Dallas Jenkins, creator of the wildly popular show, The Chosen, dips his foot into filmmaking with The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. This touching family film celebrates the wonder of Christmas from the perspective of a bunch of kids who have lacked love their whole lives. For more information about the film, visit their website here.
The six Herdman children, led by the oldest Imogene (Beatrice Schneider), terrorize the kids of the neighborhood. Bullies extraordinaire, they lord it over the other kids, but don’t stop there. Setting fire to various structures around town, the Herdmans have made it clear they are not to be messed with. No one, child or adult, dares to stand up to them.
That includes Beth (Molly Belle Wright), daughter of Grace and Bob (Judy Greer and Pete Holmes), together with her younger brother, Charlie (Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez). They’re both good kids, but they dread participating in the annual Christmas pageant, because it’s the same every year, that is, until Mrs. Armstrong (Mariam Bernstein), long-time director of the play, falls and breaks both her legs.
Grace, not the most popular mom among the church ladies, reluctantly volunteers to replace Mrs. Armstrong. When Charlie, who thinks the best thing about Sunday school is the absence of Herdmans, lets it slip to one of the Herdman boys that the church serves snacks, they show up, much to everyone’s horror.
Anyone who has read the 1972 book of the same title by Barbara Robinson or seen the 1983 TV movie starring Loretta Swit, knows that the Herdman kids end up volunteering for the major roles in the pageant: Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men, and the Angel of the Lord. Having never heard the story of Jesus, they have serious questions about why the innkeeper would make a pregnant lady sleep in a barn. Even worse, they wanted to do harm to Herod after learning that he wants to kill the baby.
The power of this uplifting story holds just as much relevance today as it did years ago. When Bob drops off a Christmas ham for the Herdmans as part of his outreach to the town’s poor, Beth starts to see the troubled kids for who they are, kids who haven’t experienced the love of family like she has. As Beth begins interacting with Imogene through kindness instead of fear, Imogene starts to change her tune.
While Jenkins breaks a major rule of filmmaking with excessive narration by an adult Beth (Lauren Graham), the film still packs an emotional punch as the Herdman kids discover the love of God through the Christmas story as well as human love through the example of Beth’s family.
When Beth gets frustrated with Imogene and the Herdman antics, she complains to her mom. Grace’s answer to Beth is a good reminder for all of us to practice the admonition of Jesus to love our enemies: “Jesus was born for the Herdmans as much as he was for us.”
Look for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever in theaters starting November 8th.
