The Wasteland Reviewer

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024) Written Review

Who does love an old school Christmas flick in time for the holiday season? Those vintage flicks like A Christmas Story have been a fixture of the holiday season for literal generations thanks to syndication. We don’t get a whole lot of mainstream flicks that hit that holiday itch anymore but that is where Lionsgate comes in for this year. 2024 has been a rough patch for the studio with films like Borderlands and Megalopolis losing audiences and critics alike. But with the changing of the seasons and Christmas around the corner, Lionsgate is about to offer The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and it is ready for the whole family. 

But is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever a little win that this studio needs? This is a charming and sincere flick for sure. The most important element of a Christmas film is to understand and channel the spirit of Christmas. This film has its heart in the right place. We have the matriarch of a normal family (Judy Greer) taking on a famous and long-standing pageant at the local church. Things get interesting when the rambunctious tribe of children that the whole town hates hijack the pageant and take on the main roles. What is so effective when it comes to this story is that we go on this genuine journey of discovery with this family of kids who are learning about the Nativity story for the first time. They go on a genuine journey that has some poignant emotional moments along the way. Watching this judgmental town be proven wrong is also a sweet little experience as well. 

Does The Best Christmas Pageant Ever channel that old school feel? There is certainly a vintage feel to the film thanks to its period setting. The whole film has a voiceover structure like A Christmas Story with a charismatic Lauren Graham there to lead us through the story. The look of the film has a tinge of retro grading which gives that nostalgic atmosphere. There is also an old school sensibility to a lot of characters including many characters that feel like they would act in older films and such. Holmes’ character feels ripped from old family films with his aloofness and sass as a husband and father. There is even a slightly melodramatic and sentimental climax that might get you to shed a tear or two. 

Does the story drive home the experience as well? The nostalgic feel does add a sense of charm, but it also opens the film up to overly traditional tropes that do the film no favors. So many of the town’s folk are cliché archetypes that feel like they have a lack of authenticity. The main characters don’t have a lot of depth either with Greer doing her best to bring layers to a standard “good mom” character. There are a lot of predictable beats as well and this screenplay doesn’t do too much to shake things up. Dallas Jenkins, the director, can find some silly fun along the way but the ending feels a little too overly sentimental (especially compared to the rest of the film). The ending is certainly heartwarming but also quite cliched and predictable. But when you have a holiday film like this, usually the way it makes you feel is going to trump how it makes you think. 

Should you head out to see The Best Christmas Pageant Ever for this holiday season? This is a good bit of nostalgia that the whole family can enjoy together. You will probably not think about the plotting too much and just get lost in the charm of the experience. This is a film with faith that is still focused on delivering an engaging story instead of just pontificating. Greer and company are charming enough on screen and Jenkins will get enough laughs and tears out of you as well.