Like many movies that come out this time of year, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever comes with a lesson for the holiday season. Based of the 1971 novel by Barbara Robinson, the story is told from the perspective of Beth, a young girl who’s mom has volunteered to direct the town’s Christmas pageant. But what they didn’t expect was the outcast children of the Herdman family to want to not only participate but be the stars of the show.
Pretty much any Christmas movie is going to have some bit of religious preachiness to it, and coming from Kingdom Story Company, you almost get a double hit of this in the film. While all of their films are faith-based, this one seems to be more direct and in-your-face about it – as you would expect. But, that being said, the Herdman children actually start to challenge things in the bible and make the congregation and other adults start to see the characters in the play as people, not just names in a book. Bringing another level to the story as they humanize Mary, and Joseph and even bring a different look at King Herrod.
Overall, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is pretty simple, there isn’t any major cursing or violence – only slightly implied. And it has a message overall of helping others even when it’s hard, and that others may be fighting a battle you don’t know about. All of those warm fuzzy lessons that you expect to get in Christmas movies.
The hard pill to swallow though, is these lessons are told through just one family while the rest of the church members reject the Herdman kids, who are obviously in need. Even Beth’s father who delivers the family a holiday meal each year makes fun of the kids. But much like the Grinch, their hearts all grow three times and they realize the true meaning of Christmas, after making a child cry for their display. That may be a bit dramatic, but it doesn’t seem like the church members learned the lesson that the audience in the theater is supposed to be getting. They never apologize to the kids, or offer to help them more than having them come to church. It just seems like something is missing in the “goodness” of their acceptance.
Something else that could have been left out of the film, although I’m unsure if it’s in the book, is the splash card ending of “Where the kids are now”. While this could be seen as a cute and tongue-in-cheek thing, they made sure that one of the kids did spend some time in jail. Why they had to further the ridicule of children who had absent parents and lived in a town of people who hated them is beyond me, even if they are fictional. This took the sweet lesson and inclusion of the new generation of pageant players away with a quick flash on the screen.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is now playing in theaters.
Overall Review
About The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
The Herdmans are absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, they steal, they bully…and now they’ve hijacked the town Christmas pageant.