The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

A Christmas Holiday Book for Kids

Barbara Robinson

HarperCollins · Print & ebook · April 12, 2005

America’s favorite Christmas book by Barbara Robinson is now a major motion picture!

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Who it’s for
A rowdy Christmas pageant turns comic chaos into an unexpectedly fresh encounter with a familiar story.
Themes
Finding the meaning of Christmas, A community Christmas pageant
Genres
Christmas & Advent, Christian Holiday Stories, Funny Stories

About this book

America’s favorite Christmas book by Barbara Robinson is now a major motion picture! Lionsgate is releasing a live action movie version of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever on November 8, 2024, directed by Dallas Jenkins of The Chosen and featuring actors Judy Greer, Lauren Graham, Elizabeth Tabish, and Pete Holmes, coming to a theater near you! The Herdmans are the worst kids in the history of the world. They lie, steal, and swear.

Continue reading

So no one is prepared when this outlaw family invades church one Sunday and decides to take over the annual Christmas pageant. None of the Herdmans has ever heard the Christmas story before. Their interpretation of the tale—the Wise Men are a bunch of dirty spies—has a lot of people up in arms. And their wild antics cause havoc throughout the play’s production. But the actual pageant is full of surprises for everyone, starting with the Herdmans themselves, as they ultimately lead the town in finding the true meaning of Christmas. They will make this year’s pageant the most unusual anyone has seen and, just possibly, the best one ever. Barbara Robinson’s popular and bestselling tale of the rowdy Herdmans has been beloved and celebrated since the book’s original release in 1972. Read the book again before you see the movie!

Christmas, Turned Sideways

A rowdy Christmas pageant turns comic chaos into an unexpectedly fresh encounter with a familiar story.

Come here for

  • Irreverent humor amid a Christmas pageant gone gloriously awry
  • A familiar holiday story seen through the Herdmans’ unruly interpretation

Expect

  • Comic disruption of the town’s annual production
  • Surprises that lead toward the Christmas story’s meaning

Where it sits

Funny Stories76%
Christmas & Advent57%
Christian Holiday Stories51%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Cat Stories
  • The Classics
  • New Baby Stories
  • Girls & Young Women
Show all 8 publisher categories
  • Christmas & Advent
  • Halloween Stories
  • Birthday Stories
  • Funny Stories
Authors
Barbara Robinson
Publisher
HarperCollins
Published
April 12, 2005
Format
Print & ebook
Theme
Finding the meaning of Christmas · A community Christmas pageant
Reading lane
Cat Stories