Based on a true story, Canceling Christmas is a one-act, seventy-five minute musical that recounts the story of A.C. Gilbert, (1884-1961) America’s greatest toy-maker and the inventor of the Gilbert Erector Set. 

The setting is New Haven, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. between 1916-1918. In 1917, as America was fighting World War I, the United States Government actually proposed “canceling Christmas” as a way to raise more money from the public for war bonds. A.C. Gilbert used his personal charm, intelligence and wits to dissuade them of this folly and was hailed by The Boston Globe as “the man who saved Christmas.”

The writers are the same team behind their very popular adaptation of the classic film – IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE – The Musical as well as A CHRISTMAS CAROL – A New Musical, which hews closely to Dickens’ original novel.