Last year, a New York Times article argued that Elf and Love Actually, released two decades ago,were the last classic Christmas movies to play in theaters. “On the one hand, thanks to the churn at places like Hallmark and Lifetime, which will collectively release upward of 50 new holiday movies [in 2023], it feels as if the genre is more robust than ever,” wrote the reviewer. “On the other, the idea of getting a new film that’s as revered and rewatched 20 years on [as these two] feels far-fetched.”
Could The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, out this week, beat the odds?
Based on the beloved 1972 book by Barbara Robinson, the film follows Grace Bradley (Judy Greer), who’s running her local church’s Christmas pageant for the first time. Unexpectedly, the Herdmans—known around town as “the worst kids in the world”—show up in the pews and attempt to steal the show. Grace and her family must decide whether they’ll reject the troublesome children and “save” the pageant or welcome them, allowing everyone to discover the true meaning of Christmas.
Spoiler alert: They choose the latter. Daughter Beth Bradley reflects, “Because of my mom and her understanding of the Christmas story, the Herdmans finally got what they needed most all along: a community.”
Pageant is directed by The Chosen showrunner Dallas Jenkins, who calls it “the movie that I was born to make.” He wrote, “For almost 20 years, [my wife] Amanda and I have hoped for, prayed for, and cried for the opportunity” to adapt the book that made them weep when they read it aloud to their children.
Congratulations to Jenkins: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is pretty much everything you’d want in a faith-based family Christmas movie. It’s heartfelt, self-aware, and genuinely funny, as when the Herdmans interrupt the nativity story with questions. Here’s one exchange:
“What’s frankincense and myrrh?”
“Oils and perfume.”
“What kind of cheap king hands out oil? You get better presents at the firemen’s shelter!”
It also offers an explicitly Christian message about welcoming sinners and outsiders. As one punchy line puts it, “Jesus was born for the Herdmans as much as he was for us.”
The Bradleys are also as good a movie depiction of a Christian family as I’ve seen. Grace and her husband, Bob (Pete Holmes), are loving but not sugary, affectionately ribbing each other for their foibles. When their daughter, Beth (Molly Belle Wright), expresses her frustrations with the Herdmans, her parents neither overindulge nor condemn her. The family supports each other while also pointing out opportunities for growth—such as when Bob takes the kids on an empathy-inducing trip to see the Herdmans’ rundown shack.
It’s hard to remember a movie that so effectively “puts Christ back in Christmas.” Whereas other Christmas classics sidestep the Nativity altogether, opting instead for vague appeals to joy and hope, Pageant normalizes the centrality of Jesus. The Herdmans’ story of transformation requires them to learn the story of how much God loves them.
That’s not to say the movie is perfect. It’s relentlessly plot-heavy and at times too on the nose, a problem exacerbated by an ever-present voiceover from grown-up Beth Bradley. Oftentimes, the voiceover is used to humorous effect. But it also overstays its welcome. There’s barely a scene that goes by where Beth isn’t telling us what to think or feel, ultimately creating too much distance between the audience and the story. Toward the film’s end, her narration slips into moralizing about the message, diluting the magic of those final scenes.
Filthy Night, Fetid Night
What is that message? Because Jesus came to redeem the sinner and the outcast, our job is to do so as well rather than exclude them. Pageant rightly wants us to understand that believers should welcome marginalized, sinful people rather than excluding them. It’s a powerful, heartwarming Christmas—and Christian—message. (One clunky line has the church’s mean girl scoff that the Herdman’s version of Mary and Joseph “look like refugees.” Point taken.)
But this message is complicated by the fact that the Herdmans are legitimately bullies. And they don’t stop bullying when they join the church. In fact, they get their parts in the pageant by threatening physical harm to other kids! In this case, Christian hospitality occasionally comes at the expense of vulnerable community members.
Today, the church is locked in heated debates about how to balance Christlike inclusion with protecting the flock and how to extend forgiveness in the aftermath of wrongdoing. Sometimes, the people who need welcoming do try to harm those who welcome them. Can boundaries coexist with mercy? The only people in Pageant who work hard to uphold community norms are a few uptight, pharisaic church women.
Ultimately, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a beautiful picture of redemption. The Herdmans lie, steal, and bully. And yet, by means of the Bradleys welcoming them into their church, they are given the chance to be different. This is what Christ did for us: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Christmas marks the moment when Jesus came into the world to give us that opportunity, which is why we—the Herdmans of the world—celebrate it so joyously.
Joseph Holmes is a Christian culture critic and host of the podcast The Overthinkers.
