More Than Decorations: The Christmas We’re Really Longing For
So many of us carry warm memories of Christmas from childhood and spend our adult years trying to recapture that feeling in every way we can. All that nostalgia got me reflecting on what Christmas looked like in my own childhood home. Aside from a shabby tree that had seen better days and a handful of homemade ornaments placed haphazardly on its branches, we had very little in the way of decorations. And yet, that tree, with its glowing, multi-colored lights, was pure magic.
Sometimes we’d line the banister with a bit of garland picked up from a yard sale, or hang stockings if we had them, but the tree was the heart of our holiday décor, and we needed little else.
Looking around my own home now, it’s decorated in grand style by comparison. Don’t get me wrong, I love going all out and plan to soak in the cozy vibes all season long (I didn’t do all that work for nothing). But I’m also wise enough to know that decorations alone were never responsible for the joy of the season. That joy comes from something else entirely—something that cannot be manufactured: the Spirit of Christmas.
If you’ve ever experienced it, you know exactly what I mean. Its presence is undeniable, and it’s what keeps us returning to this celebration year after year. It’s sung about in countless songs and woven through beloved stories retold again and again. From A Christmas Carol to How the Grinch Stole Christmas, it appears even in the face of poverty, or when everything is stripped down to nothing.
Sometimes you sense it in a quiet evening as snow falls, or by the light of a roaring fire. Sometimes you feel it as you sing carols in a candlelight service, or while surrounded by friends and family. Sometimes it takes the shape of Santa Claus, sometimes a giant elf. But more often than not, it takes the shape of a manger, with nothing more than a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.
It is that baby who is responsible for it all—every cherished Christmas memory and every joyful expression of love and goodwill to men. It is the Prince of Peace who inspires our longing for peace on earth. He is the reason we give so generously to those we love and to those in need. In celebrating His birth, we slow down and return to what truly matters. He is why this season represents hope for so many who feel they have none.
And that is why it didn’t matter that all we had was a shabby old Christmas tree. As children, our hearts are more naturally aligned with what we call “the Christmas spirit.” We believe. We see. And that’s something no amount of decoration can ever recreate.
Jesus gives us the key in Matthew 18:3: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” What we are really longing for isn’t Christmas past, it’s an unseen Kingdom where everything is beautiful and everything is made right. And the way to reclaim that Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven” isn’t through ritual or tradition, but by returning to the innocence of a child.
And then—you will truly see again.
