38 pages • 1 hour read
Barbara RobinsonThe Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Barbara RobinsonFiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1972A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Redemption
Christians believe that Jesus willingly died on the cross to save all people from physical death and to redeem the repentant from sin. Theologically speaking, believers find redemption—the state of being saved from sin and death—through belief in Jesus Christ. On an individual level, redemption usually begins with a person’s baptism. If the person lives a worthy life and is sorry for their transgressions, they will spend eternity in heaven. Outside of religion, in life and literature, redemption happens when a person whose personality and life choices demonstrate bad or undesirable behavior makes a turn toward the good.
In The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, the idea of redemption plays out on several levels. First, new casting and the Herdmans’ involvement changes how the pageant is received. At the outset, people view the pageant with either indifference or reluctance. Yet the pageant pays homage to the events—Joseph and Mary’s trip to Bethlehem, Christ’s birth, the presence of the angels, etc.—that bring Christ into the world. The ultimate act of redemption—Christ’s death and resurrection—depends on his birth and entrance into human life. However, Charlie and the other townspeople usually wish the pageant would end sooner and be more entertaining. The pageant rarely leads people to consider the momentous occasion that it represents. It is so familiar that it doesn’t provoke the viewers to contemplate. However, by the novel’s end, this yearly tradition has morphed into the “best Christmas pageant over” because the performance brings them to the heart of the Christmas story.
Second, the involvement of the Herdmans in the pageant ultimately reminds the church members—and the readers—that redemption is for everyone, not just those who are amiable, kind, and obedient. Jesus said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (37). This invitation should apply to the Herdmans, but the townspeople are horrified that they are included in the pageant. It never seems to occur to anyone that the Herdmans might also need redemption—if not spiritually, then at least reputationally and civically. Everyone has already decided about these wild children, so the concept of redemption would be superfluous to ponder on their behalf—that is, until their actions during the pageant remind the audience that Jesus came for everyone. The Herdmans restore the story’s power and gravity and remind the pageant’s audience that there is no greater aspiration than to honor Jesus’s sacrifice with grateful worship and remembrance.
Finally, the novel presents one character—Imogene—as redeemed, at least in the eyes of the narrator and perhaps on a more spiritual level. Christian redemption occurs between a person and God, but societal redemption can occur when a character’s change in behavior is noticed and lauded by others. The narrator notes that Imogene appears to have been moved and changed by her experience in the pageant, thus demonstrating a classic literary redemption where an unlikable character, such as Ebenezer Scrooge, is changed by an epiphany or an experience and demonstrates behavior that is welcomed by society. When the narrator sees Imogene crying, she describes it as if Imogene found God and the Christmas spirit all at once in an overwhelming fashion. Thus, Imogene’s reaction also appears to be a religious redemption, wherein she experiences something like the ecstasy some believers report after they accept Jesus as their savior. However, as with Ebenezer Scrooge, the reader doesn’t find out whether Imogene maintains her standard of behavior and develops further in her faith.
Tradition
The annual Christmas pageant is a tradition for the narrator and her town, but it is a tedious one for many residents. When her father protests, yet again, that he wants to stay home, his reason is that he’s “seen the Christmas Pageant” (15). He knows what to expect, and if it is what he expects, he would rather be doing something else. He views this tradition as an inconvenient chore.
Traditions ostensibly arise to bear periodic witness to something memorable or venerable. Christmas has many traditions, including a pageant of children depicting the events surrounding Christ’s birth. Traditions often involve parameters, rites, and a limited, specific framework. When the Herdmans become involved in the pageant, few people are outraged that it might be disrespectful to have “the closest thing to criminals” present at a holy occasion (39). Instead, the agitation comes from the fact that the Herdmans’ presence breaks with tradition.
Traditions can be selfishly guarded. Alice wants to be Mary because that’s the way it was before. Mrs. Armstrong wants to be in charge of the pageant because she has been in charge for a long time, not because she loves it. Traditions can appear as rigid routines that require no thought or effort. This is unusual given that so many traditions are idiosyncratic, insular, and exclusionary by nature—which is not meant as a negative. Families have traditions to celebrate the fact that they have each other and that they are together again. Religious traditions are typically celebrated by members of the faith. Civic traditions rely on nationalism and a shared sense of history. The breaking of traditions can range from hurt feelings to violent revenge, depending on the perspectives involved.
Before the pageant, it is hard to imagine the Herdmans having traditions. Because they are unfamiliar with the Christmas traditions in the story, they don’t know that they are questioning something sacred to millions of people. They don’t guard against giving offense or questioning apparent hypocrisies or confusing elements of the doctrine. When Imogene demands to know why Mary can’t name her son, she questions the story’s tradition and the rote way it is always told. When the Herdmans ask what happened to King Herod, they have to find their own answers: The Christmas tradition does not extend to wondering about King Herod, how the Wise Men might have behaved differently, or whether Jesus might have had colic. The tradition asks people to come to the church, put in their time, and hope that the pageant ends early.
Perspective and Judgment
The town’s disdain for the Herdman children is humorous, but it also belies one of the more sinister aspects of parochialism and of judging people too strictly. In the story’s opening pages, the narrator describes the Herdmans as the worst children ever. In fairness, they live up to their reputation for most of the book. However, if the narrator decided that the Herdmans were terrible and then further decided that they could never change, she would be doing herself a disservice. At the story’s conclusion, she sees Imogene differently, far from the girl “who never learned anything, either, except dirty words” (8).
Perspective is always subjective. From an individual’s point of view, the subjective experience is a product of the person’s history, upbringing, values, and belief system. Within an organization—like a town, for instance—the perspective is shaped by the people comprising the group. Things grow complicated when someone treats their perspective as if it were fact or when someone blindly treats someone else’s perspective as fact.
The townspeople judge the Herdmans, which may make them less likely to change and more likely to rebel. Worse, inflicting a harsh perspective on children may distort their perspectives during their formative years. Alice Wendleken is the most overt example of this. She watches the Herdmans at each rehearsal and writes down their words, acts, and faults in a list so that she can use them against them. When Leroy brings the ham as a gift, Alive proves that her perspective hasn’t changed by suspecting him of theft.
For most of the story, the Herdmans are chaotic and energized. Their actions may be anti-social and unacceptable in polite society, but while they may be a hassle, the Herdmans do not judge others. They bully, intimidate, blackmail, and steal from others, but not because they judge themselves as superior. They simply abide by a perspective their parents’ absence has forced on them—the perspective of survival as abandoned children.
When the narrator sees Imogene crying, it invites her to look at the Christmas story from the perspective of someone who is moved by it for the first time. By the end of the story, the narrator wants the Herdmans to be involved every year. Everyone agrees that it was a special night without knowing why. The reason is that the Herdmans allowed them to see things from a new perspective. Rigid adherence to one point of view risks stagnation and ignorance.
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