One of Christmas on the River’s longest running traditions continues this year when the Canebrake Theater puts on its production of The Princess and the Pea.

The play is the latest in a long line of holiday children’s plays that have entertained COTR attendees for more than 20 years.

“I just looked for something that I could put a lot of kids in that was just a lot of fun,” play director Jennifer Roemen said.

The production’s cast began its work back in September for a play that opens Saturday.

“This has been a great group of kids,” Roemen said. “There’s a wide age range and they’ve done a great job.

“We practice three nights a week. We’ve been doing that September, October, November.”

One of the great challenges that comes with doing such a large production is working around the fall schedules of 37 children.

“We haven’t had everybody there on one night yet,” Roemen said earlier this week. “”You work around everything else.”

Roemen said the production has also been made possible by a small army of community volunteers who have worked diligently to put together and paint sets, design and make costumes as well as assist with a number of other tasks.

“We are very fortunate,” Roemen said. “We have so many talented people in our community. We’re very lucky.”

The production will be the first for the Canebrake Players since they purchased a sound system for the theater.

“We use to have to rent equipment and pay somebody to come in and we were throwing money away,” Roemen said. To eliminate that problem, the group purchase a $3,000 sound system.

The group will attempt to help offset that cost during The Princess and the Pea show times when it sells $1 chances for a $100 Parr’s Chevron gas card.

The show will run Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. and again Friday, Dec. 10 and Saturday, Dec. 11 at 7 p.m. before closing at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 12. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students. Children below school age will not be charged admission.