(bells jingling) - Merry Christmas Eve, podcast listeners. Episode number 499 is a special episode with Pastor John, of course, but also with Noel. Noel makes a rare cameo appearance with us today to talk about Christmas traditions in the Piper household. And so we'll start with you, Pastor John. You've had kids in the house for over 40 years, so what did Christmas look like in the Piper home when you had kids around?

What were your goals? - Christmas Day and how we celebrate it, how everybody celebrates it, ought to mark an event that is 10 million times more important than any event that has ever happened in the last 2,000 years since Jesus rose from the dead. God, the creator of the universe, infinitely holy, just, wise, good, upholding the universe by the word of his power, absolutely independent of us and doesn't need us, existing forever without us, took on human nature and entered this world precisely to die for sinners so that we could live forever in joy with him and not perish under God's wrath.

So it is an absolute understatement when the angel said at Jesus' birth, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy." We wish there were words better, right? Great joy that will be for all the people. So we've had two goals at the Piper house over the years with our five kids and our guests, pervasively Christ-centered, 'cause that's what it's about, and great joy because that's the effect the angel said it ought to have, and it does have when you really grasp what it is.

And so that meant for us, way back, what, 45 years ago plus, rethinking everything that people usually do. And some things stayed in our tradition that we did growing up and other things went, and some things were adapted, and some things were just totally created new. Santa Claus went.

He is not a helpful participant in this. He is a distraction from the majesty and joyfulness of Christ. Giving gifts stayed. That seemed to us like a beautiful, wonderful, happy expression of the heart of God in generosity to us. And then we adapted and created things. - So, Noelle's here with me, and the Pipers set about transforming their house for the kids and for guests so that everywhere they look, they see Christmas, Christmas, and its real meaning.

So, Noelle, what has guided you in particular, 'cause you really came up with a lot of these, what's guided your thinking as you've put things in place for the holidays? - One of the things that I learned when our kids were really young is that very young kids aren't understanding symbols, so it's the things that are tangible.

And so right away, when I'm thinking about Christmas, what am I thinking about? Bethlehem and the stable, and looking and thinking and talking about what God was doing there. So manger scenes, creches, are a main part of what's in our house or in our windows for people outside to see during the Christmas season.

There's one main manger scene that we've had almost our whole marriage that's on a special table in the living room. That's the first thing you see when you walk into our house, when you walk into the living room. Under that table is where we gather our gifts to each other.

And then there are manger scenes and things that represent Bethlehem all over the place whenever anybody's traveling somewhere, and they ask me if they could bring me a gift, I always say, "I'd love to have a manger scene from there." (laughs) - So we got elephants at our manger scene.

(laughs) - Because the wise men came from the East and we don't know they came on camels. - Right, of course. - So over in the dining room, Noel, on the buffet, there's another thing that's a little unusual. What do you call it? What is it? Why do we do it?

- We call it the Jesus tree. It's a combination of what some people might have and call a Jesse tree, or some people might call a Bethlehem tree. But I call it a Jesus tree because that's the one time in the year when we can put in front of us all the kinds of symbols, word pictures, representing word pictures from the Bible of who Jesus is.

So on this tree will be-- - When you say tree, you mean-- - I mean a bare branch, yes, that we cut off of a, broke off of a bush in the backyard. And so some of the things that are hanging on it might actually be Christmas ornaments, but other things would be maybe a saw that would represent a part of Jesus' life.

He was a carpenter with his father. Or there might be a sheaf of wheat, and that might represent Ruth in his family tree, or it might represent him being the bread of life. There would be nails because it is carpenter, part of his life, or because he died on the cross for us.

So things that represent the prophecies leading up to Jesus, things that represent events in his life, things that particularly revolve around the Bethlehem event. - Yeah, so this is a gnarly, you know, broken off branch from what's that plant on the corner of the garage that we get it from usually?

- It's an old lilac bush that we use. - Yeah, lilac bush. There's this other tradition that gets going about the beginning of Advent that we call the shepherd's pouch. What's that about? - I was trying to think of ways that children could give a gift to Jesus since it is his birthday, and that's how children understand birthdays.

You give a gift to the birthday person. So we have little burlap bags that I made, but you could use any kind of little pouch that at the beginning of December, the kids start putting money into that either they've earned by doing tasks ordinarily that they might do just without pay, but during this season, I give them some money.

So it also gets me eager helpers when I need extra help. But then sometime early in the month, we're thinking about where this gift will go, like maybe to Johnny and Friends or to Samaritan's Purse, some organization that we'd like to give to, and we talk about what it means to give a gift to Jesus 'cause you can't just put it in his hand.

And then on Christmas Eve, the children put the money from their pouch by the manger at our special manger scene, and we talk about we're giving a gift to Jesus. Ours is money, but that's just a symbol of the way the shepherds, for instance, came worshiping Jesus, their gift of worship to Jesus.

And then on Christmas morning, we have put into those little pouches gifts for them. One of the things will be a Christ-centered Christmas ornament for them to save up for when they have their own home someday. And then there are other just little doodad things that we've collected over time for them.

And we talk about these represent the way God blesses people who come to him with their gifts of praise. - Amen. We love that. I just love this little pouch thing. I love so much the kids filling it with money and then getting these gifts. One more thing. Christmas morning, we get up, and before any gifts are open, we're reading a story, but then we add to the reading something else, Noel, that turns out to be a really happy thing, especially for little kids.

- And I know there are other families that do this too. We act out the Christmas story. Everybody who's there, adults and children, when the children were very little, they liked to pull out everything they could find that could be costumes from anywhere. Now it's a lot more simple, but we use the narrative from Luke as the guide for how the story plays out.

And that's another part of being tangible and actually getting into it physically, thinking about Jesus being born in the manger and the glory that was announced when that happened. - I think we even did this. When our first child was Jesus, that is the little baby in Mary's lap, and she's Noel and I and the baby and any guests that were around.

And so every time we had a new child, we had a new Jesus to put in the play. It was just great. But it's Christmas Eve or it's Christmas Day, and people have lots of things to do. So we just want to say to everybody, thanks for listening to Ask Pastor John.

We both wish you a very, very joyful, Christ-filled, Merry Christmas. - Merry Christmas. - Wonderful, thank you, Pastor John. And thank you, Noel, for making the cameo appearance in today's Ask Pastor John episode. Of course, Noel Piper is the author of the very helpful book, "Treasuring God in Our Traditions," an excellent book for anyone thinking through and establishing traditions in their homes, not only on major holidays, but year round.

Be sure to check out that book. And if you want more on Christmas, see episode number 243 in this podcast series titled, What Christmas is All About? An answer to Charlie Brown's million dollar question. That's episode number 243. Well, we break for the holiday, but we return on Monday to hear Pastor John on God's gracious provisions in 2014 and look forward to what we have planned for 2015 at DesiringGod.org.

It's humbling and exciting. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. We'll see you on Monday. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)