The Best Christmas Pageant Adaptation Ever

I was delighted to hear that there would be a new movie adaptation of Barbara Robinson’s 1972 novel The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. It’s a book that resonates greatly with those of us who have grown up in the American Midwest where mothers force their kids to be in church Christmas pageants every year and force their husbands to attend. The marketing for the movie looked fairly promising though I had some reservations. Mainly, I was worried that it would sentimentalize the six Herdman kids, ruthless-or seemingly ruthless-juvenile delinquents more likely to fly than to find favor with God or anyone north of the Devil, who go to Sunday School in search of snacks one fateful day and bully their ways into the biggest roles in the annual Christmas pageant. Commercials and interviews made it sound like the movie would portray them too much as misunderstood victims of society which would be quite the exaggeration. Having seen it, I’m overjoyed to say that this adaptation completely won me over. My concern wasn’t exactly unwarranted, but the film was so good it reconciled me to any changes of emphasis. While the 1983 made-for-TV movie written by Barbara Robinson herself technically stuck closer to the book, it suffered from subpar line deliveries from its child actors.^[1]Robinson also wrote a play version of her book, and she expressed regret that she couldn’t include certain incidents. I’m sure she’d be tickled to know those made it into this new … Continue reading The 2024 Best Christmas Pageant, on the other hand, has some of the best acting from children I’ve ever seen, and the adults are all perfectly cast too.

And, hey, it’s not like the new movie doesn’t stick to the book at all! Far from it. The opening narration comes almost straight from the first chapter. The screenplay by Platte F. Clark, Darin McDaniel and Ryan Swanson makes great use of cutaway gags that captures Robinson’s meandering, digressive style.^[2]I’d call it gossipy, but that word has negative connotations. Nearly all of the book’s funniest moments are here and even though I knew the punchlines, the movie’s comedic is so great that it made me laugh at them anyway. What’s more, the script features some hilarious lines and moments of its own. As someone who considers director Dallas Jenkins’s hit show The Chosen to be basically good but overhyped by some, I was surprised by how much I love his directing of this movie. He and others involved in the production have talked about creating a nostalgic atmosphere. This made me raise my eyebrows since the book The Best Christmas Pageant Ever never struck me as nostalgic for anything. So much of it is concerned with things like the Herdmans’ reign of terror at school or even how just how boring the church kids generally find the Christmas pageant.^[3]To be sure, reading the book now, many parents may feel nostalgic for a time when librarians refused to let kids read dirty books. On the other hand, reading about the Herdmans, some may be grateful … Continue reading But what reconciled me was the filmmakers’ reference to Norman Rockwell. While people think of Rockwell’s art as being nostalgic, much of it mines the inconvenient realities of everyday life for humorous effect.^[4]And that’s not even getting into his more political art. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever‘s handsome production design and art direction likewise create a warm and cozy depiction of small-town America while still putting its warts front and center.^[5]The filmmakers have also mentioned A Christmas Story (1983) with its blend of nostalgia and cynicism as a point of reference.

Did Barbara Robinson intend The Best Christmas Pageant Ever to be a Christian story? None of her other books have to do with Christianity but Robinson’s daughter, Margie Pinto-Leite, has praised the 2024 movie for capturing (among other things) “the deeper meaning of (her) mother’s story” and it explicitly proclaims a Christian message. I think that’s a perfectly fair take since the book’s thoughtful finale emphasizes the humanity of Christ, a major Christian doctrine, and, whether intentionally or not, many plot points are reminiscent of things from the gospels.^[6]I thought of listing some, but this blog post will give away enough as it is, and I’d rather encourage readers to connect the dots for themselves. And I really do think The Best Christmas Pageant Ever‘s Christian themes or at least its church setting are what have given it the staying power that Robinson’s followups, The Best School Year Ever and The Best Halloween Ever haven’t had. It’s certainly not a case of the sequels being less engagingly written!^[7]Weirdly, I feel that due to its emotional finale, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever works better as the last book in the series even though it was written first. As I’ve discussed before, the best screenplay adaptations are like duets between the original author and the screenwriter. Sometimes even the most respectful of them are guilty of putting their own spin on the material. It’s hardly something unique to Christians. However, I can’t help but wonder if by emphasizing a Christian message, this adaptation actually removes a big part of the book’s appeal for American Evangelicals. They’re typically portrayed either as long-suffering heroes (in stories they tell about themselves) or as villainous bigots (in stories about them from secular perspectives.) In the literary Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Grace Bradley (Judy Greer in the movie), the mother who ends up directing the titular tableau, leans toward the former extreme, compared to other characters anyway, and Alice Wendleken (Lorelei Olivia Mote), the pharisaical girl who normally plays Mary, and her equally insufferable mother (Danielle Hoetmer) come close to being the latter^[8]There’s also Helen Armstrong (Mariam Bernstein), the domineering woman who typically directs the pageant but she’s more officious than malicious. but for the most part, the book’s Christians are neither particular saintly nor particularly evil. They’re just ordinary everyday people. I like that. The 2024 film though wants to tell a story about good Christians vs bad Christians.

In the book, Alice’s mother bluntly tells the Ladies’ Aid that Imogene Herdman (Beatrice Schneider in the movie) portraying Mary would be a sacrilege but the negative reaction from others is less over the top. Some hide their distaste for the Herdmans behind the excuse that it’s unfair for one family who don’t even go to the church to take over the pageant. One woman suggests the compromise of having the Herdmans hand out programs at the door. They don’t seem to want to say “you can’t be in our pageant because you’re horrible people” even though that’s obviously what they think. In the movie, on the other hand, Grace is confronted by a mob of evil church ladies who bluntly tell her to throw the Herdmans out.

I might have preferred a more nuanced, less caricatured take on these characters. I actually think how the book handles them is funnier. But they’re certainly not unfunny in the movie and the book’s dynamic is still preserved in the characters of the church’s pastor and his wife (Kirk B. R. Woller and Daina Leitold, both very funny) who squeamishly try to welcome the Herdmans and restrain their instinctive desire to beat them off with sticks.

Grace can definitely be described as the hero of the book The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, but she wasn’t exactly meant to be a Christian role model. Her motivations were less showing Christian charity to the Herdmans, though there’s a good case to be made that’s what she ended up doing, than proving herself to those church ladies who questioned her judgement in casting them in the pageant. In the movie, her motives arguably start out as even more prideful. The whole reason she volunteers to direct the pageant when the usual director breaks her leg is to put Mrs. Wendleken in her place. (In the book, she did it because nobody else wanted the job with or without Herdmans.) But as she gets to know them better, she starts to sympathize with the Herdmans, even becoming something of a parental figure to them. This actually isn’t too much of a stretch. In the book, the fair-minded Grace is quick to point out whenever the Herdmans show any good instincts, which is seldom, and to defend them on the rare occasions they’re accused of something they didn’t do. She still handles her tough situation with a mixture of admirable patience and understandable exasperation in the movie. In one scene, she explains to the kids for the umpteenth time that they’re supposed to create a beautiful picture to inspire the congregation to contemplate what Christmas means. “What does it mean?” demands Ralph Herdman (Mason Nelligan.) Convention would dictate that Grace give a big speech here but instead she wearily sighs and says she can’t remember. The most interesting way in which the movie makes her more idealized than the book does comes after a particularly calamitous dress rehearsal when the whole church is in an uproar and the pastor suggests canceling the pageant.

“Certainly not!” Mother said. By that time, she was mad too. “Why, it’s going to be the best Christmas Pageant we’ve ever had!”
Of all the lies she’d told so far, that was the biggest, but you had to admire her. It was like General Custer saying, “Bring on the Indians!”

In the movie, the pastor tells her if she says everything is fine, he believes her. After hesitating, Grace sighs and admits that she can’t promise everything is fine, but she also believes the church shouldn’t cancel the pageant. I find the big lie in the book endearingly human but what the movie does is a great dramatic moment. Did the movie need the ensuing scene in which she explains to her daughter, Beth the narrator (Molly Belle Wright), why she believes those calling for the Herdmans to be kicked out are wrong?^[9]Actually, the movie is narrated by Lauren Graham as Beth’s adult self. In the books, I always imagined the narrator as still a kid. Much of the humor comes from her being like the child in The … Continue reading Not necessarily. I think Christian viewers could infer the message for themselves. But it’s a beautifully acted, beautifully lit, beautifully scored scene and very much what such a mother would say to her child under these circumstances.^[10]When people complain about Christian movies having unrealistic dialogue and being too preachy, I wonder if they realize that Christians talking about their beliefs is actually realistic, especially … Continue reading I especially love the moment where Grace admits that this will probably end badly for her, but she still believes persevering with it is the right thing to do.

Early in the book, Beth’s brother, Charlie (scene stealing Sebastian Billingsley-Rodgriguez in the film)^[11]In the original book, Charlie was actually the only member of his family to be named. Barbara Robinson gave the rest of them names in sequels and adaptations., announces that his favorite thing about Sunday School is the absence of Herdmans. “Not a very Christian sentiment,” opines his father, Bob (Pete Holmes), but his mother rejoins that it’s a very practical sentiment. It’s important to the story that the Herdmans-Ralph, Imogene, Leroy (Ewan Matthys-Wood), Claude (Matthew Lamb), Ollie (Essek Moore) and Gladys (Kynlee Heiman)-are genuinely awful. They don’t just do things to which only Christians would object like taking the Lord’s name in vain. They’re also physically violent arsonists, thieves and vandals. You can’t blame the church or anyone for not rolling out the welcome wagon for them. Even the insufferable Alice has an understandable reason to resent Imogene-especially Alice in fact! I’m pleased to report the movie doesn’t chicken out on any of this. The Herdmans smoking is actually edgier now than it was in 1972.^[12]The movie has other characters rebuke Imogene for both the Lord’s name thing and the smoking, either to pacify concerned parents or as a reflection of the screenwriters’ own concerns. I … Continue reading The movie doesn’t show Imogene blackmailing her peers by threatening to reveal their weight, which may be a nod to delicate modern sensibilities, or it may just be a case of the movie not having time to include every detail from the book. (It’s amazing how many they do include!) We still see her extorting things from them though. No, the movie doesn’t pull many punches with the Herdmans but it does provide medical attention to wounds quicker than the book does. The literary Imogene is a mysterious character whose motivations are often left for readers to guess. The movie all but states that the reason she wants to star in the pageant is so she can be the center of community approval for once. When she volunteers for the part of Mary, Grace nervously hedges, saying they need to give everyone a chance. “Everyone’s had their chance!” Imogene protests. “They’ve had all kinds of chances!” This line invites us to see the Herdmans not just as bullies who eliminate their competition through threats, though it doesn’t deny they’re that, but also as underdogs and therefore sympathetic. It is also all but stated that Imogene is genuinely hurt by the hostility the church shows to her. If she ever cared about what people thought of her in the book, that was a deeply buried subtext.^[13]Though she and Ralph were described as hesitating before they made their entrances during the pageant, perhaps suggesting stage fright on their part.

If you haven’t seen the movie or read the book yet, I beg you to skip the following two paragraphs. If you haven’t seen the movie but have read the book, just skip the first paragraph. The book’s narrator tells us in the first chapter that her strategy for dealing with Imogene is to stay out of her way. Beth begins the movie with the same mindset. In fact, the adaptation emphasizes this by having her consider helping her mother by volunteering to play Mary and keeping at least one Herdman out of the pageant but refrain out of fear of Imogene’s wrath. But late in the movie, it looks like Imogene is backing out of the pageant of her own accord and Beth, inspired by her mother’s example, goes right up to the Herdmans’ house and insists that Imogene go through with it. Theoretically, I’m not a fan of this reimagined climax. The vulnerability Imogene shows in it makes the vulnerability she later shows in the pageant much less of a shock. Watching the confrontation between Beth and Imogene, we just know the latter is going to pull through in a way we don’t in the book.^[14]Not that the happy ending was a complete surprise in the source material. I mean, the very title gives it away. But I loved cheering for Beth here. It’s great seeing her stand up to, as well as encourage, Imogene this way after being so scared of her the whole movie and it adds a welcome bit of nuance to the film’s message about Christians needing to welcome sinners, showing they can challenge them at the same time. The story has gained as well as lost by the addition. And it helps that Beatrice Schneider and Molly Belle Wright give such great performances. Much of the movie rests on the two young actresses’ shoulders and, boy, do they ever carry it.

As much as I love the original book and as excited as I was when I first heard about this new movie, a part of me wondered whether The Best Christmas Pageant Ever could have the impact now that it had in the 70s. Only last year there was a Superbowl ad comparing the Holy Family to refugees, the same comparison that occurs to Beth as she watches Ralph and Imogene’s takes on Joseph and Mary. The Nativity Story (2007) takes a fairly gritty approach to the material, visually emphasizing the arduous trek to Bethlehem and the inconvenience of birth in a stable as does Dallas Jenkins’s own portrayal in Christmas with the Chosen.^[15]Then again, other recent portrayals of the Nativity have been an animated comedy about talking animals (2017’s The Star) and a glitzy musical-comedy (2023’s Journey to Bethlehem) so … Continue reading Pastors and Christian speakers are more likely nowadays to remind listeners that the birth of Christ, as depicted in the Bible, was not as picturesque as traditional nativity scenes would have them believe and believers are more likely to imagine Mary as being, in this movie’s words, tough as well as sweet.^[16]It’s true that I don’t think we’ve ever had a depiction of Mary burping the Baby Jesus. I keep waiting for a director with vision to come along. Would the message of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever just be white noise, I wondered. Happily, in its portrayal of church culture, the movie does such a good job of establishing that traditional picturesque conception of the Nativity that the Herdmans’ version really does feel like a revelation even if it really isn’t. The music, acting and overall direction all come together superbly in that scene. I don’t normally cry over movies but the finale to this one brought me as close as I’ve ever been.

I’ve suggested in this post that an emphatically Christian version of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever may not be the best idea. But after analyzing the 2010 movie adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which clearly wanted to appeal to the Christian section of the book’s fanbase but didn’t know how, it was so refreshing to watch this adaptation which really understands why the source material resonates with Christians. Even to the extent that the story represents a critique of the Church, it critiques it along lines any serious Christian will understand. It makes even secular filmmakers’ best attempts at making something for “faith-based audiences” feel clumsy by comparison.

Now that I’ve written that, I fear I’ve steered secular viewers away from the movie. That would be a great disservice to them because the comedy really is hilarious for everybody^[17]Though it does probably help if you grew up in the American Midwest and attended church there. and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the emotional moments don’t transcend a Christian audience too. After all, while I’ve described the story’s themes as Christian, it could also be interpreted as humanist, showing even the worst of people as being capable of goodness. And both Christians and non-Christians can appreciate The Best Christmas Pageant Ever‘s reminder of the plight of the impoverished.

But why am I worrying about people not going to see this movie? It’s already a hit. There’s not always a lot of overlap between movies I love and movies the public loves. There also aren’t many book adaptations I consider just as great as their source material in their own very-similar-but-slightly-different ways. So I’d like to thank the makers of this Best Christmas Pageant Ever for giving me such a wonderful early Christmas gift.