The Simple Reasons Christians Celebrate Christmas

Kim Marie
Dec 7, 2025
3 min read

A Quiet-Morning Reflection Inspired by Galatians 5:19–24

Christmas has a way of awakening something deep within the believer’s heart. Even before the first carol is sung or the lights are strung, there rises an inward pull—a longing for warmth, for peace, for joy, for something more than the world around us can offer. And Scripture shows us why that longing is there.

Galatians 5:19–24 paints two contrasting portraits:

one of the world without Christ,

and one of the life made possible because He came.

These verses quietly answer the question:

Why do Christians celebrate Christmas at all?

Not merely because of tradition, family gatherings, or seasonal beauty—

but because something in us yearns for the fruit that only Christ can bring.

The World Christ Entered: A Humanity Without the Spirit

Before Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit, he names the “works of the flesh” (Gal. 5:19–21). It is a sobering description: impurity, discord, jealousy, strife, fits of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, and unrest. This is the natural world—the world untouched by redemption.

It’s the same world Jesus stepped into that silent night in Bethlehem.

A world fractured.

A world desperate.

A world unable to produce the life God intended.

The manger did not appear in a peaceful, spotless environment.

It appeared in the middle of humanity’s brokenness.

Christmas begins not with perfection but with need.

The Life Christ Came to Birth Within Us

Then Paul writes, “But the fruit of the Spirit is…” and the entire 'atmosphere' lifts

These qualities are not merely moral goals—they are the very nature of Christ Himself. The fruit of the Spirit describes what His life looks like when it takes root in a human heart.

Christmas is the origin story of that transformation.

It is the moment heaven touched earth so that heaven could touch us.

The One born in the manger is the One who now lives in His people by the Spirit.

The fruit we long for is the fruit He grows within us.

Why Christmas Awakens Our Spiritual Longing

Something in us responds to Christmas because Christmas responds to something in us:

a deep desire to see Christ’s nature made real in our everyday lives.

Every believer knows the ache of wanting to be more loving than our flesh allows…

of wanting peace in a world addicted to anxiety…

of wanting joy that doesn’t evaporate with circumstances…

of wanting patience when everything feels rushed…

of wanting gentleness in a culture of harshness.

This longing is holy.

It’s the whisper of the Spirit.

It’s the sign that Christ is shaping us from the inside out.

Christmas magnifies that longing because it reminds us of how the story began—

the God who comes close,

the Light who enters darkness,

the Savior who plants His nature within us.

Christmas Is the Birth of the Spirit-Filled Life

When we reflect on the Incarnation, we are not simply remembering an event; we are remembering the moment God stepped into our story so we could step into His.

Christ came in the flesh so He could conquer the flesh.

Christ came born of a woman so we could be born of the Spirit.

Christ entered our world so His life could enter ours.

This is why Christians return to Christmas again and again.

Not because of nostalgia, but because of transformation.

Not because of ritual, but because of redemption.

The fruit of the Spirit is the evidence that Christ’s coming still matters today.