Joshua Downes

Joshua Downes popped up in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (2024), and honestly, he made quite the impression. The movie spins around this chaotic, laugh-out-loud Christmas pageant that pretty much goes off the rails from the get-go. You’ve got the Herdman kids—probably the wildest, most infamous troublemakers in town—crashing the church’s annual show, and trust me, nobody was ready for that. Not the Sunday school moms, not the pastor, and certainly not the kids who actually wanted to be in the play. Downes nails his role, bringing this whole mix of confusion and hilarity to the table as the community tries to wrangle these out-of-control kids into acting like, well, angels. Everything just spirals into Christmas mayhem—the Herdmans don’t know the Christmas story, they steal all the good costumes, and they turn every rehearsal into a circus. But, bit by bit, things start to change. The Herdmans, for all their chaos, kinda force everyone to look at the pageant and the holiday itself in a new way. There are these little moments where people drop their guard, and—shockingly—some real heart sneaks in. Downes is right in the thick of it, showing how even the most unlikely folks can turn things around. By the end, it’s less about perfection and more about what Christmas is supposed to mean.