The way we tell the Christmas story can sometimes be wrapped in a bow. Christmas — more than any other holiday — is susceptible to sentimentality. This is when the stories we tell are coated in the veneers of unreality because it makes us feel good. We do this every time the Christmas story becomes more of a polished Hollywood production, than a story of real challenge and struggle. The dark side to an overly sentimentalized Christmas, is that it tends not to make room for reality. And when we dismiss the aches and pains, the crying baby Jesus, the struggles and questions, we can dismiss ourselves from being ones who can find ourselves in a sacred story. We need to read Scripture as honestly as it is written and not try to domesticate it into the saccharine clichés of sentimental Christmas cards. For the light of the gospel to shine truthfully, we need to be honest about the darkness in which it shines. In this Advent season, we invite you to join us as we explore the unvarnished Christmas story.