As many of us know, Jesus may not have actually been born on December 25, but instead, he was most likely born a couple months earlier. No matter the exact date, this is the time of year when we as Christians unite to celebrate his birth, to remember he came as God’s ambassador to us – as a way to bridge that gap between the divine and humanity.

Finding peace in the midst of the Christmas season can be a challenge to those who are planning parties, cooking for family gatherings, or trying to figure out what to buy for gifts.

We may not all be as busy during this time of year but almost all of us find our attention being pulled away from the focus of the real reason for the season.

The gift of Jesus is more important than any gift that can be left under our trees or in our stockings. Through him, we were given salvation – eternal life with God in heaven despite the sins we have committed. We have been shown grace, divine love, and supernatural forgiveness and restoration.

No piece of jewelry, new clothing, good food, or even good company can compare to that gift.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t enjoy the celebratory nature of the holidays, but while we enjoy our family time or holiday parties we can pause and reflect on the peace of Christ, which can help bring us our own peace. Jesus gives us peace beyond our understanding.

If we want to have peace during the holiday season, we may need to create moments that will facilitate it. Waiting for small spaces of calm won’t work when the world itself doesn’t wait.

We have to make those pockets of calm for ourselves or they might not happen.

I first wrote about pockets of peace and our need for them in a blog post earlier this year.

In that post, I mentioned that to create small spaces of peace for myself I had to do things like putting my phone down and getting off social media, shutting off the TV, keeping myself away from any news or information from the outside world, and not ruminating on all the tasks I need to be doing.

“They were little pockets of time in my day where I could regulate my thoughts and my soul, even if only slightly,” I wrote in the post. “It helped give my nerves and mind time to calm down, instead of continuing to race and raise my cortisol to dangerous levels. I even made a point to pull a blanket over my lap and make a cup of tea during those times, mentally envisioning myself in a type of comfort zone.”

The idea for Christmas pockets of peace is the same. If you do play music make it sacred Christmas music that will remind you of Jesus’ place in the season. If you read, make it something that will remind you of the birth of our savior. If you watch something, watch something that will also bring you back to the reason we celebrate in the first place.

One way to do this might be to find a devotional you can read during the weeks leading up to Christmas. I didn’t do that this year and I regret that but I hope to look for one on my You Vision app this week.

You could also watch a dramatic representation of the nativity story, such as the ones presented by the creators of The Chosen over the years. I’ll link to those at the end of the post.

However you choose to decompress from the busyness of the season, I encourage you to remember that your pockets of peace don’t have to be long to be impactful. Even five to ten minutes of listening to a calming song or reading an inspirational devotional can be enough to remind you what is really important this time of year.