Do you recall that most infamous Christmas red herring of all? It’s that heated debate over what words made for the best greeting at Christmas.

Columns and conversations grew heated and irate as folks divided up over Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings. You’d have thought the future of faith itself depended on the right choice. Yet the challenge of Christmas comes not from Hallmark greetings but from heaven’s promise, not from words spoken by us but from the word born among us. The Gospel of John states God’s own Christmas greeting this way: “The Word became flesh and dwelt us among, full of grace and truth.”

With all the things that fill up this season of celebration it’s easy enough to get distracted from the core message of Christmas. While much of the world gets excited about the season’s festivities, much of the world finds the concept of incarnation too great a challenge to get excited over. For many, Santa Claus is a much easier tale to swallow than the belief that the God of all creation fully took on human nature, became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth and lived among us. It seems much easier to believe in someone who keeps a list, checks it twice and divides the world up between the naughty and the nice, and so much harder to accept John’s description of someone who comes full of grace (unmerited love and forgiveness) and truth that doesn’t fit neatly into partisan politics and personal prejudices.

Christmas has gained so many additions deemed important (think family, presents, trees and traditions) I invite you to refocus your hearts and homes on what makes Christmas worth celebrating to begin with. Rather than worry someone might suddenly debunk Santa in front of your children and thus spoil the holiday, be more concerned that the power and truth of Jesus’ birth (not birthday) gets lost in all the tinsel and wrapping paper, thus truly spoiling this holy day.

Instead of spending energy on a Santa who comes down every chimney, look instead to a God intent on coming down into every human heart. Instead of talking about a Santa who lives at the North Pole, teach your children about a God who desires to live here among us and all creation. Remember, Christmas really is all about the presence and power of God in Jesus.

That core message of Christmas is told best and first by the Apostle Paul. He says simply: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying ‘Abba! Father!” Talk about a gracious truth!

Perhaps then, the best Christmas greetings are these: “Immanuel” (God with us)! or “Have a Blessed Christmas” or even a simple, “God bless you, one and all.”