Swaddling Cloths: A Christmas Monologue

Author: Joanne Colbert

What exactly was the “”sign of the swaddling cloths”” given to the shepherds? Jesus’ grandmother explains this mystery in a delightful monologue that will bring audiences to a new, deeper understanding of Christmas.

Swaddling Cloths presents the Christmas story from the viewpoint of Mary’s mother. Without an angel’s assurance, she worries like the proverbial Jewish mother. And even though Joseph also has an angelic visitor and the young couple is married in a quiet ceremony, Mary’s mother still struggles with the problems her daughter’s pregnancy presents as the vicious tongues of Nazareth wag. As the couple departs for the census in Bethlehem, Mary’s mother dramatically symbolizes the danger facing the young family by giving them the “swaddling cloths” — cloth typically used to wrap a dead infant in for burial. Thus Jesus is marked for death from the moment of his birth.

This humorous yet touching monologue helps to put our frantic search for an ideal holiday in perspective. To those around Mary and Joseph on the first Christmas, everything seemed to be going wrong; yet in God’s grand design, everything was fulfilling the prophecies of Scripture.