Skip to content ↓

How To Make Christmas the Best of Times

Sponsored Collection cover image

Good Book Co
This sponsored post was prepared by The Good Book Company.

To mildly mangle Charles Dickens, December is the best of times, and the worst of times.

The best, because in the depths of winter we remember the heights from which the Word came. We marvel at his journey from the heavenly throne room to the Bethlehem manger. We wonder at the truth that the fingers that molded the planets curled round a mother’s finger.

And as we share time, food, and gifts with loved ones, we appreciate all that we have been given in this life by the One who pitched his tent among us all those centuries ago.

It is, truly, the best of times.

AND YET…

Yet Christmas is also the worst of times.

For every delight that Christmas brings, there is also disappointment. Too many families will have an empty chair at the table this Christmas. Too many people will be alone at their table this Christmas. While most cannot wait to get to Christmas, many simply cannot wait to get through Christmas.

But the worst thing about Christmas is how the One at the center of the first Christmas gets pushed to the sidelines. The worst thing about the season is that, so often and so easily, Christ gets missed at Christmas.

The world misses him out, of course—the miracle of the incarnation dismissed as a myth from an age long past. With typical prescience, C.S. Lewis foretold the transformation of the Christian festival of Christmas to the secular one of ‘Xmas’.

But it’s not just those ‘out there’ who leave Christ out. For one, how easy it is for children in Christian homes to leave him out, too. You don’t need to teach kids to focus on what they’ll get this year, rather than on what they have already been given, 2,000 years ago. They focus on themselves by their nature, and they are reinforced in that by our culture.

And then there’s each of us, too. I know I tend to reach January and think: But I never really focused on Christ this Christmas. December is just so busy, and before we know it Christmas is over and once more the message of the angels has been drowned out by the noise of Xmas.

Christmas can be the best of times, and it should be the best of times, but we need intentionality if we’re to make sure it is the best of times.

Intentional Proclamation

How to do that? It sounds so simple, but it is by proclaiming Christ: to ourselves, to our children, to our community.

The right question to ask in November, in order to make December the best it can be, is:

How will I intentionally proclaim Christ this Christmas?

If you have young children, one answer to that question is The Christmas Promise, which fuses biblical faithfulness with fantastic illustrations. I read it to my two-year-old son last year—and he still remembers that Jesus is ‘the new king, the forever king, the rescuing king’.

And if you have friends and family and colleagues and neighbors who don’t know Jesus—which is all of us—here’s another answer to that question: a short, warm, humorous, and gospel-centered book that presents the gospel in a way that’s perfect for those who think they’ve heard it all before, as well as with those who know they haven’t. That’s A Very Different Christmas, written by internationally renowned evangelist Rico Tice along with Nate Morgan Locke. It proclaims Christ by inviting readers into the Trinity’s heavenly ‘living room’ to exchange presents with him.

The best way to appreciate the Christmas gospel this year is to share it—to give it to others as well as to receive it yourself. Whatever else you do this December, don’t let Christmas pass without intentionally proclaiming Christ—to yourself, to your children, to your community.

Carl Laferton is Senior Editor at The Good Book Company. He is co-author, with Rico Tice, of Honest Evangelism, and is married to Lizzie with two children, Benjamin and Abigail. He loves pretty much everything about Christmas apart from the pressure of finding a good present for his wife.


  • A Batch of New Books for Kids

    A Batch of New Books for Kids (and Teens)

    Every month I put together a roundup of new and notable books for grownup readers. But I also receive a lot of books for kids and like to put together the occasional roundup of these books as well. So today I bring you a whole big batch of new books for kids of all ages…

  • A La Carte Thursday 1

    A La Carte (March 28)

    A La Carte: The case against the abortion pill / What I’ve learned about grieving with hope / Heartbreaking deception: teen girls, social media, and body image / Could podcasts save the church from stupidity? / Count it all joy / and more.

  • What God Wants You To Forget

    What God Wants You To Forget

    We are never far from reminding God of our credentials, of providing him with a curriculum vitae that lays out all we are, all we have been through, and all we have accomplished for his sake. We are never far from making the subtle turn from grace to merit, from what is freely given to…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (March 27)

    A La Carte: New music / Millennials and GenZ / Scotland’s new hate crime law / Cate Blanchett, Easter is for you / Why the Reformed pray for revival / What truly happened to Jesus on the cross? / and more.

  • New and Notable Books

    New and Notable Christian Books for March 2024

    As you know, I like to do my best to sort through the new Christian books that are released each month to see what stands out as being not only new, but also particularly notable. I received quite a number of new titles in March and narrowed the list down to the ones below. I…

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (March 26)

    A La Carte: God delivers from the suffering he ordains / The beautiful partnership of family and church / The end of religious liberty / On whales, menopause, and thanks to God / Ordinary women, extravagant gifts / and more.