Christmas with the Chosen: Holy Night Parent Guide

It’s the “reason for the season” – the birth of Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem. Christmas with the Chosen: Holy Night is the latest cinematic retelling of this tale, done with earnestness and plenty of extraneous material.

If you live outside of the world of Christian media, you may be unaware of The Chosen, a multi-season series of the life and mission of Jesus Christ. I have only watched one episode, but I have friends and family who are devoted viewers. The series has lots of non-canonical material, but its storylines are not incongruent with the scriptural message it’s trying to share.

Christmas with the Chosen: Holy Night should not be viewed as a feature film; rather, it’s more of a seasonal special for fans of the show. This production reworks two of the series’ older, shorter versions of the Christmas story – one told from the perspective of Mary and Joseph (Sara Anne and Raj Bond), and the other a tale of a fictional shepherd (Aaron Himelstein) who crosses their path. The two narratives come together and result in a tender, heartfelt story of the birth of Jesus.

The nativity story is the highlight of the show, but it is overwhelmed by a wide variety of other material. There are three mini-sermons (referred to by the hosts as “monologues”), a half-dozen or so music videos of Christmas songs, and some strong encouragement to go online and buy franchise merchandise. (This feels a bit grubby, but I guess filthy lucre is an inescapable requirement for filmmaking, even for Christian projects.) The good news about this varied content is that you can be running late, wrestling with kids, or lined up at the concession and you don’t need to worry about missing anything important. In the theater I attended, showtime was at 7:00 pm, but there was no sign of the Christmas story until 7:49. That’s a whole lot of filler.

It’s possible that I’m being Pharisaical here and that my movie critic brain is blunting my sensitivity to the production’s goals. What I perceive as bloat could easily charm other viewers who would enjoy the enthusiastic music videos and sincere monologues/sermons. I can say that the movie is well made, with a good cast and reasonably good dialogue. It’s squeaky clean, consistently joyful, and suitable for any viewer old enough to sit still for two hours. As Bible adaptations go, this one is on the top tier. My only real complaint is that the message is better than the movie. As with most other film adaptations, the book is better.