Thanksgiving is over, it’s almost Christmas, which means if you’re a pastor, you are working on your Christmas message.

Many pastors make the mistake of waiting too long to work on their message, trying to be too creative or just not being creative at all, to the point they’re boring.

If you’ve been in ministry for any length of time, you’ve given many Christmas sermons and series. It is hard to continue to come up with fresh material, to surprise your people or say something unexpected.

I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing. I wonder if we need to “surprise” our people with something unexpected.

But this Christmas, you will have people who will walk through your door who have never been to your church (or any church). You will have men and women, boys and girls who walk through your door who are giving God one last shot. People who are skeptical, hurting, doubting, wondering if there is a God in the universe who loves and cares for them.

I say all that because there is a lot at stake at Christmas.

Christmas is the time of year where depression and anxiety reach its peak. Divorce rates double over Christmas. Please, please, please, keep these numbers, stories, and faces in front of you as you preach this Christmas.

Ready?

Here are a few tips as you prepare and preach a great Christmas sermon:

Before we get to the preaching, just a quick pro tip!

1. Dress appropriately. It is incredible this still has to be said, but no matter where your church is, people tend to dress up on Christmas. People are out as families; people are meeting potential in-laws for the first time (hoping to make a great first impression), families and friends will take pictures together. So dress appropriately. Also, dress comfortably. There is nothing worse than speaking in the wrong outfit. There is also nothing worse than watching someone in a suit too big (or too small) or pulling at their collar because it is tight so make sure that whatever you’re going to wear matches, is Christmas-y and fits!

Now for more of the how-tos of preaching.

2. Understand the pain and baggage people bring with them. When people walk into your church each week, they walk in with a story, a story filled with hopes, dreams, hurt and pain. Christmas has a way of magnifying our stories.

Arguments that are decades old will come up, broken relationships, divorces, abuse. They will sit at tables with empty seats because of those broken relationships, bad decisions or death.

Many of the people that will sit in your church and mine did everything they could to get to your Christmas Eve service and hold it together. They are stressed, run down, tired, partied out, wondering if their kids are thankful, wondering if they will fail Christmas with their family, worrying about the next year and what it will bring.

They need a moment to catch their breath; to know you hear them; to know God hears them.

3. Tell the Christmas story. Let’s be honest; as a pastor, the Christmas story can be hard because you know it, other people know it, which makes it difficult to keep it fresh and relevant.

The Christmas story is about hope.

And right now in our world, if there’s something that people need it is hope.

If you take what I said in #2 seriously, you should be able to come up with a whole host of ways to bring hope into peoples lives.

One of the struggles I’ve had is that people walk in expecting the Christmas story and I want to surprise them. The reality is, it’s Christmas. So talk about Christmas.

4. Surprise people with the Christmas story. Going along with the previous point, there are so many ways to surprise people and tell them something about Christmas that is unexpected or they didn’t see.

You could talk about doubts people have, the importance of names and stories by walking through a genealogy, talk about God’s presence with us.

The list goes on and on.

One exercise that might be helpful is to make a list of all the questions people have about Christmas and baggage they are carrying in. Then make a list of all the things we learn about God through Christmas.

This exercise should give you years worth of Christmas sermons and series.

5. Be brief and to the point. Lastly, be brief.

While people came to church, they don’t want to spend the holiday at church.

My Christmas message is often the shortest one of the entire year.

That’s okay. People will forgive you. Your volunteers will thank you.

Remember, this sermon is just part of the marathon of your preaching ministry, not the end of it.