{"id":30917,"date":"2023-12-19T09:59:39","date_gmt":"2023-12-19T14:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=30917"},"modified":"2023-12-19T17:40:15","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T22:40:15","slug":"the-chosen-releases-third-christmas-special-holy-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/12\/the-chosen-releases-third-christmas-special-holy-night.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;The Chosen&#8217; Releases Third Christmas Special &#8216;Holy Night&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_30959\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30959\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/12\/holy-night-special-01_credit-the-chosen-youtube.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30959\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/12\/holy-night-special-01_credit-the-chosen-youtube.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30959\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Chosen \/ YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The beloved series \u201cThe Chosen\u201d has released its third Christmas special, \u201cChristmas with The Chosen: Holy Night.\u201d The Christmas special ran through Dec. 17 and featured special guest performances by Andrea and Matteo Bocelli, Zach Williams, Matt Maher, Brandon Lake, the Bonner Family, One Voice Children\u2019s Choir and Joy to the World.<\/p>\n<p>The fictional drama is based on Jesus\u2019 life and His disciples, and the Christmas special mixes \u201cThe Shepherd,\u201d the pilot episode of the series, with \u201cThe Messenger.\u201d The special features footage filmed by series creator Dallas Jenkins that was part of a church-related project he never anticipated showing beyond the wall of his house of worship.<\/p>\n<p>Jenkins said in an Instagram post announcing the special, \u201cOver six years ago, I made a little short film on my friend\u2019s farm in Illinois. Entitled: \u2018The Shepherd.\u2019 It was about the birth of Christ from the perspective of the shepherds, and it was only intended for my church\u2019s Christmas Eve service. It ultimately ended up launching \u2018The Chosen.\u2019 A few years later, with many more resources, we did \u2018The Messengers,\u2019 a special episode about the birth of Christ from the perspective of Mary and Joseph.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added, \u201cThis year, I had an interesting idea; what if we combine the two? I didn\u2019t think it would work great, but it might be an interesting experiment. When Amanda and I saw the first rough cut, we were so moved. It does work, and the nativity story took on even more relevance. I can\u2019t wait for you to see it in theaters and ultimately start a new Christmas tradition.\u201d The fourth season of \u201cThe Chosen\u201d will be\u00a0released\u00a0in theaters starting on Feb. 1, 2024, and subsequently released on a variety of streaming platforms, including the free Chosen app.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OzbnoMVQAzg?si=l8-gycly5Qnj3g0p\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The series has received\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/culture\/archive\/2021\/06\/the-chosen-jesus-tv-show\/619306\/\">high praise<\/a>\u00a0based on its production value and how the scripts follow the lives of Jesus\u2019 disciples based in part on biblical text and fictional storylines added to depict these historical accounts and draw viewers\u2019 interest in learning more about the Savior by cracking open their Bible.\u00a0Katherine Warnock, vice president of original content, told\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/faith\/2023\/12\/12\/hit-christian-show-the-chosen-releasing-christmas-special-this-week\/\">The Dallas Morning News<\/a>, \u201cThe hope is that the new special reminds viewers of the meaning behind the Christmas season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She added, \u201cOur hope is that families, friends, communities will be able to gather and have that time together where they\u2019re like, \u2018OK, we\u2019re reminded about what this season is about, and we\u2019re thankful. This is what we need in Hollywood. We need that raw, authentic, gritty, low-production value mixed with the beauty of high-production value. There\u2019s something so human about it. It\u2019s not perfect, but it\u2019s delightful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The beloved series \u201cThe Chosen\u201d has released its third Christmas special, \u201cChristmas with The Chosen: Holy Night.\u201d The Christmas special ran through Dec. 17 and featured special guest performances by Andrea and Matteo Bocelli, Zach Williams, Matt Maher, Brandon Lake, the Bonner Family, One Voice Children\u2019s Choir and Joy to the World. The fictional drama&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":30959,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3388,3],"tags":[4674,4683],"class_list":["post-30917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-faith-based","category-movies","tag-christmas-with-the-chosen","tag-the-chosen"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&#039;The Chosen&#039; Releases Third Christmas Special &#039;Holy Night&#039;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The well-known series &quot;The Chosen&quot; released their third Christmas special, &quot;Christmas with The Chosen: Holy Night,&quot; featuring special guest performances.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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