HAMPDEN – Ten-year-old Thomas Frisk is a Christmas pageant veteran. In his short life, he already has appeared in four pageants at Hampden Highlands United Methodist Church. This year, he will have his biggest role yet, in the two-part service written by his pastor, the Rev. Debra Hanson.

The fourth-grader at Fairmount School, whose mother, Jackie Frisk, teaches music in the Bangor schools, will play the innkeeper who sends Joseph and Mary to the stable. He is also the man who wonders whether the tiny babe is truly the Messiah.

Hanson’s congregation is just one of many area churches and community groups seeking to enliven the traditional Christmas pageant. Between now and Christmas Day, children in hundreds of area churches will portray shepherds, angels, Mary, Joseph and Wise Men.

Some programs will be staged outside and include animals, while some will be unconventional. All, however, will have the same goal – to cut through the commercialism and remind audience members of the true meaning of Christmas.

Thomas Frisk said that acting out the story of Christ’s birth helps him focus on giving rather than getting during the holidays.

“This helps me think that Christmas isn’t about wanting all the presents I can get,” he said. “It really gets me thinking about Jesus’ birth instead of presents and trees. My favorite thing about Christmas is giving presents and spending time with family.”

The articulate youngster said that he likes the change his character undergoes in the course of the story, which Hanson wrote to be an integral part of the 10 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 23, worship service, followed by a birthday party for Jesus in the Fellowship Hall.

“When he first sees Joseph, [the innkeeper’s] like, ‘Is he kidding?’ and he sends them out back,” said Thomas. “Later, he becomes happy and excited when he thinks it’s the Messiah … I like the way she wrote this story because the Wise Men don’t come until the next Sunday [Jan. 6] just like in the Bible.”

Bangor Baptist Church, however, has turned from the traditional this year to stage a musical update of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” according to music director Carroll Conley Jr. “A Time for Christmas” was written in 1994 by Paul McCusker, Steve Anderson, Lowell Alexander and David Clydesdale, all well known in modern Christian music circles.

Winner of several Dove Awards, the Grammys of Christian music, the musical tells the story of Bill, an accountant too busy for Christmas who’s confounded by the devotion to the holiday of his struggling secretary, Mary.

While Bill is asleep, an angel takes him on a historical tour of Christmas from medieval times to Cromwell’s England to a Dickensian orphanage. In the end, Bill – like his counterpart, Scrooge – finds the Christmas spirit.

Conley said that more than 100 people have put in more than 400 man-hours on the production since mid-September. In addition to relatively complicated sets, the show includes a multimedia element that will be projected onto the church’s large screen over the altar.

While Bangor Christian Schools, associated with the church, has done “Godspell” and “Fiddler on the Roof,” Conley said they have not mounted a production of this scale or quality at Christmastime.

“Last year, we did a radio play about a grandfather experiencing his first Christmas since the death of his wife and his relationship with his grandson,” said Conley.

“It was nice, but pretty stereotypical. ‘A Time for Christmas’ goes beyond anything we’ve ever tried,” he said. “It has a uniqueness that comes in a different package but remains true to the message. It will mean different things to different people.”

“A Time for Christmas” will be performed at 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 22-23, and at 9 and 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Bangor Baptist Church. Conley added that the show is the church’s holiday gift to the community.

Tradition is important to the residents of Winterport, as well. A few years ago when the Winterport United Methodist Church closed, local residents refused to let the annual outdoor Christmas pageant end.

The program, performed outside in front of the Union Meeting House, was first given in 1967 when the Methodist pastor, the Rev. Gil McDowell, invited St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church and Calvary Apostolic Church to create an interdenominational program.

Beth McGeechan Thieme appeared in the pageant as a child. For the past four years, she has directed her own children as well as a pony, a calf and several sheep in the event. This year, some 15 children and 40 adults from six different churches are working on the show, she said. About 200 people attend the two performances.

People are asked to park on side streets and bring flashlights because the streetlights are turned off for the program and performers are lit by spotlights.

At the end, the only light shining in downtown Winterport will be the one in the steeple of the Union Meeting House, said Thieme. The pageant will be performed at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec. 21-22.

“It’s such a wonderful thing to be a part of, and it gives such a joyous feeling when I leave each night,” said Thieme. “I do it because of how wonderful it makes everyone feel and how it conveys the true spirit of Christmas. It’s a gift from the churches to the community to make sure the real spirit of Christmas is alive in Winterport.”

If the number of pageants being staged this year is any indication, the real spirit of Christmas is thriving throughout the Bangor region.