After nine years of staging "Christmas Talk Story," the Honolulu Theatre for Youth production goes out softly, without making much of a bang.

The long-running production was created by former HTY artistic director Mark Lutwak and playwright Y York and offered local writers an opportunity to see their work staged. The show took various shapes over its history, at one point growing to two acts with a live band. But always, its most successful ingredient and source of enduring charm was its local feeling and deceptively artless presentation.

It was simply a string of short monologues featuring one voice and a genuinely youthful point of view.

It showcased the holidays as experienced by kids: happy kids, disappointed kids, tough kids, vulnerable kids, puzzled or wildly delirious and festively-high kids — something like a collection of greeting cards that open into five-minute video clips.

But HTY has decided it's time to move on, and says goodbye with a last look that selects eight pieces from the show's long history. Some of your favorite monologues may be missing, but this collection features works that engage its three-member cast.

Kimo Kaona, Pomai Lopez and Cynthia See, guest-directed by Carson Grace Becker, deliver eight vignettes and three songs in just under an hour.

Your favorite might be Linda Tagawa's "Da Tooth Fairy," in which a little girl hides her grandpa's false teeth under her pillow in hopes of picking up some easy Christmas spending money.

Or you might enjoy Lee A. Tonouchi's more gritty, pidgin guerrilla take on the holiday with his "Nah, Santa, No Werry." In it, three young would-be toughs address Santa directly, urging him to come hang with them this year, and all his previous missed visits would be forgotten.

Sentimentalists will like "My Brother's Bike," in which a youngster makes an unexpected decision about his raffle prize, and those with a taste for the comic absurd will drift over to Yokanaan Kearns' "Hanuchris-kwanzobon," which melds all the winter holidays into a single celebration and tops them with a visit to Disneyland.

In the vocal department, the cast delivers "Christmas Is Coming," accompanied by percussion and explaining the unusual existence of "half a penny." They use a 'ukulele for "Christmas Time is Here," and deliver the expected "Twelve Days of Christmas — Hawaiian Style" with flashcards and increasing tempo.

If you've liked past versions of "Christmas Talk Story," you might want to drop in for a quiet farewell.

Joe Rozmiarek has reviewed theater performances in Hawai'i since 1973.