greg stephens --

You suffer from the same delusion I do -- thinking of yourself as still "not all that old" when in fact you're a true old fart and not getting any younger.

If you were in grade school "c. 1950," you're at least two years older than me, and I'm 56 and (just recently) a grandpa!

Ooops -- back to the subject at hand. I went to Catholic school (in the US), and we definitely had a "Christmas pageant" (nativity play) every year. I'm not at all sure that the local public schools did the same, though. My own kids went to public schools in the 80s-90s, and they put on theatrical presentations every December just prior to Christmas vacation, including carol singing, etc., but I don't believe they ever put on the traditional nativity play.

I trust it is not necessary to define the term "public school" as used in America. I know that in England, the term can mean a snobby boarding school that we USAians would call "private," not "public."