The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is relatively progressive for its time in terms of gender roles. In the opening description, the narrator is shocked that even the Herdman girls smoke cigars. Do the Herdmans have a hierarchy? Why or why not? If so, is it based on age or gender? Discuss. 

How did the toolhouse burn down, as explained in Chapter 1? Why is it significant that the Herdmans were experimenting with a chemistry set? 

Does the narrator’s family like the pageant? Would you say they actively dislike it, or is it something closer to indifference? What, if anything, do they look forward to in the pageant? What do they find tedious or exasperating about it?