sing. It’s that simple. Blast me out of here. Hey, kids, how many times are you going to hear an adult give you PERMISSION to YELL in the Fellowship Hall? SPEAK UP!
…..no, no, only when you have a line, smarty pants.
Yes, sweetheart, I did hear that you have a new baby sister at home, but I don’t think she can play Baby Jesus JUST yet. What? Yes, I know she would do really well at the crying part.
Yes, honey, I know that the script calls for Grandma to be knitting, but why don’t we make sure we know all of our own lines and staging points before we start worrying about someone else’s?
JASON GET YOUR FOOT OFF THAT MICROPHONE STAND!!!!!
Oh, my goodness, I forgot the star for the manger scene. Note #101 to
Director……find star.
What exactly enticed me to tackle all of this?! What made me think that we had to make it THAT much better than last year? Someone start praying. I sense a fainting spell!
What’s that, Lisa? Oh, sweetie, you’re welcome. I loved doing it.

“Dear Bruce,
As you know, we put on your musical in church the last 2 nights, Saturday and Sunday. The response was great! Our church sanctuary seats about 750. And on the first night – it was 80% full. But last night (after word got around) – it was full and bursting at the seams! We had to put extra chairs and still there was only standing room and every little bit of space was a body! We think there were about 850 people. It was great. Full of kids in the audience too.
We built a big main stage in the front where the choir usually sits (the angel choir, innkeepers, Mary and Joseph, stable scene etc. were up there), and the mouse family had their own island stage up front (so did the shepherds and their cut out sheep!). A church member got a sponsor for the HUGE backdrop which was made very professionally – showing the desert night with mountains.
The audience on both nights was very encouraging and clapped at every song and act as well as the nice costumes. The camel stole the show for the 2 nights. As per your production aids, we had 2 little boys dressed in brown but legs sticking out and heads sticking out like humps and a fake camel head. They did a cool ‘walk and dance’ and ‘jump around’ and the people really loved them. Of course the camel head (which was beautifully made by one of our members) swayed to the movements and added on the little bit of extra oomph!
The kids had such a good time, Bruce. They really enjoyed themselves and exceeded all our expectations. We were terrified they would not be able to learn their lines or get stage fright or something – but with God’s grace, they were simply marvelous.
After the show, we had a brief PowerPoint presentation (narrated by one of the kids) and special offering (with “Give Thanks” being sung by Mother Mouse) for World vision– Sponsor a Child and all collections on both nights will be given to sponsor poor children in Asia.
It’s the first time Wesley Church has ever done a full scale kid’s production and the feed back was huge! The church members could not believe how great the kids were and how professionally done the whole production was. They loved the songs!! I think they came expecting very little (because they’re kids after all ….) and they came away agog! Praise God. The kids of course were so pleased that they were such a hit. We had an after show party last night – and up until 11 pm – they were wide awake, taking photos, chatting and having a great time. We have been asked to do more kids’ musicals – heh heh …. We’ll see … it’s all be quite exhausting!!!
So, we are all terribly grateful that God has blessed you and Jennifer with this gift of children and music and that you have shared it with us. We do wish you could have been here with us these last 2 nights. We had such a blast! We have lots of photos and hopefully a VCD of the show which I will be sending you soon. It’s been great working with you – you’ve been a great support and help whenever we needed it – and we really appreciate it. God bless you and Jennifer and keep writing those songs!!!!
Yours in Christ”

“Many thanks and blessings to you and your wife. We finally held our production of A Mouse Christmas yesterday. From all accounts it was professionally done in all aspects. The sets were incredible. The kids were flawless. And your words and music really reached the hearts of many people!
Our plan is to make this an annual event in our community as there is no such family opportunity currently. Thank you so much for A Mouse Christmas. It is truly a blessing. One woman, whose anniversary of her mothers death was yesterday as well, told me she was struggling to find meaning in Christmas this year and, through your musical, found the answer! God Bless!”

The last part of November my pastor asked if I would put together home type of Christmas presentation for the holiday. I immediately began looking on-line and came across your web page regarding “A Mouse Christmas.” I looked at the material, listened to the music and immediately purchased the whole package. A few days later, everything arrived at my home, and we held our first informational meeting on November 19th.
Our presentation was scheduled on December 17th, so there was not much time to put everything together. The Thanksgiving holiday was in the middle of our schedule, but we continued to work hard and were able to pull everything together in actually less than a month from start to finish.
We presented “A Mouse Christmas” in both a.m. and p.m. services on December 17. There were many visitors, and the play was fun and exciting. I never would have imagined that we could do this in such a short amount of time and it would be so easy, but with your graphic package, CDs, excellent resources on how to build props, etc., it was not difficult — a total success! Thank you for making a first class “FUN” program available. Everyone loved it, and we have many great memories from Christmas 2006!

“Our play was a smashing success. Can’t tell you how much everyone loved it!!!
I have already had one church call for your website.
Thanks for all your help.”

“Hello, Bruce — Our kids just finished their last performance of “A Mouse Christmas” yesterday afternoon.
Thank you for a great musical! They performed it at five area nursing homes, as well as at the church for all of their parents.
The kids had a great time, and the people enjoyed it everywhere we went.
Merry Christmas & thanks again!”

Note: The below mentioned songs are not part of A Mouse Christmas, but are available for church choral use and are part of our spring children’s musical – Answering The Call.

“Just to let you know I used ‘We will sing‘ and ‘Watchin’ over me‘ this past Sunday to great affect. We were able to teach ‘We will sing‘ to our eager group of youngsters that always show up early so that they can get up with us and sing one song.
Then had a kid unexpectedly show-up and want to sing – he was able to learn and sing ‘Watchin’ with me‘.

And the best bit was that the band members (who are very demanding and critical musically) really liked the songs as well.

So, thanks again for your help. I’ll keep your site bookmarked for future reference.
Best regards,”

“Thank you for writing such a wonderful program. I knew the moment I saw it I wanted to do it!
I got a phone call yesterday congratulating me on the program and how well the children were during the whole time.
I told him I don’t think he was watching the three little brown bunnies.
They were crawling up the mike stands on the ledges, and anywhere else they wanted to explore. But that makes it fun!”

“I can’t thank you enough for this experience of being able to direct this musical.
I’d also like to thank you for the personal attention I received every time I phoned with a question.
It appeared that you always answered the phone. It had been a few years since we had done a Christmas play,
so this was kind of like our first. It was just absolutely amazing!
People loved it – I’m telling you it was a hit! And those ticket invitations really worked.
We normally have about 300 in attendance but we had about 550 this morning.
Once again, thank you so much! God bless you.”

“I just wanted to let you know how thrilled I am with your “Mouse Christmas” Script!!! I received it in the mail a few days ago and have read it several times. It is really just wonderful, and I am so glad to see someone coming out with quality scripts for use in religious services.
As I am sure you are aware, there is so much material published that is really just junk, with horrible writing and equally horrible music. I am so excited to start work on this script so that all of my church family can see how fabulous drama can be in and out of the church setting. Thank you for publishing such wonderful work – we are really looking forward to the Christmas service even more now!!!”

“Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
We presented “A Mouse Christmas” yesterday at our church. There were two shows and the response was Unbelievable! People said it was the best pageant ever done by the school and church children. Not one negative thing was said. The audience was very moved by the presentation and the message delivered by the children. There were hardly any dry eyes in the house.
For days afterward, whenever I saw someone after school or in the halls, people would say what a wonderful program A Mouse Christmas was and how they were so thrilled.

It was so moving and it really played into the hearts of all that were there. The accolades were going on forever!

I am so glad I found your website. Thank you so much for making this program it’s really been a vessel that has blessed, moved and impacted many people.
Merry Christmas to you all and a blessed New Year!”

“I recently purchased “A Mouse Christmas” for our church and it was a huge success – Especially with our congregation being about 150 people. It brought a lot of unity to our church in general and great message to our congregation and guests (There were a lot of guests!).
Our church was filled with so many people and they made so many wonderful complements.
Thanks so much for the great play and especially for way you all organized the scripts. Again thanks so much and may God continue to anoint your hearts, mind, thoughts and ministry. Blessings”

“We are a school of happy customers of the Mouse Christmas. Our Adventist church is a conservative group so the pastor and I weren’t sure what the response would be to the second and third songs in the play. I did turn them down a bit and tried to let the words be the focus when the children sang them.
Our pastor did not receive even one complaint on the type of music and in fact he liked the whole play so much that he wished that the play would have been the service this past Sabbath. I was shocked. No Christmas Musical I have taught has ever been so well received and I have been directing them now for 6 years. Great work Bruce and Jennifer! We were blessed by the whole thing. “

“All I can say is THANK YOU!
We just finished our performance of “A Mouse Christmas” and EVERYONE is raving about the wonderful job our kids did. We are a small church with average attendance of around 100. Needless to say I had to scale down our performance considerably. We actually pulled it off with a cast of 12 children and 4 teenagers with most of the children playing more than one role.
Thanks to your wonderful graphic aids, we were able to publicize our production throughout the community and we really packed the house.
I truly felt that God’s hand was in this production from the beginning. It was a small miracle for a church our size to pull this together. I can’t thank you enough for the role you played in this. You have written a script simple enough for my 3 year olds to participate in, yet moving enough to touch the most hardened hearts. God has given you a great talent and you are using it to glorify His name. Thank you for that.
Have a wonderful Christmas and may God bless you and yours throughout the coming year!”

“I hope that your holiday season has been going well! We are Whittling away at “Mouse Christmas,” and It’s been really fun!
I think that, in a lot of ways, the adults are having more fun “being kids” than the kids are! They all really love “No Road to Bethlehem” (the choreography we are doing is really silly and lets them all be creative), but one woman said to me that she also really likes “All the World Can Love” because of the spiritual value that she feels in it. We are having a really good time. . .

Thank you so very much, and I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas!”

“A Mouse Christmas is one of those rare creative works that have more than a passing use. This musical is filled with charm and the songs are just wonderful. Very Touching. A Mouse Christmas is a new holiday tradition!”

“Last night we had the performance for A Mouse Christmas. It was a huge success! Everyone loved the story, the songs, the jokes and the characters. It came to life in such an splendid way and it ministered unto all of us in different forms. Thanks for this play! We loved it!”

“I just wanted you to know that this past Christmas we did our first performance of A Mouse Christmas at Grace Fellowship Church of God.  It was wonderful! Everyone agreed that it was the best children’s program we had ever done!“