Christmas Gifts: How Does Your Family View Them?

Before anyone panics, I’m not telling you not to buy gifts this year. There is precedent for giving gifts at Christmas that goes all the way back to the book of Matthew. Early Christians followed the wise men’s example and gave gifts in commemoration of the birth of our Lord and Savior. Nothing is wrong with doing likewise. Nor is there any problem shopping for just the right gift. After all, if you’re giving someone a gift, it helps if they will like and use it.

The problem comes when gift giving becomes the end, rather than the symbol of God’s gift to us. In the US, we are rapidly reaching a point where gifting is more important than what the gift represents. In 2025, over 11 billion dollars were spent on Black Friday1 shopping.2 But over 747 million of those dollars were spent on buy now, pay later programs, with that number projected to rise over one billion dollars.3 Not all buy now, pay later programs are bad, but this represents a fundamental shift in how Americans view finances. It is now more important to have the perfect gift, even if you have to go into debt, than it is to be financially stable. In other words, gift giving (and hopes of receiving) is now an end in itself. Christ has been lost.

This is surprisingly easy to do. We are all busy people, and in a world that demands our every microsecond of attention, we can forget what really matters. The decor, the gifts, the Christmas carols, and the family gatherings can all become a pleasant distraction from Christ and the reason he came.

This Christmas, make sure your family keeps the focus where it belongs.

So this Christmas (and every Christmas), make sure your family keeps the focus where it belongs. You can still put up the tree (no, it’s not pagan), decorate the house, bake Christmas cookies, and do whatever other holiday traditions you enjoy—but be intentional about including Christ. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Use a Scripture-Themed Advent Calendar

Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash

It’s a bit late to start one this year, but you can hang on to the idea for next year. Make a time daily, perhaps before lunch or dinner, to open the newest Advent calendar door and read a passage of Scripture associated with the birth of Christ. (You can use this to teach reading by having your younger kids read the passage.) Then discuss what it means in context.

2. Add Nativities to Your Christmas Decor

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

Good nativities are hard to find, but with a little effort, you can find one online that suits your preferred style. Put it up somewhere that your children will regularly see. It will subtly drive home the point that Christmas is not about gifts, it’s about Jesus Christ coming to earth.

3. Before Opening Gifts, Read the Christmas Accounts from Scripture

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My family read Luke 2 aloud every year before anyone was allowed to open any gifts. After the reading, we would pray and then open gifts. You could extend this to reading the relevant passages from Luke 1 and Matthew as well.

4. If Your Church Has a Christmas Eve Service, Go

Photo by James O’Neill on Unsplash

If your church doesn’t have a Christmas Eve service, see if there is a good church of similar faith nearby that does have one. Your children need to know that Christ, not the presents or the tree, is the priority. An easy way to demonstrate that is by taking them to church. If this is not an option, consider having a Christmas service for your family at home.

5. Incorporate Godly Christmas Carols into Your Christmas Music Listening

Photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash

Because Christmas had a very Christian ethos until recently, there are doctrinally sound Christmas songs available in almost every music genre you could imagine (and probably some you wish you couldn’t). Find them and add them to what you listen to for Christmas.

What you decide to do depends on your family, but make the effort to show your kids that Christ coming to earth is the reason we celebrate Christmas. You can tell them hundreds of times, but if you don’t live it, they will not listen. Live out the reason for the season this Christmas and for every Christmas hereafter.