Sermon Illustrations on Christmas Gift-Giving

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Background

Christmas: A Tradition of Gift-Giving

While Christmas traditions vary the world over, gift-giving is a central practice just about anywhere Christ’s birth is celebrated. Sometimes gifts are exchanged on December 6, the feast day of Saint Nicholas, and sometimes on Twelfth Night, the last day of Christmas, but most commonly on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, the official liturgical start of the season. Many people look to the gifts of the Magi as the original inspiration for Christmas gift-giving. But how the Magi’s gifts of gold frankincense, and myrrh for the Christ child transformed into the gift-giving extravaganza Christmas has become is a long and complicated story. A few high points are worth noting.

Before the birth of Christ, gift-giving was common in the Roman Empire to mark the start of the New Year. When the date of the Christmas feast was set on December 25, it was situated closely to an established gift-giving occasion in the surrounding culture. It makes some sense, then, for the gift-giving practice to migrate to Christmas once the date was recognized.

Then, in the fourth century, Nicholas the bishop of Myra in Asia Minor became renowned for his sanctity and generosity, especially his gifts to poor families and children.

One story has him dropping gold coins in a poor family’s stockings while they dried by the hearth. Tradition says the reason for the gift was the provision of suitable dowries so the family’s three daughters could marry. Due to his beloved memory, the day of Nicholas’s death, December 6, became a traditional date of giving gifts to children in his honor. Many families leave out their shoes the night of December 5 so Saint Nicholas can fill them with sweets and small gifts overnight. Saint Nicholas is, of course, the historical basis for the myth of Santa Claus, popularized by Clement Clarke Moore’s poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas / The Night Before Christmas” (1822) and clever retail advertising campaigns.

The Dicey Side of Christmas

Christmas (a shortened form of “Christ’s mass”) has been an embattled holiday for much of its history— and not just because talking heads on TV like to argue about the “war on Christmas” every year. The truth is, long before Black Friday sales and seasonal Starbucks cups, many Christians (yes, Christians) viewed Christmas as a thoroughly debauched and godless season. With all the raucous drinking, public carousing, and even violence, many reasoned that genuine Christians would never join in such immoral and irresponsible revelry.

In addition, some of the symbols and rituals of Christmas seem disconnected from the true ‘reason for the season”; many are thought to be thoroughly pagan in origin.

… As Christianity spread out from the Middle East, becoming the established religion of Europe, the observance of Christmastide slowly evolved into a twelve-day spree of merriment and mischief-making. How these celebrations developed through the ages is a long and fascinating tale. For our purposes, it helps to know that most of the population lived by agricultural rhythms. Since planting and harvesting were completed in spring, summer, and fall, wintertime coincided with the cessation of labor (including laying off seasonal workers) and slaughtering of livestock. Thus, winter was a natural time for relaxing, feasting, and, in the midst of widespread idleness, troublemaking. And it just happens that all of this was taking place during Christmastide.

In the medieval period, especially, Christmas developed into a carnivalesque time for turning hierarchies and social conventions on their heads. Peasants went about demanding gifts from lords, threatening violence and looting if they weren’t satisfied. (Remnants of this practice can still be heard in the lyrics to “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”: “O, bring us some figgy pudding, And bring it right here! I We won’t go until we get some, So bring it right here!”)

Servants dressed up as their masters and lampooned them publicly while men disguised themselves as women, parading through the streets drinking and caroling.

The Origin of Santa Claus and Stockings

The man behind the unlikely tradition of Christmas stockings is usually thought to have been Nikolaos of Myra. He was a Greek Christian who became bishop of Myra, a city of Asia Minor. Nikolaos, or Saint Nicholas as he became known, was a kind man, and his faith was such that he became known as Nicholas the Wonderworker for the miracles he performed. The title “Saint Nicholas” was expressed in Dutch as Sinterklass, and this came into American English as “Santa Claus.” Nicholas’s personality and piousness was such that he is revered by both Catholic and Protestant churches…

Bishop Nicholas…was wandering through town one evening, according to legend, when he overheard a father’s lament. His three daughters all had men they wanted to marry, but he couldn’t provide them with dowries, so the weddings couldn’t go ahead. Nicholas waited until the middle of the night then slipped into the man’s house. He carried with him three bags of gold, one for each daughter. Looking around for a place to put them, he spotted the daughters’ stockings hanging over the fire to dry. He left the bags of gold in the stockings—and a Christmas tradition was born!

David McLaughlan, The Top 40 Traditions of Christmas: The Story Behind the Nativity, Candy Canes, Caroling, and All Things Christmas, Barbour Publishing, Inc.

Stories

Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree

God’s love for the vulnerable is illustrated well in the beloved animated film Charlie Brown’s Christmas. Who can forget the climactic moment when Linus with his stocking cap and blanket walks to the spotlight and recites a portion of Luke’s Gospel to explain the meaning of Christmas? But it’s the arc of the entire story that demonstrates God’s love so beautifully. Charlie Brown chooses the ugliest, most bedraggled tree for the Christmas play, to the chagrin of his peers. We might say Charlie Brown leaves the ninety-nine beautiful trees for the one lost and downtrodden tree.

But as the story progresses, Chuck’s instincts are proved correct. The ugly tree is made lovely by being beloved; the lowliest tree is made glorious by being chosen and set apart. I’ll admit I didn’t understand the point of this story as a child. I found the whole thing rather baffling, to be honest. But now I see the deep Christian wisdom in the cartoon. In Charlie Brown’s insistence on choosing the detestable tree to adopt and adorn, we get a small but vivid glimpse of God’s compassion for the overlooked and forgotten.

Luke’s version of the nativity, which Linus quotes so movingly, further elaborates on this theme. In Luke 2, Joseph and Mary are forced to leave their hometown due to the emperor’s desire for a census of the empire. “So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child” (Luke 2:4-5).

The Christmas Gift

A preaching professor at Harvard University tells the story of the year his 5-year-old son was working on an art project in his kindergarten class. It was made of plaster, resembled nothing in particular, but with some paint, sparkle and time in a kiln, it was ready to be wrapped as a gift. He wrapped it himself, and was beside himself with excitement. It would be a gift for his father, one three months in the making.

Early in December, when the child could hardly contain the secret, the last day of school finally came. All the parents arrived for the big Christmas play, and when the students left for home, they were finally allowed to take their ceramic presents home. The professor’s son secured his gift, ran toward his parents, tripped, and fell to the floor. The gift went airborne, and when it landed on the cafeteria floor, the shattering sound stopped all conversations. It was perfectly quiet for a moment, as all involved considered the magnitude of the loss. For a 5-year-old, there had never been a more expensive gift. He crumpled down on the floor next to his broken gift and just started crying.

Both parents rushed to their son, but the father was uncomfortable with the moment. People were watching. His son was crying. He patted the boy on the head and said, “Son, it’s OK – it doesn’t matter.” His wife glared at the great professor. “Oh yes, it matters,” she said to both of her men, “Oh yes, it does matter.” She cradled her son in her arms, rocked him back and forth, and cried with him.

In a few minutes, the crying ceased. “Now,” said the mother, “let’s go home and see what can be made with what’s left.” And so with mother’s magic and a glue gun, they put together from the broken pieces a multi-colored butterfly. Amazingly, the artwork after the tragedy was actually much more beautiful than what it had been in a pre-broken state.

At Christmas, the gift was finally given, and as long as he taught at Harvard, the professor kept the butterfly on his desk. It was a constant reminder that grief is real, and that loss hurts. It was also a reminder that from great loss, great beauty can eventually emerge.

Andy Cook

Joy Makers?

One day an ad from one of my favorite stores showed up in my email inbox. Splashed across the top in big letters was the phrase “JOY MAKERS.” Of course, the ad was pointing shoppers to deals on toys, electronics, appliances, and cozy styles. Our Generation dolls, child-size John Deere electric tractors, smart TVs, Fujifilm Polaroid-style cameras, fleece jammies, and blanket scarves—apparently this is the stuff joy is made of. The message was loud and clear: joy comes from having stuff. The pictures looked promising, but we all know better. Honestly, I love giving and receiving gifts.

It’s one of my top love languages. I love finding just the right gift for that wow factor or to make someone feel deeply loved. That Christmas I paid attention during all the gift-getting and unwrapping. As my daughters, nieces, and nephews tore through piles of presents, there was excitement. There was laughter and merriment, but it only lasted for a time. Even though I love gifts, I’ve realized through the years that no gift brings true lasting joy.

Our culture too often confuses joy with happiness. Joy is more nuanced than happiness. Joy emanates out of God’s unconditional and fierce love for us, while happiness can be fickle and fleeting, like a quickly forgotten Christmas present. In other words, joy is a state of being rather than an emotion.

Mary Carver, Courageous Joy: Delight in God through Every Season (An (In) Courage Bible Study, Revell, 2021.

Our Christmas is Complete

There is a story from Czech bishop Monsignor Hnilica of a Christmas Eve with Saint Teresa of Calcutta. There was a knock on the convent’s door during their simple but festive dinner, and the nun who went to answer the door returned with a basket covered in a cloth.

“A woman gave it to me, then rushed off,” she said—then added as she handed the basket to Teresa, “She was probably a benefactor who wanted to donate some food to us for Christmas.” Teresa’s eyes sparkled as she removed the cloth and lifted up a sleeping baby boy. “Jesus has arrived,” she said with a smile. The baby was only a few days old, and the boy’s mother had probably entrusted him to the nuns because she felt unable to raise him. The boy woke up and began to cry. Teresa said with tears in her eyes, “Look, now we can say that our Christmas is complete. Baby Jesus has come to us.”

Tsh Oxenreider, Shadow & Light: A Journey into Advent, Harvest House, 2020.

What Do You Want for Christmas?

What do you want for Christmas this year? If you were to ask a typical little boy, he’d probably give you two words: video games. There’s a little boy I know named Brian. For weeks he bugged his parents about getting a watch for Christmas. Finally his dad told him, “Brian, if you mention that watch again, you’re not going to get it. Quit bugging us!” One night Brian’s parents asked him to lead in prayer before dinner. Brian said, “I’d like to quote a Scripture verse before I pray. Mark 13:37: ‘I say unto you what I have already told you before—watch . . .’”

Taken from Rick Warren: On This Holy Night Ed. Thomas Nelson, 2013, pp. 71-73.

Analogies

The Great Exchange

The incarnation has often been described as “The Great Exchange,” whereupon God took on human form so that we might participate in God’s divine life (through the Holy Spirit). In a sermon on the nativity by John Chrysostom, this is how de describes the ineffable beauty of the incarnation:

The Ancient of Days has become an infant. He who sits upon the sublime and heavenly throne now lies in a manger. And he who cannot be touched, who is without complexity, incorporeal, now lies subject to human hands. He who has broken the bonds of sinners is now bound by an infant’s bands. But he has decreed that the ignominy shall become honor, infamy be clothed with glory, and abject humiliation the measure of his goodness. For this he assumed my body, that I may become capable of his word; taking my flesh, he gives me his spirit; and so he bestowing and I receiving, he prepares for me the treasure of life.

John Chrysostom, “The Joys of Christmas”, Quoted in Vassilios Papavassiliou, Meditations for Advent; Preparing for Christ’s Birth.

Letters to Santa

“Dear Santa, there are three little boys who live at our house. There is Jeffrey; he is two. There is David; he is four. And there is Norman; he is seven. Jeffrey is good some of the time. David is good some of the time. But Norman is good all of the time. I am Norman.”

“Dear Santa, you did not bring me anything good last year. You did not bring me anything good the year before that. This is your last chance. Signed, Alfred.”

Original Source Unknown

The Plane Is Coming

In rural Msinga, a municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, the highlight of Christmas Day festivities is when men, newly returned home from work in the big cities, gather to sing and dance. In call-and-response melodies, accompanied by energetic dancing, the men sing playfully of the holiday gifts they are expected to bring their families. “The plane I’ve bought for my darling is coming,” they sing. “You’ll get your stove this afternoon / not a coal one, darling, but a gas one… .The [temperature] setting will be just right.”

Amid the joy of returning home to family and friends, they humorously express the very real pressure of being able to provide the right gifts. …humans give gifts for a variety of not-so-noble reasons: as an effort to outdo others, in a bid to manipulate, as an attempt to assuage guilt, or out of a sense of obligation.

In our best moments, though, we give gifts as tangible expressions of love—not sentimental, soft-focused love, but clear-eyed, knowledgeable, active love. To love another is to will their good. Gift-giving, then, is best practiced as an expression of this goodwill. And when done in this way, Christmas presents can, in a very small way, demonstrate the great exchange-—the ultimate expression of love that lies at the heart of new creation in Christ.

Humor

Letters to Santa

“Dear Santa, there are three little boys who live at our house. There is Jeffrey; he is two. There is David; he is four. And there is Norman; he is seven. Jeffrey is good some of the time. David is good some of the time. But Norman is good all of the time. I am Norman.”

“Dear Santa, you did not bring me anything good last year. You did not bring me anything good the year before that. This is your last chance. Signed, Alfred.”

Original Source Unknown

What Do You Want for Christmas?

What do you want for Christmas this year? If you were to ask a typical little boy, he’d probably give you two words: video games. There’s a little boy I know named Brian. For weeks he bugged his parents about getting a watch for Christmas. Finally his dad told him, “Brian, if you mention that watch again, you’re not going to get it. Quit bugging us!” One night Brian’s parents asked him to lead in prayer before dinner. Brian said, “I’d like to quote a Scripture verse before I pray. Mark 13:37: ‘I say unto you what I have already told you before—watch . . .’”

Taken from Rick Warren: On This Holy Night Ed. Thomas Nelson, 2013, pp. 71-73.