38 pages • 1 hour read
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
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Chapter 5 Summary
When the narrator’s father agrees that it would be reasonable to assume that someone would let Mary and Joseph into the inn, she thinks of how unusual it is that he shares the Herdmans’ perspective.
The narrator’s mother says that whatever else is true, “They picked out the right villain—that must mean something” (50). They don’t know anything else about Herod, but the Herdmans want to research him at the library. Mrs. Graebner is the librarian. When Imogene says she wants to read about Jesus, Mrs. Graebner almost retires, knowing she will never have a better moment.
After they do their research, the Herdmans want to end the pageant with Herod being strung up from the gallows. They say he killed lots of people, including his wife. Imogene has a different interpretation of the role of Mary. She creates a loud, assertive, protective Mary. She doesn’t trust the Wise Men and thinks they’ll tattle to Herod because Leroy says they might do it for a reward. This makes the narrator think. If the Wise Men told on Jesus, he wouldn’t have lived. That one small detail could have changed history. There wouldn’t have been a pageant—or a holiday—if there had been no Jesus.
They don’t have a baby to use for the manger because everyone withdrew their infants when the Herdmans entered the pageant. Imogene says she’ll steal a baby at the grocery store, but the narrator’s mother suggests using a doll instead. Imogene agrees since dolls can’t bite.
Chapter 6 Summary
A group of ladies are rehearsing the potluck during the last pageant rehearsal. Although it’s a dress rehearsal, at least half the kids forget their costumes or never had them. Charlie always wears his father’s bathrobe to play a shepherd. Alice is all dolled up, hoping to steal the Mary role at the last moment as if she is an alternate at an athletic event.
Everyone misses their cues. Imogene holds a flower urn instead of a doll. Half the kids sing the wrong song. Then, the narrator’s mother notices that Imogene’s ears are pierced. Imogene admits that Gladys pierced them, and Imogene can’t take the earrings out or the holes will close. Then, Imogene says she wants to be the one who names Jesus—and she would call him Bill. Mother says the Angel told Mary the baby’s name. Alice observes and writes some notes.
Imogene argues when the Angel says “Unto you a child is born” because the baby was born to Mary (64). The narrator says Jesus belongs to everyone, but Imogene still doesn’t understand why they didn’t let Mary name her baby.
They take a five-minute break, which then stretches to 15 minutes. Imogene smokes a cigar in the women’s restroom. When Mrs. McCarthy smells the smoke, she calls the fire department. Everyone evacuates in costume when the fire truck arrives. The Herdmans assume it’s all their fault and leave. Alice gives her mother her notes, and Mrs. Wendleken calls everyone to complain. Reverend Hopkins is disturbed by the reports he hears and asks the narrator’s mother if they should cancel the pageant. She says no and maintains that it will still be the best pageant ever. Hopkins worries that no one will come, but he’s wrong. The narrator knows that everyone will come to watch the Herdmans.
Chapter 7 Summary
The narrator’s mother forgets to fix supper on the night of the pageant, another tradition that her husband has come to expect. She worries because they never had a full dress rehearsal from start to finish.
During the pageant, Mary and Joseph don’t enter on cue. When Ralph and Imogene finally step out onto the stage, they look confused, as if they’re out of place: “It suddenly occurred to me that this was just the way it must have been for the real Holy Family, stuck away in a barn by people who didn’t much care what happened to them” (72).
Imogene carries the baby on her shoulder and pats him on the back, burping him before laying him in the manger, which bothers Alice. The narrator finds it reasonable to think that Jesus could have had colic or been a fussy baby: “After all, that was the whole point of Jesus—that he didn’t come down on a cloud like something out of ‘Amazing Comics,’ but that he was born and lived…a real person” (74).
Gladys Herdman pushes the other angels and shepherds out of the way and shouts the good news of Jesus’s birth to the shepherds. The Wise Men march up the aisle after three more carols. The narrator sees that Leroy is carrying a ham. He brought the ham that was put in the Herdmans’ Christmas food basket, which came from the church’s charitable works committee. Alice is annoyed and claims they stole it, but the narrator is impressed by the gesture, and ham seems like a better gift than oils.
The Wise Men sit in the crowd and listen to the remaining songs instead of leaving as usual. The narrator thinks it’s appropriate for them to listen and rest after their long journey. She thinks the Herdmans improved the pageant by acting naturally, like real people.
For the first time, she wishes the pageant would last longer. She thinks of the alternatives to the Christmas story that the Herdmans might portray in the future. As they sing “Silent Night,” she is shocked to see Imogene crying: “Well. It was the best Christmas pageant we ever had. Everybody said so, but nobody seemed to know why” (77). She thinks Imogene looks like she came to understand God, Jesus, and the Christmas story all at once: “This was the funny thing about it. For years, I’d thought about the wonder of Christmas and the mystery of Jesus’ birth and never really understood it. But now, because of the Herdmans, it didn’t seem so mysterious after all” (79).
The Herdmans refuse to take the ham back since it belongs to Jesus. However, Imogene asks the narrator’s mother for a set of Bible-story pictures. She finds a picture of Mary, takes it, and says the picture is “exactly right” (80). Imogene likes the clean, pink, beautiful Mary in the picture. The narrator knows the reality of that night would have been grimy, and Mary was probably in a state like Imogene. As they walk home, she thinks about Gladys shouting, “Hey! Unto you a child is born!” (80).
Chapters 5-7 Analysis
The narrator’s father is curious about the Herdmans and the rehearsal. When he asks his wife for a summary, she says, “Just suppose you had never heard the Christmas story, and didn’t know anything about it, and then somebody told it to you. What would you think?” (49). Her question has deeper implications than are clear at first. Many people of faith were raised in their religion. Parents try to pass their values on to their children, and their children will hopefully have better lives as a result. The Herdmans do not have parents who teach them a belief system of any sort. They can legitimately hear about Christian doctrine and lore for the first time. When the narrator’s mother asks her question, it is more than a question about tradition. Just as it would be possible to imagine never having seen a dog, it is hard for people raised in church to imagine (or remember) never having heard the Christmas story. It explains reality for some, while others view it as superstition or question its historical veracity, to say nothing of its metaphysical claims to Christ’s divine origins.
The narrator notices that the Herdmans pay close attention: “They showed up at rehearsals, right on time, and did just what they were supposed to do. But they were still Herdmans, and there was at least one person who didn’t forget that for a minute” (53). Alice scrutinizes and observes, hoping to cause trouble and reclaim her role. She suffers from narrow Perspective and Judgment, unwilling to let go of her resentment. On the other hand, the narrator’s father—perhaps because he was never invested in the pageant previously—understands why the Herdmans think someone would have given Mary and Joseph a room.
Imogene’s commitment to the role is honest and assertive:
Since none of the Herdmans had ever gone to church or Sunday school or read the Bible or anything, they didn’t know how things were supposed to be. Imogene, for instance, didn’t know that Mary was supposed to be acted out a certain way—sort of quiet and dreamy and out of this world. The way Imogene did it, Mary was a lot like Mrs. Santoro at the pizza parlor (56).
Imogene doesn’t act according to Tradition because she has none. Rather, she and her siblings upend the pageant traditions in ways that lead the narrator—and presumably others in the audience—to gain a new perspective on the Christmas story. Instead of a baby, Imogene uses a doll but endows it with humanity by burping it, which makes the narrator see Jesus as a real baby. Imogene’s distrust that the Wise Men would not tell Herod the truth encourages the narrator, and thus, readers, to consider what would have happened if the Wise Men had betrayed Jesus. When Imogene and Ralph, as Mary and Joseph, appear confused, they bring an honest humanity to the situation, leading the narrator to observe that it was probably bewildering to the young couple. Finally, Imogene’s tears lend an authenticity to the story that makes the narrator wish the pageant were longer and helps her understand the mystery of Christmas a bit more.
Imogene comes the closest to the theme of Redemption. At the end of the pageant, the narrator sees something surprising:
Everyone sang ‘Silent Night,’ including the audience. We sang all the verses too, and when we got to ‘Son of God, Love’s pure light,’ I happened to look at Imogene and I almost dropped my hymn book on a baby angel. Everyone had been waiting all this time for the Herdmans to do something absolutely unexpected. And sure enough, that was what happened. Imogene Herdman was crying. In the candlelight her face was all shiny with tears and she didn’t even bother to wipe them away. She just sat there—awful old Imogene—in her crookedy veil, crying and crying and crying (77).
Imogene’s earrings may give a clue to her emotional state. She doesn’t say why she pierced her ears, but it is reasonable to argue that, despite her ragged clothes and unkempt appearance, she wanted to look as pretty as she knew how to for the role. Earrings are an ornament, and Imogene goes through mild physical pain to pierce her ears for the pageant.
When the narrator sees Imogene crying, she doesn’t give her thoughts on exactly what Imogene might be feeling, but she says it looks like a person who has discovered God and Christmas all at once. The narrator knows she is looking at something different that exists outside of their traditions and independent of their perspectives. It is something like redemption. This changes her perspective for the future:
As far as I’m concerned, Mary is always going to look a lot like Imogene Herdman—sort of nervous and bewildered, but ready to clobber anyone who laid a hand on her baby. And the Wise Men are always going to be Leroy and his brothers, bearing ham (80).
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