I laughed.
I cried.
It exceeded my expectations.
Years ago, my aunt introduced us to the horrible Herdmans and the Best Christmas Pageant Ever. She lent us the book and the next year we watched the 1983 film adaptation.
When the email landed in my inbox a month or so ago with an invitation to preview this 2024 movie and offer an Amazon gift card giveaway, it didn’t take me long to respond.
The other evening I popped some popcorn, plumped up my cozy, red buffalo plaid blanket and prepared to step into the world of Christmas and pageant and drama. I tapped through the links on my phone screen, tapped smartview, and the movie began to roll on our home tv.
The Herdmans are still horrible.
Can’t say I didn’t agree with Charlie when his answer to why he likes church is because there are no Herdmans.
Can’t say I didn’t want Beth to stand up to Miss Bully Imogene Herdman when she yanks her locket from around her neck.
But when Imogene tells her siblings that when you are an actor in a play you can leave your own miserable life and maybe be sweet and good we begin to glimpse the understory and overstory that haunt the Herdmans life. Maybe Imogene doesn’t exactly love being horrible. Maybe smoking cigars is a sensational gimmick. Maybe it’s her way of numbing out the judgments and scorn and hard reality life has handed them. Maybe being a bully is the only way to harden oneself against the true emotions and dashed dreams.
Does this discount the mean actions the children enact on their classmates? Not really. But it offers a bit of explanation.
Sometimes sharing a story that doesn’t have a lot in it that makes sense, a story about a stable and some shepherds and an angel who comes with a proclamation, a story of poverty, of refugees, it starts to make sense to a young girl who hasn’t known much beyond poverty, who relates to knowing need and weariness, needing help and having hopelessness. Sometimes in this seen-ness, we need no prompting to bring the best gift we have or know to offer.
I loved how this movie told the story with an overarching narrator in a grown-up Beth recounting the story of the year her mom spontaneously became the director of the pageant, and how despite all odds, despite all Herdmans, it became the best pageant ever.
This movie makes a fun debut into your Christmas season! Find tickets here and go watch it at your local theater….perhaps leave your locket at home and tuck a couple of Kleenex in your pocket.
Enter Giveaway!
A great, big thank-you to Kingdom Faith Marketing Services for providing a sample of the prod-
uct for this review. All opinions are completely my own.
This is a new movie to me.
I remember seeing the book, but havent read it. can’t wait to see the movie!
Bexley’s SS teacher reads this to her students every year (and has for at least 15 years because she read it to all of my boys). She’s taking all of her class to see the movie for their Christmas present this year. 🧡
I have never seen the film, but I don’t remember whether I read the book; I know my mother has read it and loved it!