How Men Can Put Christ Back at the Center of Christmas Day

Episode Transcript
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Don Ross (00:01):
All right, men we're a couple days out from actual
Christmas, and if you're likeme, you're probably wondering
what has happened to theChristmas season and how did it
become so stressful and hectic,and in fact, isn't this season
supposed to actually be aboutChrist?
Where has any of that even beenin the Christmas season?
It's just felt like parties andgifts and materialism, and yet

(00:25):
you want it to feel like it'sactually worshipful and
meaningful.
If you're kind of caughtwondering what happened to
Christ in the middle ofChristmas, then I want to
actually give you somesuggestions today on how you can
make Christmas Day even moreworshipful and meaningful for
you and for your family.
So let's dive into that todayhere on the Manhood Tribe Show.

(00:47):
My name's Don.
It is really good to be with youjust a few days out from
Christmas if you're watchingthis video when it first airs.
If not, I hope that you'll pickup some good tips for this from
this video for next Christmasseason or sometime moving
forward, to just help you thinkabout how to make the most of a
season that really should becentered on something spiritual
and worshipful.

(01:07):
But we can just tend to getcaught up in the things that
aren't actually that.
Christmas is actually areligious holiday, believe it or
not, sometimes here in America,and I think broadly in the West.
Christmas just kind of becomesthis generic time of year that
gets wrapped up in all kinds ofother competing agendas that.

(01:28):
Aren't actually about anythingthat the holiday has to do with
this is a time that's meant tobe about Jesus, about
celebrating his birth and whathis incarnation, his coming into
the world as a human taking onflesh for our sakes, what that
means and what that does for usand for the rest of humanity
throughout history.

(01:49):
It is a special, special day,and yet it is so easy in our
culture right now for thatincredibly special.
Religious and spiritual meaningbehind Christmas to just get
washed away in the midst of thebusyness and the materialism and
the fun and the gifts and theparties and the everything else,

(02:09):
there's so much going on in thisseason.
Jesus isn't gonna really likeforce all of those things out of
the way so that you will payattention to him.
He wants to be invited into theseason so that you can really
enjoy him and make him yourpriority.
But you might be thinking, is ittoo late for me to do that?

(02:30):
I mean, here we are, Christmasday is knocking on our door and
maybe it's not felt that way atall for you this year around
Christmas season, it's feltanything but worshipful.
And so you might be wondering ifit's just too late, if you've
kinda lost your opportunity.
And I wanna say to you, no, itisn't.
As a man, as a husband, as adad, these are your

(02:51):
opportunities to be able toreally set the tone for
Christmas Eve and Christmas Dayand to make the most of them so
that they really do becomeChrist-centered and they become
the kind of worshipful.
Worshipful experience that youhope that they would be.
So let me give you some tips onsome ways that you can really
think about doing that.
Because here's the thing, andI'll say this is especially true

(03:11):
for dads and maybe even moreespecially true for dads with
young kids, that if you're inthat kind of season in your
life, yeah, life is just full.
Your kids schedules tend todictate the season.
Your kids' attitudes and theirabilities to handle certain
situations can often determinehow you have to handle those
situations.
And so, you know, just be awarethat that's the fact.

(03:31):
Whether that's fruit, whetherthat's the season of life that
you are in or not, you probablyhave competing agendas and
expectations on you as well.
And so just acknowledging thatthere's a lot going on is okay
to do.
It's okay to take the pressureoff of yourself and realize you
don't have to create the.
Perfect Christmas in order forit to be a good Christmas, in

(03:52):
order for it actually to feellike it aligns with the
priorities that you have in yourlife.
It can still be that way.
Even if there's some things thatdon't go exactly the way that
you would want them to, orthere's some expectations that
you have to take on that youdon't really would like to do.
There can still be moments ofwhat you want Christmas to
actually be, but it is gonnatake some intentionality for you

(04:13):
to be able to do that.
So let's talk about a few waysthat you could do that.
Let's start with Christmas Evenight, because this is for many
people where the worshipfulexperience probably actually
begins or find some of itsbiggest meaning.
If you're a churchgoer, youprobably are gonna attend some
kind of Christmas Eve worshipservice as a way of being able

(04:36):
to celebrate the Christmasseason and the arrival of Jesus
in his birth.
Now that's great, but that canalso just be kind of like
another box to check, right?
It can just be one more thing todo.
So how do you actually make itas something that isn't just
that?
Well, I think it's important,especially if you have a family,
to try to set the tone for whatthat's gonna be like both

(04:58):
before.
After the service, the serviceitself should probably be
meaningful and special for youand your family, or your loved
ones, or your friends or whoeveryou're attending with.
But the before and after is whatis actually going to make it the
most meaningful.
Before you might want to havesome time to just talk to your
family about what the service isall about.

(05:20):
Why do you celebrate Christmas?
What is going on right now thatwant, you want to make this a
really special occasion?
Why is this service differentthan any of the other church
services that you go tothroughout the year?
This can be a 30 secondconversation or it can be a 20
minute conversation.
It really doesn't matter as longas you're just kind of bringing
it up.
It helps set the tone foreverybody to be thinking about.

(05:44):
What going to the church serviceis actually for that.
It's not just one more thing todo on the calendar of events
that happens in December.
And then you wanna really makesome plans for what you're going
to do after the service.
If you've got a family with kidsand maybe you need to get home
and get kids to bed, that's justa part of it.
Okay.
Make plans for that and dosomething special at bedtime.

(06:05):
Maybe there's milk and cookies,maybe there's a Christmas story.
Maybe there's something that youcan kind of weave into that
tradition to make it specialfor.
If you're not somebody who has afamily at the moment and you're
just trying to figure out whatto do, uh, after a Christmas Eve
service, maybe you make someplans with some friends.
Let's, let's do a dinnertogether on Christmas Eve as a
way to be able to celebratesomething special.

(06:26):
You might not be able to go outto dinner, but you could do a
small and simple dinner atsomebody's home again.
Everybody is probably partiedout by this point in time, so
just do it as something that'ssimple.
You might, maybe everybody'salready had dinner, in fact, and
so you might just want to do adrink and a dessert as a way to
be able to celebrate somethingtogether and make it meaningful.

(06:48):
All right, and then on Christmasmorning is really when you want
to try to capitalize on settingthe tone for the day, and this
is really where you as the man,as the leader, as the pacesetter
for you and for your family, canactually bring about a
worshipful experience onChristmas.
Now, here's what I would say.
Here's the key.

(07:09):
Don't overdo it.
You don't have to preach an hourlong sermon or create, you know,
the perfect Christmas morningmoment in order for you to make
Christmas really be about Jesus.
But it is important to be ableto set the tone for the day.
And you might even want to letyour family know ahead of time,

(07:30):
Hey, here's how we're gonnastart out the day.
We're not just gonna start byripping into presents, okay?
That's not gonna be the firstthing that we do.
The first thing that we're gonnado is we're going to, and you
figure it out from there.
Maybe it's that you're going tosay a prayer together.
Maybe it's that you're going toread the Christmas story from
the Book of Luke to be able toremind yourselves of the story

(07:51):
of Jesus' birth.
Maybe you're going to light acandle and sing a Christmas
Carol.
Maybe if you celebrate that.
Advent season and follow theAdvent Reef, you're gonna light
the final advent candle andactually talk about what that
represents and why it'smeaningful.
So make it something simple.
Make it something small andlikely something brief to be

(08:13):
able to say, here's how we'regoing to set aside some time to
start the day off focused onJesus before we just go about
the things that arematerialistic.
And to that note.
Then if what you do after thatis move straight into gift
giving, which is most likely, ifyou've got a family with kids,
then figure out how you canstart into that gift giving

(08:34):
will.
Don't just let it be this freefor all tear into things.
Now, there might be a time forthat, but you can start it
differently than that.
You might say, everybody's gonnapick out one.
Present that they want topresent to someone else.
Okay, so it's, it's not aboutthem, it's about someone else in
the family.
They're gonna go pick out one ofmom's presents and say, mom, we

(08:56):
really want to see you open thisone first.
And then everybody gets toexperience mom opening that
present and enjoying her momentof being able to do that and
take time going around to eachmember of the family, doing that
one at a time so everybody getsa special moment.
Everybody gets some anticipationof what it's like to see someone

(09:18):
else enjoy a present instead ofjust them enjoying presents.
And then if from there you moveon to, okay, everybody can just
open whatever they wanna open,then that's great.
And maybe it becomes a littlebit of a terror in the house as
that happens.
But you know, sometimes thathappens on Christmas.
Maybe everybody's enjoying thatkind of slower rhythm,
especially if you've got olderkids or no kids in the house.

(09:38):
That might be a much.
Easier way to kind of take thegift giving rhythm is to go one
at a time and to present giftsto each other and watch somebody
enjoy opening them.
Okay?
Even just simple things likethat can change the rhythm can
change the pace can change thetone and the meaning of what
Christmas Day really looks like.

(10:00):
Then at some point in timeduring Christmas day, you do
want to have probably a mealthat you're celebrating with
family, with friends, withextended family.
And during that meal, you justwant to take some time to do
something that's meaningful.
Maybe that's sharing a word ofencouragement about the other
people at the table.
Maybe that's everybody taking,uh.
An opportunity to contribute tothe prayer before the meal where

(10:23):
they can express something thatthey're grateful for from the
past year.
Uh, maybe it's a moment toremember any kind of loss
throughout the year, even ifit's just a moment of silence to
mourn the things that have beenhard throughout the year, uh, to
give people an opportunity to beable to do that.
Whatever it is, you make it yourtradition, you make it yours,
but just do something that'sgoing to be simple and

(10:45):
straightforward and again,brief.
But it allows some meaning to bebrought into some of those
traditions so you're not justblowing through those things,
kind of getting through them andforgetting what they're about.
I will say that the mostmeaningful Christmases that I've
had with my family were the onesthat we just moved slowly.

(11:06):
We were intentional to have alittle bit of worship time
before we open presents.
We took present time at a littlebit of a slower pace.
We had brunch or lunch with ourfamily and that that was not a
super formal or dress up or highstress kind of situation, but it
was laid back and enjoyable.
And we had some time to be ableto say something meaningful

(11:28):
around the meal table and toactually appreciate what we
loved about the day.
And then the rest of the daycould be for resting, for
relaxing, maybe for enjoyingsome of the gifts that we've
gotten.
But all of those kinds of thingsare made much better by a slower
pace and a worshipful focus tothe day.
And again, that focus doesn'thave to be accomplished.

(11:50):
By spending the whole day onlyever talking about Jesus or only
doing spiritual things, it canjust be that you're weaving your
allegiance to Christ into theright moments throughout the day
so that it keeps him at thecenter.
Now I use the word allegiance onpurpose because you guys know
that here at Manhood Tribes, wetalk about allegiance as one of

(12:11):
our five marks of manhood.
And this is on purpose because aman's allegiance really does
dictate what the rest of hislife looks like.
And so you want your allegianceto Christ.
To show up on Christmas Day.
And these are some of the simpleways that you can be able to do
that without having to stressabout how to make it just like

(12:32):
the most worshipful or mostperfect experience, or that you
don't even know how to do any ofthat.
And so you're just gonna let itkind of be whatever it's gonna
be, and then it's not worshipfulat all.
Allow your allegiance to comein, even if it's in one or two
simple things to help you makethe most of the day.
If you've got more questionsabout the five marks of manhood
and how you could be able toweave those kinds of things into

(12:54):
your life, you can take a shortquiz that I've created called
How Manly Are You?
And that will help you evaluatehow you're doing in each of
those five marks, and what aresome ways that you can improve
in those things and including inthe area of allegiance.
So go check itout@manhoodtribes.com slash
manly.
You can download it for freeright there and take it within
just a few minutes and figureout what are some things you can

(13:16):
do to get better at being a man.
Now I do want to leave you withsome encouragement and a picture
of what Christmas can reallylook like if you do it well By
putting, putting a worshipfulfocus on Christ at the center of
what your Christmas day and yourChristmas activities kind of
look like.
I want you to imagine aChristmas morning where the kids

(13:38):
expect scripture and prayerfirst.
Not because you forced it, butbecause it's part of your family
story and what you do together.
I want you to imagine a homewhere peace outweighs frenzy
because you as the dad, as thehusband, as the man in the home,
set the tone of worship.

(13:59):
I want you to imagine your kidsgrowing up, remembering not just
gifts, but rhythms of faith.
Because let's be honest guys,most of us, and most of our kids
especially, don't remember thosegifts even a month later.
But what they do remember is therhythms and the traditions that
you.
As dad and as leader of yourhousehold can actually create,

(14:22):
those are the things that willstick with them, and those are
the things that they will carryon into their families as well.
If you don't have a family,that's okay.
You start setting thosetraditions now and then if you
do have a family at some pointin time, you're able to build
those rhythms and thosetraditions into your kids' lives
as well.
Christmas doesn't just have tobe about stuff.

(14:45):
It can be about Christ.
If you'll take some intentionalsteps just to be able to make it
so.
All right.
I would love to hear from youguys.
What's one thing that you aredoing this Christmas to be able
to put Christ at the center ofwhat you're doing to make it a
more worshipful and meaningfulholiday for you, for your loved
ones, for your friends, for yourfamily.

(15:05):
Put that down in the commentsand I look forward to engaging
with you about those things, andI will look forward to talking
to you again in the new year.
We will take.
Uh, next week off from ManhoodTribe's content, but I will be
back in January with a reallycool new series to start with
you.
I look forward to talking to youthen.
See ya.

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