The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Pastor’s Bookshelf - Welcome to my bookshelf! Each month I will discuss a recent book that I’ve finished. *disclaimer; I don’t always have time to sit and read physical books, but I do quite a bit of my reading through audiobooks these days.*

This month I’d like to talk about The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

My son Liam has become a voracious reader of late. To be honest, he’s practically read every book in our house that’s age appropriate. And I find myself scouring the shelves trying to find something that he CAN read that he HASN’T already. And in my search – I stumbled across this gem of a book that I read when I was a kid. I believe they actually made a movie out of this book. It’s a quick read, only 80 pages or so, and it’s about a fictious Christmas Pageant set back in the 1970’s. It’s not normally the type of book I recommend in my Pastor reviews – but it is ABSOLUTELY what you need to read this holiday season. It’s a beautiful story, told in a fun and cheeky way and it brought tears to my eyes with its beautiful message.

The basic thrust centers on a little church that has the same old Christmas pageant EVERY year, so much so that it’s a bit stale. They’ve lost the meaning and the purpose behind what the pageant represents. But that all changes when the troublemakers in town (the kids from “that” family) show up one Sunday because they had heard there was free food at Coffee Hour, and then they all sign up for the lead roles in the Christmas Pageant while they’re at it. They’ve never heard of the nativity and they know NOTHING about the story.

Turns out, in the process of explaining what the pageant means to the trouble-makers – all of the kids learn a little something about what the true Christmas story means. I highly recommend you go pick up this short little chapter book and let it teach us all about how we should be sharing the true meaning of Christmas with EVERYONE this year.