Why Dallas Jenkins Poured Decades of Prayer Into His New Christmas Movie

Published: November 7, 2024

Why Dallas Jenkins Poured Decades of Prayer Into His New Christmas Movie

By Movieguide® Contributor

Dallas Jenkins discussed the making of his new movie, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER, and how 20 years of prayer and faithfulness led to him creating the story of his dreams.

“Twenty years ago, Amanda brought the book home from Pottery Barn…I remembered it as a kid, but I didn’t remember a whole lot about it, so we bring the book home,” Jenkins told Phil Robertson’s “Unashamed” podcast. “So I started reading, and it has a similar start to the movie, you know, the first sentence of the book is ‘The Herdmans were absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world. They lied, they stole, they smoked cigars, even the girls.’”

THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER is based on the 1972 Barbara Robinson classic kids’ story by the same name.

“So I started to chuckle, and I’m laughing in the first couple chapters, well then fairly early on, I get emotional just from these hints that [the author] would drop…” Jenkins continued. “So then we get to the end of the book, the last chapter, I can’t read it. I am crying so hard, tears are streaming on my face — our little kids were so confused, like, what’s going on — Amanda goes, ‘Give me the book, I’ll read it.’ So she takes it and starts weeping. I take it back from her. So we’re trading the book sentence by sentence because the ending just ties so much together.”

“And you see the church learns from the Herdmens because of their outsider perspective…and that brings you closer to the heart of the Gospel, the heart of the Christmas story than even those of us in our more suburban visual of it and how much we’ve taken the story for granted,” he added.

After that experience, Jenkins got extremely fired up to create the story, and even after he found out the rights were already owned by a major studio, he believed he would be the one to create the movie. Jenkins placed a weekly reminder in his calendar to pray for THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER, and every year he had a meeting with the owners of the rights to see where the movie was at.

Throughout the years, the major studios’ rights to make the movie would expire, but the owners of the rights would hand them back over to the studios, rather than work with Jenkins. It wasn’t until the success of THE CHOSEN, however, that the rights owners finally trusted Jenkins with the story.

“So a couple years go by, and this is just a few years ago now, I check in again, I go, ‘It’s Dallas. Time for my annual check-in, you know. What’s the situation.? He goes, ‘Funny you should check in, a week ago, the studio forgot to renew the rights and now they’re back with us. The studio really wants to renew them, but we’ve been frustrated it’s been taking so long,’” Jenkins recalled.

“And he goes, ‘Just a couple days ago, my mom called me out of the blue, she’s in her 70s, and she said, “Have you heard of this show called THE CHOSEN?”’ And he goes, ‘Funny you should say that, the creator of the show is always bugging me about getting the rights to the story. She goes, “You better give him the rights. He’s the only one who can make this movie.’” And so he’s like, ‘I have got to listen to my mom,’” Jenkins continued.

The rest is history for Jenkins as he quickly got to work creating the movie he had dreamed of in his head hundreds of times. Now just a few years later, THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER is ready to hit theaters tomorrow. The movie is perfect for Christmas as it is wildly entertaining, fit for all audiences and includes the story of the Gospel and Jesus’ birth. A portion of Movieguide®’s review reads:

THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER is slightly slow in the beginning. However, it has entertaining and funny moments. Even better, the ending is heart-rending, powerful and uplifting. So, bring your tissues or handkerchief. THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER has a strong Christian, moral worldview. It extols Jesus, who transforms your life, love thy neighbor, and the true meaning of Christmas. There are some light profanities, but they’re rebuked. Also, the main message in THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER is anyone can experience God’s love and be transformed into a better person when they follow Jesus.

“It really does feel like a traditional Hollywood film that you can see in theaters and yet in it, and strongly in it, is this very explicit a message about the birth of Christ and so I think it’s unique in that way and I think that Movieguide® viewers are especially going to appreciate it,” Jenkins told Movieguide®.