Probably about 12 years ago, I met Dallas Jenkins on-line. I had made a new film he was interested in, became my friend on Facebook, and asked about my film. I sent him my trailer and information. Beyond that, I had little interaction with him for years after.

About 2018, I had bought the LDS Film Festival and was interested in inviting people of other faiths who were making films to come speak at our festival. I tried Alex Kendrick (Facing the Giants, Fireproof) for several years. Then, I tried David A.R. White (God’s Not Dead). I struggled to find one who would answer the call.

My friends at Harmon Brothers and VidAngel were starting a new program called The Chosen. Simultaneously, I decided to ask Dallas Jenkins instead to come speak and had no idea they were related. I finally got a “yes” from Dallas Jenkins and he even offered to come show the first episode of his new series The Chosen. We made that happen and it was overall a good experience. (I’ll tell more detail on that story in another post.) Dallas has now become the Spielberg of the faith-based film community.

In the middle of all of The Chosen madness, Dallas has made time to direct this cute film I wanted to comment on. Stephanie and I got invited to a prescreening of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”. I had never heard of this story, but I guess it was a book and a play. I also saw a video production of it on YouTube (after seeing the movie) starring Loretta Swift (MASH) made probably in the early 80’s.

The film surrounds the story of a small town church that holds its Christmas Pageant every year to a serious level. By this time in the history of this town, it will have been 75 years of putting on the play, so it is taken as sacred to the community.

Enter a family called the Herdman’s. The film did an excellent job at setting up the distain the neighborhood had for the family of 6 kids that always seemed dirty, poor, rowdy and definitely not religious. Always getting into trouble. I think we all have experiences of “that one” neighbor that is a hoarder or doesn’t take a bath very often, and it shows.

The local church starts to prepare for the Christmas Pageant, but the woman who has directed the pageant for years breaks both of her legs, putting the Pageant in jeopardy. A young mother, Grace, has now been roped into being the director of the play. Her daughter, Beth has had experiences dealing with the Herdman’s at school and becomes the narration of the whole experience.

Somehow the word got to the Herdman’s that there is free food at the church and they decide to make their way to partake. They happen to show up right about the time they organize the Christmas Pageant. All the kids are scared when the Herdman’s all volunteer the main parts of the Christmas pageant. This becomes difficult when they don’t even know who Jesus is.

The film has a few unrealistic moments, but there is an unrealistic cornball feel to it that forgives the storyline loopholes. Overall, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a fun, lighthearted comedy that has an amazing payoff at the end. It is a lot like “A Christmas Story”. The message of misjudging others as well as the true meaning of Christmas is very well represented.

The other bravo goes to the cast. The kids were amazing. Especially the main Herdman girl, was my favorite actor in the film. I will not be surprised when we see her in future films.

It opens in theaters November 8, go see it opening week.