“The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” (2024) is a pleasantly unpretentious family Christmas comedy about how even the most troublesome kids in town can breathe new life into a story that others consider long familiar and overplayed.

The film shifts to the present day, where an adult Beth tells her children a story about a Nativity play from her childhood.

Beth’s mother, Grace, reluctantly takes on the role of director for the church’s Nativity play, in which the six troublesome Herdman siblings insist on performing.

The Herdmans are obnoxious, rude, and unpredictable, but the film does not caricature them as purely evil children. It gradually becomes clear that their behavior stems, among other things, from their poverty and neglect.

After a chaotic dress rehearsal during which the fire alarm goes off, the townspeople speak quite poorly of the Herdmans. As a result, the siblings disappear, and Grace fears they won’t show up for the final performance.

Comedy / Drama / Family

Canada, 2024, 99 min

Titles in other languages: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Directed by: Dallas Jenkins;

Starring: Judy Greer, Lauren Graham, Elizabeth Tabish, Kirk B.R. Woller, Vanessa Benavente, Pete Holmes, Stephanie Sy, Beatrice Schneider, Molly Belle Wright;

Parents Guide:
Siblings from a dysfunctional family steal a few times, lie, and are confrontational; Grace has to reprimand them about three times for taking God’s name in vain. One instance of a somewhat harsh prayer by a desperate boy asking to be rid of the bad kids. A threat to shove mud in someone’s ear. One scene where adults stand by and watch as the troubled children hurt others.

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