Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The

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Not suitable under 5; parental guidance to 7 (violence, themes, language)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The
  • a review of Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 19 November 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 5 Not suitable due to violence, themes and language.
Children aged 5–7 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, themes and language.
Children aged 8 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The
Classification: G
Consumer advice lines: Very mild themes, violence and coarse language
Length: 99 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

As young Beth (Molly Belle Wright) recounts the story of the best Christmas Pageant her small hometown of Emmanuel ever put on, she begins by introducing the Herdmans, a group of siblings who have terrorised the town for years. Abandoned by their father and neglected by their mother, siblings Ollie (Essek Moore), Claude (Matthew Lamb), Leroy (Ewan Wood), Ralph (Mason D Nelligan) and Gladys (Kynlee Heiman) are known as the ‘worst children in the history of the world’. But no one is worse than their older sister Imogene (Beatrice Schneider). Beth and the other kids are tyrannised at school and a little white lie leads the Herdmans to church, where preparations are beginning for the annual Christmas Pageant. When the pageant director is injured and unable to coordinate the event, Beth’s mum Grace (Judy Greer) volunteers to take her place. The Herdmans decide they want to play the main roles in the Christmas Pageant and threaten the other children to the point that no one dares to defy them. Stuck with a destructive cast who don’t know the Bible story and a town full of angry parents and unhappy children, Grace does her best to embody the Christmas spirit and to share the story of Jesus with those who need it most.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Family breakdown; Neglect; Bullying; Intimidation and manipulation.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • The Herdman boys yell, with unconcealed rage, at teachers and an old lady.
  • The Herdmans set fire to a tool shed.
  • Ollie brings a demonic cat into school for ‘show and tell’. The cat destroys the special ‘show and tell’ items the other children bring in, and damages the classroom causing everyone to flee in panic.
  • Imogene takes a precious locket from around Beth’s neck.
  • The Herdmans steal lunches from children.
  • The Herdmans punch students in the stomach for not having candy.
  • Leroy Herdman repeatedly steals the dessert out of a boy’s lunch box.
  • One character shoves another character.
  • Imogene steals the money people have donated for Jesus.
  • Imogene threatens to stab a pussy willow into someone’s ear and lodge it so deep that it will never come out. She is rumoured to have done this before, and a child is shown in hospital as doctors try desperately to remove something from the side of his head.
  • The Herdmans gang up on the other children and throw snowballs at them.
  • The Herdmans repeatedly mention the idea of burning King Harrod alive.
  • The Herdmans appear to threaten and menace people simply by their presence.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

  • Nothing further noted for this age group.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Though not scary, some children may be confused or distressed by the dirty and dilapidated state of the Herdmans’ house, the fact that the mother is never around and that the children have next to nothing.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

  • None noted.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • One child is horrified by the mention of Mary’s pregnancy and she tells her disapproving mother.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • The Herdmans are rumoured to repeatedly take the Lord’s name in vain.
  • Shut up!
  • Stupid
  • Stuff it
  • Dumbbell
  • Jerks
  • My God! (used as an exclamation)
  • Dummy.

In a nutshell

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a warm-hearted drama about the true meaning of Christmas. The film is well-cast and contains powerful messages about forgiveness, becoming a better person, and seeing the world through the eyes of those who don’t see it as you do. It is best suited to audiences over the age of 7.

The main messages from this movie are that Jesus was born for everyone. He doesn’t belong simply to his faithful followers, he came for the sinners and most especially for the children; and that it is His life and His teachings of love and kindness that have the power to spread and transform the hearts of everyone, even those who believe they have no need of such things.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Compassion
  • Forgiveness
  • Trust
  • Prayerfulness
  • Courage
  • Faith.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of giving others a chance to prove themselves and their self-worth, and treating them with respect and understanding no matter how they treat you.