Christmas With The Chosen
Looking for a perfect way to dive into Advent and kick off the Christmas season?
Find a way to go see The Chosen in theaters!
We started watching The Chosen back in February of 2020. Right before the world went nuts. Within 4 episodes, we decided to buy it on blu ray for ourselves, and for like 10 other people we wanted to gift it to, as well.
And someday in the near future, I will talk more about the show as a whole. But suffice to say that this show… this show, y’all… it’s beautiful. It’s epic. It’s life-changing and soul-shattering. It is everything a great show—a great story—should be, and more.
The bar for Christian entertainment has always been frustratingly low in my opinion. I don’t partake of a lot of it, because bad writing or bad acting tends to annoy me, and in Christian tv and movies, there tends to be a lot of both.
Not so with The Chosen
My husband is even pickier about this sort of thing than I am. And I often tease him about disliking movies that make him “feel things” (which definitely isn’t fair, because he loves movies like Dreamer and It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle) but I tell you this so that when I tell you that this is his favorite show… it should hold some weight.
The Chosen is exquisite. The production value is off-the-charts. The acting and writing is simply breath-taking. I love everything about this show. I love the music, I love the costumes, I love the actors and actresses. I love the dialogue. I love the humor. Yes, I said humor!
I love the way this show portrays Jesus and the disciples as real human beings. Yes, Jesus is God. And yes, He was perfect. But he was also human. And the disciples and Mary and Joseph were human. They scraped their knees. They hit their thumbs with hammers. They made jokes. The disciples messed up. They doubted. They struggled. Just like us. And Jesus was there for them… just like He is for us. He met them where they were at. He didn’t hang out high up on a mountain and demand that we climb up to Him…. no… He came down to us. And this show demonstrates that beautifully.
get ready for an overabundant use of the word “beautiful”
You know how the other day I was complaining that tv and movies don’t have any soul anymore?
The Chosen has it in bucketfuls.
Seriously, if you haven’t watched this show… you are missing out.
But today isn’t about the show as a whole. I want to talk about the Christmas Special!
Right now, around the United States, you can go see The Chosen IN THEATERS!
That’s right. I said “IN THEATERS!”
My family and I went to see it last night, and it was…. so so so much fun. I haven’t cared to go to the theater in a very long time. Not because I have anything against theaters, I love going to the theater. And I don’t have any concerns about That Which Will Not Be Named, either. But… I mean… there just hasn’t been anything worth going to see.
Until Now
Friends. This is worth every penny.
The first half of the 2-hour event is a gorgeous Christmas concert compilation of Christian artists (most of whom I had never heard of before, but several that I now want to look into more) singing Christmas carols in a neat sort of music-video style. Interspersed throughout these songs are short monologues from the artists themselves, as well as four of the actors from The Chosen, talking about the importance of Christmas, the beauty of what God has done for them personally, as well as for humanity as a whole.
Honestly, I kind of thought going into the evening that the “concert” would be the “boring part.”
I was wrong.
It was beautiful.
It was poignant.
Several of the monologues had me sitting there with tears running down my face.
I don’t want to spoil anything. I’m not even going to tell you which characters from the show give monologues… but I thought their choices were perfect.
And then… the concert ends and you get a brand-new full-length episode of The Chosen.
And friends… it was everything.
Best of all: You do not need to have seen a single episode of The Chosen in order to go enjoy this event.
I really don’t want to give too much away. And it’s hard, because I just want to shriek about this episode from the rooftops.
Obviously, it’s the Christmas story. You can probably guess that much from the images shown. The sweet, tender interactions between Mary and Joseph are absolutely beautiful and absolutely real. There isn’t a wasted word in this episode. Every line is filled to the brim with a sense of “WHOA” for the audience. Or at least, there was for me.
The difficulty of the long journey with a very pregnant woman. The dismay at finding no room at the place they intended to stay. The considerations of trying to have a baby in a stable. And the very real fears and worries that both characters struggle with throughout just made a story I’ve heard a thousand times come alive in a brand new way.
Add to that, the way that the show gently moves back and forth between the story of that first Christmas and then jumps 45-ish years into the future as Mary remembers those moments and shares them with someone else (no, I’m not telling who, go see it for yourself!)
And it was just… oh. Oh, so perfect.
I asked my 13-year old what I should say about Christmas With The Chosen, what she wished she had known before we went to see the movie, and she said, “It was beautiful. And honestly, I’m glad it was all a surprise. I wouldn’t tell them anything other than go see it.”
So there you have it.
Simple as that.
Go see it.
If you want an epic, awesome, beautiful event to kick off the Christmas season with… then I cannot recommend going to see this show highly enough!
It’s not in every theater, but hopefully it’s in one near you. Originally, this was only going to be playing in select theaters on Dec. 1 and 2, but they SOLD OUT in almost every location in just twelve hours! Which I think is so cool. So the theaters scrambled about and opened up more theaters and more dates and more showtimes, and it is now being shown through December 9th in most places, and I’ve even seen showtimes as late as December 13th.
So what are you waiting for?
Have you watched the show The Chosen?
Have you gone to see the Christmas special in theaters?
I’d love to hear your thoughts!