It could be a sign of a given generation, when the people you’re with begin remembering — not necessarily fondly — those compulsory Christmas pageants every grade school performed for decades. Maybe you can still recite, all these years later, that one line you learned for the role of second shepherd. Or maybe your holiday entertainments were of a different kind — “The Nutcracker,” “Holiday on Ice,” or the spooky and sad “Christmas Carol,” when you marveled at the meanness of Scrooge before being moved to pity by the life events that can so warp the natural kindness of a person.

Then there are the holiday films: “It’s A Wonderful Life,” “Miracle on 34th Street,” “Scrooged,” “A Christmas Story,” “Elf,” “Bad Santa,” “Badder Santa” — I’d guess that no American childhood is untouched by some memory-making holiday entertainment as part of the general magic of the season.

This year, we are blessed to have The New Vaudeville Holiday Spectacular by Eggtooth Productions come to the Shea Theater in Turners Falls. It’s a family-friendly show featuring poetry, puppets, music, dance, drag, installation art, and mime. Each act is a different interpretation of “grace.”

Linda McInerney of Eggtooth says that the show “gives families and folks the opportunity to be festive while being inclusive in a non-religious way.”

Yet, to my ears, “grace” is a word more associated with church than with the theater, and so Eggtooth might be hearkening back to the ancient origins of theater, which are enfolded within religious ceremony. Both theater and church offer places where human beings come together and ask big questions, and the word “spectacle” is long associated with the religious injunction, “Behold.”

There are truths to be seen, even in this material world which sometimes feels far removed from grace. What will we behold this weekend at the Shea?

It begins with harp music and art in the lobby. And then there are songs written about the moon performed by Art Fuleihan and David Fersh from the Greenfield Community Chorus; the story of an aging clown mourning the loss of his best friend written by and starring Jack Golden; “The Rainbow Connection,” sung by both the masculine and feminine sides of Joe Delude; the true stories of Kate Shelley, who saved hundreds of train passengers in 19th-century Iowa and of Yusra Mardini, an Olympic athlete from Syria; a recitation of Dylan Thomas’ “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” and so on.

“All this sweetness and meaning along with cheerful song, dance and story creates a place where families may gather and cherish each other and all peoples at this sacred time of year,” says McInerney. Emphasizing the family orientation of the season, she wanted the tickets to be affordable and free admission for children under 15.

The show incorporates the work and vision of artists throughout the Valley, and it is made possible through an almost entirely volunteer staff, working in the spirit of the season. And as we near the one-year mark of the new management of the Shea Theater, this is the first winter holiday show to appear there in its newly restored and redecorated incarnation — a truly gracious presence in the heart of our Franklin County community.

“The theme of grace seemed like the right gift for now,” says McInerny. “I think we are all seeking gentleness and a soft wing after so much divisiveness and unkindness filling the airwaves.”

I welcome any help turning away from the vitriol of the last several months toward the gentleness and peace that I’ve always associated with this season. Although I don’t observe the particulars of my Christian heritage, there is still much in Christmas that I find beautiful and powerful.

“Behold. Verily I say unto you this night a child is born…” Do I remember those words from the Bible or from some Christmas pageant long ago? I don’t know. But it does seem true that the celebration of the birth of a child is one of the most human experiences there is, an occasion for joy all over the world.

“My favorite definition of grace has to be courteous goodwill,” says Joe Dulude, one of the performers. “It is easy to be angry or mean. But spreading joy when not joyous, spreading love when surrounded by hate, spreading good will when there is none around you — that is the true definition of grace.”

It seems to me that saviors are born into our world every day. Every child that comes into this world might save us in some way. Did angels sing and stars blaze the night Rosa Parks was born? Or Mahatma Gandhi? Or Jane Goodall? In different ways, all those people have helped save me.

“Grace is the moment that we awake to the realization of our power within the world around us. It is the initiation of a movement. It is the glimpse of hope we walk toward through broken glass,” says Grace Booth, another performer in the show.

It’s impossible to fully turn away from the world in all its tawdry, tasteless reality-show unreality right now. But the good friends and neighbors and artists and family members around us remind us that reality is multi-layered, and even within tragedy there lay opportunities for genuine humanity. Humanity, we are reminded by all our world religions, is a strange, strange creature. What an odd paradox that the worst of times can bring out the best in us.

“Grace is a shape-shifter… it is other dimensional. It is often a missing piece of the puzzle of life that reveals itself to us at the right time and in the right place to bring hope, understanding or solace,” says songwriter and musician Joe Graveline, another performer in the show.

I look forward to bringing my nephew to the show and discussing the word grace with him. He’s a bright, very verbal little boy with more of a taste for superheroes than theater, but I have high hopes for this outing. In my formal role of Auntie, it is a joy to be part of the holiday memory-making experience that will help shape him as a person and anchor him in our world.

McInerny reminds us, “We have learned through extensive research that the gifts that are most meaningful and create lifelong memories of appreciation are familial experiences. It is our intention to create an event that gives to our community just that kind of experience. We want to enrich lives by making those memories.”

Good memories of late 2016 are most welcome.

The New Vaudeville Holiday Spectacular plays on Dec. 15, 16, and 17 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 18, at 2 p.m. at the Shea Theater in Turners Falls. For tickets and more information, see http://sheatheater.org/d/90/Eggtooth-Productions-New-Vaudeville-Holiday-Spectacular.

Jenny Abeles is a writer and educator living in Greenfield. You can search her work online by including her middle name, Terpsichore.