O Come, All Ye Faithful
My favorite Christmas Day breakfast treat is my mother’s Danish Kringle. Its ingredients are rather simple - some flour, butter, sour cream, brown sugar, walnuts, confectionary sugar and water.
However, it is extra special because of the tradition that surrounds it and the love and caring my mother puts into preparing and serving it to our family. To know my mother is to know that my mother’s love language is preparing and serving the best meals anyone has ever had. Her baking is so very awesome! While she knows we love her kringle and could eat it every day, our tradition is to only have it on Christmas morning.
After we have all exchanged and opened each other’s gifts, we sit down to eat breakfast together. The warm Danish Kringle sits on the table - waiting for the first person to take a piece and pass it around to the others. I am reminded of all the other past Christmas’ we did the same thing. I realize how lucky I am to be at the table and to share food with my family. I appreciate the closeness we all share – just as the Spirit lives in me and how God is with us – Emmanuel.
I feel the love at the table. I also realize how hard my mom worked to prepare not only the Danish Kringle, but the entire meal. I pray that this feeling of togetherness continues throughout the day and throughout our lives.
I am hopeful that our Christmas morning traditions will continue down through the generations – from my parents, to us, my kids, and now my grandkids.
I am sharing this with all of you so that you may also feel the peace, hope, joy, love and wonder of this holiday season.
Reflect on the Word
The Birth of Jesus
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
Luke 2:1-7 (NIV)
Take a Moment to Pray
Holy and Faithful God,
On this Christmas morning, we come with hearts full of wonder—like the shepherds who hurried to Bethlehem, like Mary who treasured every moment, like Joseph who trusted Your leading. In the quiet of a stable, You slipped into the world in vulnerability and glory, reminding us that Your love chooses humility, chooses presence, chooses us.
As we echo the carol’s invitation—O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant—draw us near to the manger once more. Let our joy be rooted not in perfection, but in Your nearness; not in what we bring, but in the gift You have already given.
Bless the traditions that gather us—whether around a table, a tree, or a warm slice of Danish Kringle. May these simple delights become reminders of Your abundance, Your creativity, and the sweetness of shared life. Knit us together in gratitude for the people, places, and memories that shape our celebration today.
Christ our Lord, born for us and with us, fill our homes with peace, our conversations with kindness, and our spirits with the hope that only Your arrival can bring. Make us faithful, joyful, and triumphant—not by our striving, but by Your grace.
In Your holy name we pray. Amen.
Listen to the Carol
O Come all ye Faithful is one of the most well-known carols at Christmas perhaps because there is a sense of urgency to it. Imagine a child, tugging at your hand, saying insistently, “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” In the same way, imagine someone pulling at your sleeve or grasping you by the hand, half dragging you as they run through the crowd, saying over and over again, “Come!”
We are told that patience is a virtue, but in this case, impatience is a beautiful thing. For who could stand by and wait when all we want to do is worship our Lord and Savior? Albert Bailey writes that in this carol, “The poet takes us by the hand and leads us with triumphant song to the cave of the Nativity in Bethlehem, shows us the Babe, and bids us adore” (The Gospel in Hymns, 279). So, this Christmas morning, let us sing with the angels, sing with our families, sing with our fellow believers (and Phil Wickham who is singing here), and with every fiber of our being, worship Christ the Lord!