Recommended by Claudia Haas

You never know what people want for Christmas. But I have a feeling that Candy’s request isn’t that unusual. A fun little ditty about Christmas, under-appreciated Mrs. Claus and a Christmas wish. It’s not a sugarplum play but it does have enticing spice.

In less than a minute, Minigan sums up the state of talk show tv today. And solves the dwarf problem. Okay, not really. When has talk show tv solved anything? Great, silly, fast fun.

Beware: reading this will make you yearn for brisket and a rescue puppy. Love the sister interaction and that they are 58 plus! They have history and it shows. Lashof’s play wraps around what is true and needed during this season of expectations. And when all the sisters have their expectations in a knot, Lashof delivers the perfect twisty ending.

Before I got to the dialogue, the description of Frosty made me laugh out-loud. A cautionary tale about warming melds with the warmth of the holidays (oh! Should not say heartwarming - too much warming!) and delivers a tale of friendship and the joys of cold. Koppen’s play cleverly combines the holidays with a few social issues. It’s a welcome change from sugarplums.

Cathro’s play is all whimsy and Christmas cheer. A wonderful companion piece to Gift of the Magi, this play will leave you smiling. If you are smart, you will take up the fantasy and start a new holiday tradition.

What we save, what we let go, what we keep. So many themes run through Seven Swans a Swimming. Syran has a relationship heightened and investigated at the most emotional time of the year. Love, mating, Notre Dame, swans and a “decent” year combine for a nuanced and truthful holiday play. There is more than making merry come holiday time.

And now I want more! MORE, Coach Holly! Tackle the cookie exchange, the office party, the cutting down of the Christmas tree! Don’t stop now! What a wonderful indictment of Christmas cheer. Pass the egg nog. Spiked, please. Dakutis just supplied us with true Christmas merriment.

You always knew that the jolly old elves would have a breaking point. Enter Emile and all is topsy-turvey in the North Pole Happiness Village. Christmas Merry and Christmas Despair have more in common than any elf will admit. Emile would have a lot of fun with Scrooge. Read at your “merry peril.” But produce to offset the sugar plums.

The memes about being kind because you never know what others are going through rings loud and clear in Sickles play. Where the main character finds the kindness that he needs is unexpected and poignant. But let’s take and give our kindnesses where we may. A play for every day of the year.

Near death experience, atheism, belief - these are heady themes for a play. Hoke gives them all such a human connection that what could be a philosophical treatise is instead a heart-filled, funny (even irreverent) exploration on our journey trying to figure out what it is to be human. Just follow, wide-eyed, and let the characters lead you on the journey that is a life.