More Than What's Under the Tree
WRITER: Andy Brown December 12, 2024
More Than What’s Under the Tree
There are certain universal truths in the world that we all recognize in the world. Truths like you will eventually lose one sock in the laundry and be left with an odd number of socks in your drawer for the rest of your life, or the more money you spend on a pair of sunglasses, the faster they break.
It’s also a universal truth that kids love Christmas.
How could they not? They get an extended break from school, there’s a whole month of classic songs and media, they can see Christmas lights every day both inside and outside, and most obviously of all, they know that they get presents. And every kid loves presents.
As parents, it’s wonderful to see your kids get excited about presents, and about Christmas in general, but as Christians, we must also recognize our responsibility to help guide and focus their energy and attention to something more than what’s under the tree.
I’d like to offer a very simple framework to help our kids – and ourselves – think about what really makes Christmas special.
A Christmas Journey in Three Parts
In the days leading up to Christmas, there are three basic themes that can help our families focus on Christmas within a larger context. It is silly and foolish to treat Christmas as an isolated event, just one holiday that takes place every year and doesn’t affect anything else. The story of Jesus does not begin and end in the gospels; Jesus is present throughout the entire Biblical narrative, and Christmas is an important, but not a singular, part of that story. Most specifically, Christmas matters because the cross is coming.
So what are the themes we can use to set Christmas rightly and firmly within this larger context?
1. Joy
Talk to your kids about joy. Not happiness, that’s not the same thing. Happiness is what you feel when you open a present on the morning of December 25, but that feeling is gone on the morning of December 26. Joy is much more than that.
Happiness is a response to our circumstances, and because our circumstances change, our happiness does too. But joy is the response of a heart that finds satisfaction and contentment in the most fundamental purpose of our lives, which is to be in a special relationship with God and to reflect his character and glory throughout all creation. We can have that relationship, and therefore that joy, because Jesus makes it possible for us to be reconciled to our holy creator.
This is hard to grasp as an adult, much less as a child. And all too often, we can get wrapped up in our own desire for happiness and the pursuit to improve our circumstances. But God’s will for our lives is to seek him first and to trust that he will take care of the rest. As parents, we ought to help our kids to see Jesus in Christmas so that they can find their joy in him.
2. Peace
It’s really easy to think of the Christmas story and recall the phrase “peace on earth, good will to men.” And it’s just as easy to assume that peace means the absence of conflict. But if we think about this for more than a hot second, we will realize that if Jesus’ mission was to bring peace on earth and thus usher in an end to conflict, then his mission has been an unmitigated failure.
We can see this in our children’s lives. Kids can fight over the smallest of things. (Just listen to a child say “I’m not touching you!” and watch what happens next – it’s not peaceful.) This shallow understanding of peace as the absence of conflict is a child’s thinking, and we must help our children think past it. Put very simply, the peace that Jesus offers is first and formost a peace with God. As sinners, we are God’s enemies, but God loved us so much that, even though we are sinners, Christ came to this earth to die for us. We don’t have to be God’s enemies. We can have peace, and Christmas reminds us of that.
3. Grace
The tradition of giving presents at Christmas is possibly the most direct path into the hearts of children. Every child loves Christmas presents. And if we’re honest, so do grown ups, although we tend to be a bit more subtle about it. That and our Christmas presents tend to be more practical rather than fun as we get older. Getting older is boring.
But kids get excited about those wrapped boxes under the tree. Giving and getting presents is a wonderful thing, but I doubt that our children think much about the meaning of the gifts they get. I don’t blame them, it’s really hard to look past the fun of the present and the happiness of the moment and grasp the underlying significance of it all that makes it so special.
There are lots of reasons why gifts are special. A gift represents love and value; time and resources spent to give something to someone to show that we cherish them; the mystery of what lies beneath the wrapping paper; the fun of discovering what it is and then enjoying it. These reasons are typically lost on most kids, but perhaps it’s worth it to help them think beyond mere wrapping paper and tape.
Ask your children if they know why we give presents at Christmas. Where did that tradition come from? Why has humanity carried on this practice throughout generations? There are good answers, of course – we show people we love them, it makes us happy to give and to get presents, etc. But the reason for presents at Christmas is because God has already given us the greatest present of all in his son Jesus. We honor and reflect God’s giving nature by giving gifts ourselves.
This is the nature of grace. We don’t have to give presents. And when it comes to our kids, they don’t earn the presents we give them. We give them gifts not because they earned them somehow but because they are our children and we love them. God has done the same for us. We didn’t earn Jesus or the salvation he provides. But God gives us Jesus anyway. That’s grace. And it plays itself out millions of times over every December 25th whether we realize it or not.
So let’s realize it, and let’s help our kids realize it too. May the joy, peace, and grace of this season fill your hearts and your homes, now and always.
There are certain universal truths in the world that we all recognize in the world. Truths like you will eventually lose one sock in the laundry and be left with an odd number of socks in your drawer for the rest of your life, or the more money you spend on a pair of sunglasses, the faster they break.
It’s also a universal truth that kids love Christmas.
How could they not? They get an extended break from school, there’s a whole month of classic songs and media, they can see Christmas lights every day both inside and outside, and most obviously of all, they know that they get presents. And every kid loves presents.
As parents, it’s wonderful to see your kids get excited about presents, and about Christmas in general, but as Christians, we must also recognize our responsibility to help guide and focus their energy and attention to something more than what’s under the tree.
I’d like to offer a very simple framework to help our kids – and ourselves – think about what really makes Christmas special.
A Christmas Journey in Three Parts
In the days leading up to Christmas, there are three basic themes that can help our families focus on Christmas within a larger context. It is silly and foolish to treat Christmas as an isolated event, just one holiday that takes place every year and doesn’t affect anything else. The story of Jesus does not begin and end in the gospels; Jesus is present throughout the entire Biblical narrative, and Christmas is an important, but not a singular, part of that story. Most specifically, Christmas matters because the cross is coming.
So what are the themes we can use to set Christmas rightly and firmly within this larger context?
1. Joy
Talk to your kids about joy. Not happiness, that’s not the same thing. Happiness is what you feel when you open a present on the morning of December 25, but that feeling is gone on the morning of December 26. Joy is much more than that.
Happiness is a response to our circumstances, and because our circumstances change, our happiness does too. But joy is the response of a heart that finds satisfaction and contentment in the most fundamental purpose of our lives, which is to be in a special relationship with God and to reflect his character and glory throughout all creation. We can have that relationship, and therefore that joy, because Jesus makes it possible for us to be reconciled to our holy creator.
This is hard to grasp as an adult, much less as a child. And all too often, we can get wrapped up in our own desire for happiness and the pursuit to improve our circumstances. But God’s will for our lives is to seek him first and to trust that he will take care of the rest. As parents, we ought to help our kids to see Jesus in Christmas so that they can find their joy in him.
2. Peace
It’s really easy to think of the Christmas story and recall the phrase “peace on earth, good will to men.” And it’s just as easy to assume that peace means the absence of conflict. But if we think about this for more than a hot second, we will realize that if Jesus’ mission was to bring peace on earth and thus usher in an end to conflict, then his mission has been an unmitigated failure.
We can see this in our children’s lives. Kids can fight over the smallest of things. (Just listen to a child say “I’m not touching you!” and watch what happens next – it’s not peaceful.) This shallow understanding of peace as the absence of conflict is a child’s thinking, and we must help our children think past it. Put very simply, the peace that Jesus offers is first and formost a peace with God. As sinners, we are God’s enemies, but God loved us so much that, even though we are sinners, Christ came to this earth to die for us. We don’t have to be God’s enemies. We can have peace, and Christmas reminds us of that.
3. Grace
The tradition of giving presents at Christmas is possibly the most direct path into the hearts of children. Every child loves Christmas presents. And if we’re honest, so do grown ups, although we tend to be a bit more subtle about it. That and our Christmas presents tend to be more practical rather than fun as we get older. Getting older is boring.
But kids get excited about those wrapped boxes under the tree. Giving and getting presents is a wonderful thing, but I doubt that our children think much about the meaning of the gifts they get. I don’t blame them, it’s really hard to look past the fun of the present and the happiness of the moment and grasp the underlying significance of it all that makes it so special.
There are lots of reasons why gifts are special. A gift represents love and value; time and resources spent to give something to someone to show that we cherish them; the mystery of what lies beneath the wrapping paper; the fun of discovering what it is and then enjoying it. These reasons are typically lost on most kids, but perhaps it’s worth it to help them think beyond mere wrapping paper and tape.
Ask your children if they know why we give presents at Christmas. Where did that tradition come from? Why has humanity carried on this practice throughout generations? There are good answers, of course – we show people we love them, it makes us happy to give and to get presents, etc. But the reason for presents at Christmas is because God has already given us the greatest present of all in his son Jesus. We honor and reflect God’s giving nature by giving gifts ourselves.
This is the nature of grace. We don’t have to give presents. And when it comes to our kids, they don’t earn the presents we give them. We give them gifts not because they earned them somehow but because they are our children and we love them. God has done the same for us. We didn’t earn Jesus or the salvation he provides. But God gives us Jesus anyway. That’s grace. And it plays itself out millions of times over every December 25th whether we realize it or not.
So let’s realize it, and let’s help our kids realize it too. May the joy, peace, and grace of this season fill your hearts and your homes, now and always.