“The Forgotten Carols” creator Michael McLean to debut new carol, ornament in Spokane

For the past 26 years, Michael McLean has spent so much time being a part of other people’s Christmas traditions he hardly has time for his own.

As the creator of “The Forgotten Carols,” McLean has spent his holiday seasons using little known characters in the nativity story, including the innkeeper and the shepherd, to share the story of Christ’s birth with audiences around the world.

“The Forgotten Carols” will kick off its 2017 tour with a show at the INB Performing Arts Center on Saturday.

In “The Forgotten Carols,” McLean plays Uncle John, an elderly man who claims to have lived with people from the nativity story 2,000 years ago. As Uncle John shares those characters’ forgotten carols with Nurse Constance “Connie Lou” Chamberlain (Adrien Swenson), Connie Lou begins to open her heart to the joy of Christmas.

“The Forgotten Carols” also stars Gili Getz as Dr. Halifax, Lynne McLean, McLean’s wife, as Sarah, Kyle Olsen as James Chamberlain, a policeman and a homeless man, and Christy Summerhays, the show director, as Lillian Chamberlain, a policewoman and Megan.

In the early days of the show, McLean performed “The Forgotten Carols” as a one-man show. Seven or eight years later, he decided to bring in a female singer to perform alongside him.

Actress/singer/musician Katie Thompson originated the role of Connie Lou, a role she reprised on the 2014 “Forgotten Carols” tour.

In 2003, after a few years of McLean and Thompson performing together, McLean’s son Scott, an actor, singer-songwriter and screenwriter, suggested expanding the show into a full stage production.

“He said ‘Dad, I can fix your play if you let me,’ ” McLean said. “And I said ‘Fix it? I didn’t know it was broken.’ ”

Scott spent a couple years writing the script and workshopping the production, and “The Forgotten Carols” as audiences know it today premiered in 2006.

The show still changes from year to year, but often in subtle ways that only people who have seen the show multiple times will recognize, like small edits to the script that make things clearer.

A more noticeable change in this year’s show is the addition of a new carol called “12/25 (365),” which McLean will perform as an encore.

The song came to McLean as he and the cast and crew were making final preparations for the 2017 tour.

McLean talked to the production team and was able to add the song to the new cast recording, which will be available for purchase at the show.

In the show, each forgotten carol has a corresponding ornament. As McLean’s character places an ornament on a Christmas tree, he connects the carol to Connie Lou’s life.

“12/25 (365)” brings with it an ornament to help the Warm Hearts Campaign, an organization started by Matt Haroldsen, a friend of McLean’s son Jeff, that works to provide basic winter necessities kits to youth experiencing homelessness in Utah, where McLean lives.

The letter pressed “12/25 (365)” ornament features the song title and the phrase “Never a day passing by without us remembering” on one side, and the Warm Hearts Campaign logo and the tagline “Never forgotten. Never alone” on the other.

“That’s the message of the story, that’s the message of this holiday and hopefully people who read this will come recognizing we’re so excited to share the joy and kick it all off in Spokane, which has been so good to us,” McLean said.

Though he doesn’t have much time for Christmas traditions because he spends so much of the holiday season on tour, over the years McLean and the “Forgotten Carols” cast and crew have created traditions of their own.

They celebrate each night of Hanukkah with Getz, and after visiting many cities multiple times over the years, the cast and crew have a list of old favorites when it comes to eating out.

Seeing “Forgotten Carols” fans who come to the show year after year has also become part of McLean’s holiday traditions.

“There are families that will come to three different locations and bring different friends with them to each location and will bring cookies and little treats…,” he said. “I don’t mean to sound cheesy, but it’s almost like they’re extended family. Forty thousand extended family members that you share with.”

When he gets off the road, one of McLean’s favorite holiday traditions is hosting a Christmas party at his home for the cast and crew and their families.

At last year’s party, the daughters of the show’s sound man Joe Anderson used their iPhones to recreate “The Forgotten Carols” with their friends.

“No one is over 11,” McLean said with a laugh. “It’s hysterically funny and actually makes me tear up a little bit. It’s very sweet.”

Though he doesn’t have a typical Christmas season, McLean wouldn’t think of trading his time with “The Forgotten Carols.”

He said he is often asked if he gets tired of performing the same show so many times each year, and without hesitation, his answer is no.

“I really, sincerely don’t get tired because every night I find myself learning something new about this story that reveals to me things that have been forgotten by most of us about this season,” he said. “Then the other thing that’s so spectacular for me is the gift that the audience brings, those people who have never seen it before and go ‘This is unlike any other Christmas thing I’ve ever seen.’ ”

Plus, McLean inadvertently made it so he won’t be out of a job anytime soon.

“My joke is I wrote a story about a guy who is 2,000 years old so I’ll never be too old to play him,” he said.