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The story of The Hundred Dresses was the perfect way to kick off the holiday season for our Relief Society Activity.
At church, I am in charge of all the activities for the women 18 and older. I have been doing this for a few years now. We recently had our holiday dinner and activity and I wanted to share the evening with you. We hold our holiday activity in November and I love it. It’s set a great ton for the upcoming holiday season and you don’t end up with all your holiday parties in a few week span. I highly recommend it.
The Hundred Dresses
Several years ago, my daughter was in a theater production at Brigham Young University called The Hundred Dresses. The play is based on a children’s book by the same name. I fell in love with the story and wanted to be able to share it with the women at church. Our holiday activity was the perfect opportunity.
The book was a Newberry Award winner and is the story of Wanda Petronski, a Polish girl who is ridiculed by her classmates for wearing the same faded blue dress every day. Wanda claims she has one hundred dresses at home but no one believes her and as a result, she is bullied continually. The class feels terrible when Wanda doesn’t show up for school one day and they learn her family has moved away. By that time it’s too late for apologies and Maddie, one of Wanda’s classmates, ultimately decides that she is “never going to stand by and say nothing again.” Then one day Wanda’s classmates learn that she really did have 100 dresses.
Story of Kindness and Love
It is a sweet story of the need for kindness and love, that everyone has a story and most of the time we don’t know the whole story. It is a story that teaches that bullying is wrong and each person matters.
Reader’s Theater
We presented the story in a reader’s theater version and some of the young women from our ward played the parts. They did a fabulous job!
Leading up to the evening we asked the ladies to go through their closets and donate any gently used dresses or skirts they may no longer need. We found a charity here in Portland that works with refugee woman to donate the dresses to. The walls were decorated with some of the dresses we collected.
Since the theme of the night was dresses, a couple of my committee members created the cutest centerpieces for all the tables using little origami paper dresses.
The grass and twigs came from our yards.
I thought they were just about the cutest thing ever!! Here is a You Tube tutorial on how to make the dresses
There was also a little blue dress in honor of Wanda on each table.
In honor of Wanda’s polish heritage and we served cabbage rolls or halupky and it was a huge hit! It was served with some candied carrots and green salad. Dessert was gingerbread cake with lemon sauce and whipped cream. The recipe came from the Lion House Cookbook.
We recruited some of the men from church to wait on us and do dishes!
It was a delightful evening and the perfect way to kick off the holiday season.
If you would like copy of the script, you can download it here.
If you’d like to see some of the Christmas programs we’ve done in the past for Relief Society go here:
The Women Who Knew Jesus Relief Society Program and Dinner
The Christmas Jars Relief Society Program and Dinner
Why Christmas Trees Aren’t Perfect Relief Society Program and Dinner
Denise says
Great idea! Would love to do it in our ward! Could you send me a copy of your script? Just ordered the book!
Megan Marchant says
This looks and sounds like it was a fabulous evening. I would also love a copy of the readers theater script if you would please let me know of you have it posted somewhere. Thank you!
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
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Ranae Pincock says
I came across this idea and thought it would be a most wonderful idea for our 2022 RS birthday activity. I have read the book, and after reading this post, I thought this sums up one of the purposes of Relief Society perfectly! If you are able to share it, I would like a copy of the script (or a nudge in the right direction). Thanks for sharing your activity!
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
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Milena Woodhouse says
I love this idea! You did an amazing job! Beautiful and an opportunity to serve others. Thank you for sharing!
Would you mind sharing your script? Thank you!
Patti Dilworth says
Can I get the script? I have read this book and loved it! Thank you ❤️
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
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Lisa Rigby says
May I please get the script as well?
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
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Tanya A Jones says
This was a wonderful event. I would also love to see the script. I have been searching for a reader theatre script for our RS group. I have no idea how long ago this was done but I hope the script is still available.
Well done~!!
Leigh Anne Wilkes says
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