The above image is from the 1971 children's book The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. In it, the Herdman family- six delinquent young siblings- become involved in the Christmas play at a local church due to a misunderstanding. Many church members are scandalized by their participation but can't figure out how to eject the Herdmans without it looking like they're trying to discourage the children from attending church. This results in chaos as the Herdmans, who have basically raised themselves, don't even know the Christmas story and haven't the faintest idea how to comport themselves in church- or anywhere else. In the scene pictured above, at the weekly play practice Imogene Herdman is in the ladies washroom smoking a cigar during a break. Unfortunately, the ladies' group is also at the church that evening, doing some baking for a Christmas event. One of them enters the washroom and, seeing smoke, thinks the building is on fire and calls the fire department. The engines arrive and the building is evacuated, with kids in costumes and church ladies all milling about in confusion. Parents start arriving, panicked and upset because they don't know what's going on. The pastor runs down the street from the parsonage to find out what's happening, and his wife is mad because her husband is running about in his pyjamas. Then there actually is a fire because, in all the excitement, the ladies' cakes burn up in the church oven, so they're angry too. With the play practices a disaster and the church in an uproar, the pageant is in danger of being cancelled.
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