Leaning into the Legend 12.11.2025

    People like a good legend. Sometimes the legends are even (partly) true. Many other legends are grounded in realities which have been in some way been magnified to make a moral point, explain a difficult historical reality, or highlight heroic behaviors. This Sunday I will be using Father Christmas or as we call him in the US Santa Claus, to illustrate my message. This legendary figure is of course grounded in the historic life of Nicolas of Myra—St. Nicolas. 

    It’s easy to complain about focusing on the wrong thing during Christmas. Presents, and trees, and decorations, and cookies and all the other seasonal traditions which define a 21st century Christmas. There was a time that I felt the need to correct, browbeat, cajole, and enlighten everyone about the “true meaning” of this tradition or that. What a silly, pointless, graceless way to behave! If I ever engaged in this behavior with you, I am sorry, please forgive me. 

    I think it is far better to lean into the legends and leverage them for Kingdom purposes. Yes, red-suited Coca Cola Santa is a far cry from the real Nicolas sneaking around at night tossing bags of dowry-gold through the open widows of impoverished families. Yet that spirit of giving informed the evolution of the legendary Santa Claus whose presence (and presents) will be ubiquitous during the holiday season. 

    When we lean into the legends of Christmas, whether Santa, Rudolph, Ralphie, or Frosty we are not compromising our principles but inhabiting our cultural moment. Or perhaps I should say incarnating our cultural moment. That is really the issue. When we participate in all the hall-decking holiday cheer we have a seat at the table and can peel back the opaque wrapping of legend helping people discover the truths we really celebrate at Christmas. When we are gruff and humorless, when we allow our approach to these legendary accouterments of Christmas to be Grinch-driven rather than grace-driven we risk being thought of as cranks and scolds rather than warm and welcoming. During Christmas we don’t want to be the one who slams the door on Santa any more than we would slam to door to the inn on Jesus. To be blunt—no one has a Herod in their Nativity. 

How do we, then, lean into these legends. A couple of thoughts.

Childlike Wonder

    It took me several years to convince my custodial staff to leave the Christmas tree always illuminated in our Church sanctuary during the Christmas season. There is nothing I like more than walking in at 6.50 a.m. On a cold, dark December morning and being greeted by the twinkling lights of the season falling upon the greenery and the faces of the figures in the Nativity. Even at 63 years of age the sights, sounds, and smells of Christmas fill me with joy. 

    When we approach Santa and Rudolph with childlike wonder and lean into the legend, we make connections with those whose hearts sincerely long for something more, something better, something different from the painful realities of life. 

    The legends (fictions if you must) of Christmas can be steppingstones allowing us to broach deeper, spiritual subjects with those who feel discarded and abused by our society. They may not be ready for the truth until they have moved past their pain. The joyful wonder of our holiday celebrations may be the next, necessary step for hurting hearts to find the very real redeeming love of Jesus. 

Choose Whimsy

    I have a Peanuts illuminated sweatshirt my daughter gave me a few Christmases ago. I wore it last Sunday, will likely wear it this Sunday. I can, and mostly do, wear a Christmas tie every day from Thanksgiving to Orthodox Christmas (January 6). I’ve already watched the story of George Bailey, heard Linus Van Pelt recite the Christmas story, and viewed Rudolph. Are these life-changing, destiny defining, character forming toeholds for preaching? Nope. I like these whimsical things, and I choose to do them if only for whimsy’s sake.

    Maybe you like to Christmas Carol or Sled or decorate the exterior of your house. Go for it! Hiding from Christmas and pretending like it’s beneath us or some culturally compromising theological assault on our collective pride doesn’t sound much like Jesus. He was famous for attending wedding feasts and contributing to the catering. 

    Keep it personal, light, friendly, and real. People will be drawn to your Church because you will help them to feel like they are a part of something special. Something that comforts them amid the decay of culture. There will be some people who only sing Christmas Carols at your worship services. Some will only smile this Christmas season because someone at your Church makes them feel warm, welcomed, and loved. Let our Churches be the place that people laugh at Christmas. As people attend your church, become more regular, and start asking questions you can go beyond whimsy and wonder and begin to deal with serious, Biblical and Theological issues. But you cannot have conversations with people who are not there or who have left because you’re simply not approachable. 

Chase Wow

    Parties. Festivities. Hall-decking, Holly-jollies, Ho-Ho-Ho-ing, and wassailing. Go for it. The pattern of evolving Christianity was fasting and feasting. We don’t really practice the former and we misunderstand the purpose of the latter. Chase wow! Not exclusively—not instead of Biblical focus, but as a part of what it means for Christians to celebrate a significant part of the year. 

    Yes, there are limits. There are some things which are inappropriate with respect to time or place, but we need divine distractions to drag us away from the digital delusions that confuse clicks, likes, and followers with the actual wow of life-affirming human experiences. 

    Let’s make the Church the place where people connect. It may be a cookie, a cup of coffee, a carol shared in a darkened sanctuary, or a meal of celebration. Make chasing the wow a part of your Christmas season…or maybe stop using words like “festive.”

Conclusion

    Jesus is not less God because we let children have their pictures taken with Santa Claus or have a family movie night and watch Elf. If your Gospel is that fragile you probably never take it out for a spin anyway. A message that can be harmed by a child’s joy is of itself, quite likely harmless. Therapeutic Deism is as much a threat to the redeemed as it is to the reprobate. 

    When we lean into the legends, we can use them as springboards to impactful, Biblical messaging. It can be a heavy lift if every spiritual or biblical conversation, begins wholly untethered from actual human experience.  We human beings live our fallen lives within, and a part of the otherwise good world created by God. The stuff of earth is not all that there is—but it does matter. Some of the high horses that we insist on riding are actually Trojan horses for our own pride and prejudice. 

    Finally, If Christmas cheer during the month of December confuses the people in your community with respect to the Lordship of Christ, the Authority of Scripture, or the role of your Church—Santa Claus isn’t your problem.