The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

I never knew this old movie existed until it was recently remade. It sounded like a cute idea, but the new movie is by some guy who makes kinda Jesus-y movies so I went for this old TV movie instead, which contains the only non-MASH performance I've ever seen from Loretta Swit (who's quite good).

It's very cute. It's kind of weird to see what passed for "bad kids" back then, since nowadays ... well, we all know how insane things have gotten. So its nostalgic to see kids being bad in the old-school way.

It's a very sweet movie that's generally pretty funny and has some insight. I'd recommend it if you're looking for something to watch at Christmas.

This movie should be shown on TV every year. It tells the true meaning of Christmas. It was funny in parts and touching in others. I only saw it on TV once or twice. I found a copy at the library and watched it with my daughter and her friend (age 10).They both loved it.

I thought the characters acted very realistically. The children were neither too cute and sweet nor too smart mouthed. In fact none of the children were smart mouthed or talked back. The characters consisted of people we all know. The dresses that the girls wore were very pretty and cute. It was nice to see girls wearing dresses instead of old jeans to church.

I can't say much more without giving too much away. This is a great movie and suitable for all ages. If you can't find it in the video store try your local library.

Many people have been involved in a church Christmas pageant at one time or another, so there was bound to be a story like this. Take a typical middle-class family (the Bradleys) involved in a typical middle-class church Christmas pageant, a little uptight and steeped in tradition, and throw in some lower-class ruffian kids (the Herdmans) who take starring roles. This movie is a little different from the novel The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, but that should be okay, because Barbara Robinson wrote them both. It seems like the book did say that the narrator figured that the Herdmans were going to hell, while the movie has her say she figured they were going to the devil. I suppose "devil" was supposed to be less offensive than "hell," but I'd rather have the narrator say "hell" like in the novel. Loretta Swit from M*A*S*H plays the mother directing the pageant. You might think this would be an unlikely role for her, but she does a good job.

Great fun and laughs for sure but on second watching of trailer noticed I believe some important underlying serious messages about the real meaning of Christmas.

The main meaning is that is the birth of Christ.

The next main message is that when He was on earth He normally chose the most unlikely people to achieve things for Him from a worldly point of view, and they each protested that they thought that He had made a mistake choosing them and told Him they were sure that they would let Him down and not achieve what he had asked them to to do.

However, as things turned out they each grew into the task He had given them and achieved the task at hand brilliantly.

I have always believed that you cannot judge a book by its cover and that each of us is able to do so much more than we recognize in ourselves at first.

Trailer whetted my appetite hugely for anticipated November 2024 release.

Such a wonderful story it's a shame that it isn't being aired anymore. Why not? I was a teacher's assistant in an elementary library for several years and I know many teachers keep this story alive, I don't know why the networks haven't.