Whether you brought out the Christmas lights and put out the tree too early for some people, or did it right on time for others, Christmas season is in full bloom now.

One of the ways we know is the parade of Christmas movies being broadcast on television or streaming services. What is your personal favorite?

A recent poll showed the following movies among the annual holiday household favorites:

  • It’s a Wonderful Life
  • A Christmas Story
  • Home Alone
  • How the Grinch Stole Christmas
  • Elf
  • Miracle on 34th Street
  • A Charlie Brown Christmas

I would add a few others to this list, including Ernest Saves Christmas and Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer. It may surprise you to hear I may also add The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe, which was adapted from the C.S. Lewis classic.

Yes, I recognize that Narnia is not truly a Christmas movie by strict definition. But in one powerful scene in the book and the movie, “Father Christmas” (i.e. St. Nicholas, Santa Claus) makes an appearance in the fictional land of Narnia, which had long been under an ice-age-like curse of the White Witch, who makes it “always winter and never Christmas.” When Father Christmas appears, because “Aslan (the Christ figure) is on the move,” it signals light and joy have come and that curse is being broken.

In so many ways, our world is acting like we are in a never-ending season of “always winter, never Christmas.” You can see it in social media malcontent. You can hear it in bickering families and even perhaps church families. We seem to have forgotten that Christmas came when Christ came.

Whenever my heart forgets, I go back to the beautiful Nativity story of Jesus, the sinless Son of God, born to a virgin in the most humble of circumstances. I ponder that “God is with us,” that He truly “became flesh and dwelt among us” (Matt. 1:23; John 1:14).

This Christmas, as much time as you spend shopping online or on social media, pause to reflect on the great promises of “God with us,” of Jesus.

While Christmas lights, candy canes and movies are all great, we do not want to be the generation that let people lose the real meaning of the season.

This year, as you and your family (and church family) celebrate Advent (the First Coming of Jesus), and anticipate the Second Coming, let your heart be found ready for Christmas. Always ready for Christmas.