By Geri McShane,assistant editor

Crossroads Evangelical Free Church is offering a double feature as its Christmas gift to the community this year.

The church will present two comedies as part of its annual Christmas play Dec. 7-10 at the church, 3402 Hoeger Lane, Albert Lea.

The plays are &8220;The Case of the Missing Meaning,&8221; a detective spoof for Christmas by Ben Fry, and &8220;You Can&8217;t Cancel Christmas!&8221; a

children&8217;s comedy, by Andrea N. Burton.

Curtis Smith, who is directing the productions, said he chose two smaller plays because he wanted to involve more kids this year and couldn&8217;t find a drama that used enough children in the cast.

&8220;Last year I enjoyed working with the kids so much,&8221; Smith said of the show, &8220;The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.&8221;

Smith said he had between 70 and 80 church members sign up to be in the productions. He was able to use 21 people in one show and 16 in the other.

There are more people doing technical jobs, costumes and sets.

&8220;It is fun to be able to use the talents of so many people,&8221; he said.

&8220;The Case of the Missing Meaning&8221; is about a rich woman who wants to find the meaning of Christmas, so she hires a private detective. He goes to a department store, a church play and a home in search of it, but only finds bitterness in those places.

&8220;It&8217;s a cute play,&8221; Smith said.

&8220;You Can&8217;t Cancel Christmas!&8221; the mother of a family has come to the end of her rope. The dog has eaten the pumpkin pie, she&8217;s tired of having her hands inside a dead bird, and one of the kids has taken an early peek at the Christmas presents. So in an act of frustration, she cancels Christmas.

With Mom waging her protest, the kids realize they have to prepare for the Christmas pageant on their own. What they come up with are convoluted meanings and thoroughly modernized expressions wrapped around snippets of well-known songs with new lyrics. Mom stumbles onto the scene of the performance, and the simple truth of Jesus&8217; birth emerges.

As with past Crossroads Christmas productions, there is no charge to attend, but freewill offerings will be received at the door after the performances. The money collected will be given to a local charity.

Curtain time is at 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Refreshments will be served following the performances.