About the Show

A Jewish family reunites on Christmas Day in a darkly funny tale of love, rituals, and belonging.

Christmas Day is a sharply witty and unsettling new play that explores the tensions of identity, tradition, and family connection. Set in a derelict building above the Northern Line, as foxes roam the quiet streets, a Jewish family comes together to mark Christmas in their own unique way. What unfolds is a darkly comic reflection on the strange rituals we cling to, the discomforts of togetherness, and the haunting presence of cultural expectation—even in the form of a Christmas tree.

Critic Reviews (8)

"I look forward to the further iterations of a play whose onward life looks set to continue well beyond the single day of its title."
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"I was gripped but I also wanted to scream at these characters to get out of their own heads and connect."
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" There’s too much to chew on, but even so, the evening affirms the 31-year-old playwright’s ambition and captures the wrangling, dread-filled mood of 2025."
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"Sam Grabiner’s account of a Jewish family gathering for a fractious Christmas meal is a fever dream of a play with a vicious, absurdist streak. "
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"Christmas Day isn’t perfect, but it is consistently impressive, a bold and original attempt to tackle huge issues. I’d take its bleak probing over a jolly panto any day."
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"His play is stuffed with interesting thinking and intense images that evoke the discomfort of being Jewish as the horrors of Gaza unfold – but it doesn’t feel like the final draft."
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"Ambitious but tangled examination of British Jewish identity in troubled times"
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"There’s plenty of tension around the table in James Macdonald’s production, as adult siblings squabble, old wounds are reopened, inappropriate comments are made and two huge relationship crank-ups are revealed."
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