It's Christmas - Kiwi-style!

SWEET DREAMS: Joseph (in the background), who has nodded off whilst watching Shortland Street, hosts a troupe of angels in his dreams.

It was billed as A Kiwi Christmas, and Pompallier Catholic School in Kaitaia certainly delivered on that last week.

From very recent entrants to seniors sang and danced their way across a huge outdoor stage for an hour, their tribute to their country's culture including numerous cameo appearances and references to make their audience proud of who they were. This included Fred (John Clarke) Dagg's mega-hit of 1976, 'If it weren't for your gumboots'.

'Righto, kick it in the guts Trev,' Fred begins. And kick it in the guts the Pompallier kids did.

It was the familiar nativity story of Mary (Kaia Murray) and Joseph (McVay Lloyd), beginning with the Archangel Gabriel (Aaron Hartnell) delivering the news that Mary would bear the Son of God, news that narrators Hinerangi Smith and Salome Watson pointed out left Joseph 'astounded and a tad confused'. His next line was, "I am astounded and a tad confused."

The story unfolded, with the journey to Bethlehem (in a borrowed car; Mary and Joseph's was still at the panelbeater's) and a caravan at the Bethlehem Holiday Park, run by Camp Leader Aleisha Ujdur and Camp Mother Zara Tracey, delivery of another message by Gabriel to the Three Wise 'Men' - Tahlia Foster (Kate Sheppard), Cameron Hansford (Ernest Rutherford) and Jayden Tracey (Sir Edmund Hillary) - who were summoned from the Hokianga and arrived bearing gifts of a pohutukawa, pounamu and pavlova.

WHAT A DAGG: The nativity meets Fed Dagg, surely a first for the Christmas story.

By that stage it was clear that this was no ordinary nativity play, but the deviation from tradition was comprehensive, with input from Billy T James (Zac Shanks), Lorde (Caprice Te Wake), repeated appearances by the Webb Ellis Trophy (complete with references to the runners-up), a game of touch rugby, sizzled sausages, Richie McCaw (Travis Hodgson-Kimber) and Daniel Carter (Taz Snelling), whose final conversion for the All Blacks, kicked, unlike all the others, with his right foot, allowed for the introduction of a rugby ball centre stage from somewhere out in the playground, at some velocity).

A couple of Four Square grocers, Hairy McLary, a buzzy bee and a veritable flock of native birds were there too, with lots of music, lots of dancing and even some gymnastics.

The script-writing accolades went to teachers Stacey Cutler, Georgie Trewavas and Emily Robinson, but plaudits were spread far and wide, including the costumiers, sewers, set designers and builders (Brad Jackson and his team), painters, caterers, choreographers, families, the children who worked so hard and the teachers who probably worked even harder to prepare them for their big occasion.

And, fittingly, amid the laughs lay some serious messages, pertinent not so much to Christmas but to the longer-term future, as provided by :

SPELLBOUND: There was an all bit full house for last week's evening performance of A Kiwi Christmas.

Dame Whina Cooper - 'Take care of our children, take care of what they hear, take care of what they see, take care of what they feel. For how the children grow, so will the shape of Aotearoa.'

Richie McCaw - 'I don't believe in magic. I believe in hard work.'

Sir Peter Blake - 'To succeed, you have to believe you can do it. You have to be passionate about it. You have to really want the result - even if it means years of hard work. The hardest part of any big project is to begin. We have begun - we are under way - we have a passion. We want to make a difference.'

The kids at Pompallier and their support crew have made a difference this Christmas. Maybe next year will see an encore.