A local Christmas tradition will continue tonight when Holy Family Catholic School presents its annual holiday musical. The curtain goes up on “The Christmas Chronicles” at 7 p.m. in the Barton Community College Fine Arts Auditorium.

All of the school’s 180-plus students are involved, said music teacher JoAnn Suchy. The sixth graders tackle the speaking roles, the fifth graders provide the chorus and the kindergarteners through fourth graders will have an opportunity to sing prior to the opening.

Suchy said the plot revolves around a newspaper agency going out of business because it can’t find any good stories. Then, one of the reporters stumbles on the Christmas story.

Suchy said they started music rehearsals six weeks ago. In the past three to four weeks they’ve worked on the production.

“We haven’t had a lot of time to rehearse together,” she said. Due to schedule conflicts. it hasn’t been until the last few days that the entire ensemble has joined forces to practice.

This is Suchy’s second year directing the play. “There are a few last-minute jitters,” she said, but, most of those are on her part.

“The cast doing well,” especially considering all that has been going on to prevent joint rehearsals, she said.

Holy Family Principal Karen Moeder said the school has put on the Christmas plays for over 30 years.

“It’s just to get everybody in the Christmas spirt,” she said. “There’s nothing better than to hear kids sing.”

It is also a reminder of the “reason for the season,” she said. “It’s a fun time.”

This marks the second year they’ve been at BCC, Moeder said. In the past, they’ve staged the shows in the Holy Family gymnasium.

But, the gym was getting too small to hold the swelling audiences. Also, the college’s facility has a better stage presence, lighting and sound.

The cast includes:

Pressworkers - Holy Family School fifth grade class 

Newsgirl - Sidney Cooper

Newsboy - Jade Poe

Newsboy - Jarett Seeman

Head Pressman - Wade Potts

Scoop Early - Alayna Irwin

Mr. Weathers - Joseph Moeder

Rock Gibralter - Brody Feist

Sally O’Callahan - Hailey Hicks

Census Taker - Esten Moore

Innkeeper - Alyssa Habash

Shepherd - Amy To

Shepherd - Sean Erb

Shepherd - John Szot

Sheep- Stefan Spray

Sheep - Ruby Montes

Sheep - Garrett Roach

King - Alia Allen

King - Gavin Haberman

King - Chayse Gruber

Of course, the rest of the student body is involved in musical numbers as well.