The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (1972 original; edició 1982)

Yes, I read it every Christmas, and it never stops being wonderful. ( )

I love this book. I truly enjoyed listening to narrator, Elaine Stritch. She was awesome! It was like tumbling back into childhood, sitting crisscrossed applesauce on the library floor enchanted by the children’s librarian. I highly recommend this version. If you have a reluctant reader, this story may be one that breathes a whisper of comedic magic into their ears. It makes me wish I had a carful of children, cocoa in the cup holders, listening while we drive around looking at Christmas lights.

I listened to my librarian back in 1973. I read the book various times after in the 1970’s. I read it again in the 1980’s to my oldest children and again in the 1990’s to my youngest. In 2008 I read it to my grandson. I read it again in 2015. Discovering this Audible version was a delight! I plan to listen to it again, this Christmas season, with more grandchildren and my great grandson. Instead of being in a car, we will meet by video call. The magic will still be there..as will our cups of cocoa and Christmas lights. ( )

1/1/2022 Just finished my annual rereading of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Still funny but this year it brought a tear to my eye as I realized how much the Herdmans changed. As the narrator's mother said that there was good deep down in the Herdmans, I saw that she was right. They changed. When it was all over, they would not take back their ham nor take the candy canes and little Bibles but all Imogene wanted was a picture of Mary. The Herdmans made the Nativity story realistic--refugees from another land, poor, alone, no place to go. Kings who are tired from their journey. It was a new way to see this story. And it is always worth rereading every Christmas. ( )

Read this series as a kid, always thought it was pretty funny (and I still do) but now as an adult I also worry about the Herdmans...they are terrible children but they are neglected and living in poverty so I really think the adults in their town could be a bit less judgey.

This first book is short and cute, and a pretty good Christmas story if you are into that sort of thing. ( )

I'm positive I read this in second or third grade and it was a delight to revisit it again. This is a book that could never be written now with kids smoking cigars add bullying run rampant in these pages. That being said it was a blast from the past and a look into a book and a childhood that is vastly different from modern times. The Herman kids are everyone's worst nightmares. They are bullies, they lie, steal, hit, and even smoke cigars. Kids and adults try to keep a wide berth. The weekends are the only time that kids get away from the Herdmans, they at least have Sunday school without those demons - that is until they eventually crash that party too. And what happens when they bully their way into the Christmas pageant. Will Christmas ever be the same again? Lots of fun. ( )