This book is titled The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (by Barbara Robinson), but it is also the best Christmas book ever. I am not trying to be cute (exclusively). I am in love with this short, children’s chapter book. It is hilarious and poignant. It does have some outdated content, but I went into it not expecting much and was blown away by how much I enjoyed it. I am in danger of talking it up too much and having you be disappointed, but I do want you to read this book if it is the kind of thing you would appreciate as much as I did. Do.

The synopsis on Goodreads is too perfect not to quote here: “Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie, and Gladys Herdman are an awful bunch. They set fire to Fred Shoemaker’s toolshed, blackmailed Wanda Pierce to get her charm bracelet, and smacked Alice Wendelken across the head. And that’s just the start! When the Herdmans show up at church for the free snacks and suddenly take over the Christmas pageant, the other kids are shocked. It’s obvious that they’re up to no good. But Christmas magic is all around and the Herdmans, who have never heard the Christmas story before, reimagine it in their own way.” Told through the voice of Beth, the daughter of the unexpected interim director of said pageant.

This book was on the Starving Artist’s list of best books for Christmas. When the movie came out this holiday season, I decided to read it. There was something about it that felt familiar… and then I realized there was a chapter of it (probably the best chapter, actually) in The Random House Book of Humor that I had read more than once as a child. Still, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. If someone had said “Beverly Cleary in church with a little 70s grit,” this might have done it. It’s a gentler, homier Christmas Story.

Published in 1972, Pageant weighs in at 108 very quickly read pages. It’s meant for elementary school kids, but it also makes great family entertainment (which is how it ended up as a movie, I suppose). It’s well-written and intriguing enough to be read aloud to kids or, in my case, just enjoyed as an adult all by myself. The thing is, I try to read a new religious advent book every year, and while this isn’t that, it is excellent for not only laughing along and hearing a good story but also considering the “meaning of the season.” If you are Christian, mostly, but I suppose even if you’re not. The message is dual: it is a fresh look at the manger scene on one hand, and it is a surgical glimpse into our hearts of dis-inclusion, of othering others on the other. (Oh boy, words.)

This is Barbara Robinson’s most famous book, but she also wrote a number of other children’s chapter books. There are more books in the Herdman series, in fact: The Best School Year Ever and The Best Halloween Ever.

There are some outdated things. There is fat-shaming, the Dad is incapable of making his own frickin’ dinner (or even conceiving of the idea), there is child nicotine use, and “Indian” is used instead of Native American or Indigenous Peoples or whatever. Also, if you don’t have an understanding of this time (I was alive not long after), then you probably can’t appreciate much of the humor. But if you are, it’s hilarious. (Maybe even if you’re not?) And poignant. That’s the main thing I walked away with; the story really touched me and made me see the nativity and church with fresh eyes. As the Herdmans turned the pageant on its head, so our perception (and the characters’ perception) of Christmas is turned on its head. I suggest you just sink into the time period and the little family in the little church in the little town in a time decades ago and hear the story. Laugh along. And take it with you.

“You would have thought the Christmas story came right out of the F.B.I. files, they got so involved in it—wanted a bloody end to Herod, worried about Mary having her baby in a barn, and called the Wise Men a bunch of dirty spies” (p67).

“When [name redacted for spoiler reasons] had asked me what the pageant was about, I told her it was about Jesus, but that was just part of it. It was about a new baby, and his mother and father who were in a lot of trouble—no money, no place to go, no doctor, nobody they knew. And then arriving from the East (like my uncle from New Jersey), some rich friends. / But [name redacted], I guess, didn’t see it that way. Christmas just came over her all at once, like a case of chills and fever. And so she was crying, and walking into furniture” (p105-106).

My husband and I still had AMC memberships and were seeing one to two movies per week at the local theater (which, appropriate for this particular review, doubles as our actual church). The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! (2024) looked cute and I wanted to read the book, so we went to see it. While my husband is not a fan of all family movies, he did like this one. And I did too. Though in hindsight, I did like the book better. Until the end, we were caught up in the story. It was well put together and well-acted. It was immersive. I was not a huge fan of the ending, since the ending really already happened, if you know what I mean. But I have recommended this movie to friends and family and for your next holiday season, when it is streaming, this should be at the top of your family movies to watch and maybe adopt into your holiday movie rotation. Which is what I will do (with my almost-adult children).