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There are a ton of Christmas-oriented stories, movies, and shows forming part
of our Christmas traditions each year. Of course, I have my favorites among
these classic stories—and I try to read and/or watch a few each Christmas.
I’m particularly intrigued by stories involving Christmas pageants—those
church Sunday school plays rendering the birth of Christ. I probably appreciate
these types of stories more because I was in all the church Christmas programs
growing up. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is truly one of the best
of these stories, in my opinion. In this book, the typical church pageant gets
turned upside-down by the unlikeliest cast members.
It’s a fairly typical plot, but it’s the characters that make this
book so worthwhile. The bad kids in town—the Herdmans—have never gone
to church, but when they hear there’s food there, they show up—and
bully the other kids into letting them be the only ones to volunteer for the
major roles in the pageant. After it’s been explained to them what a pageant
is, of course. Since they’re not familiar with the traditional interpretations
of the roles, they ask all sorts of questions, like why the Wise
Men didn’t try to beat up Herod. And their performances provide
entirely new meaning to the pageant.
It’s a great story, and since it’s only 80 pages of largish type
it doesn’t even take as long to read as it does to watch It’s a
Wonderful Life. So I read it every year or two around Christmas—and
I laugh just as hard every time. Since it was published in the ‘70s, some
of the delinquent behavior is a bit outdated (calling Mary pregnant was bad,
for instance), but it’s still in print for some good reasons. The Herdmans
are truly wonderful, well-drawn characters, and the story’s a lot of fun.
