Billy Graham and Ruth Bell Graham truly celebrated the birth of Christ on Christmas day with their children. They set aside the stories man has made up and told their kids the true story that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born on Christmas Day. So what did the Graham family do on Christmas morning?

Christmas morning told by Ruth Bell Graham

Let’s pretend that you’ve come to visit us on Christmas. There’s a special reason why it has to be Christmas, of all the days in the year. This is the day when, after all the presents are opened, we sit in front of the fire and hear the Christmas story from the Bible.

I’ll tell you about our house so that you can imagine you are here… Our house will make you think of a pioneer’s cabin off in the woods. We asked the men who built it to leave the logs showing the walls rough, like those of an old-fashioned log cabin…

Now let’s say that it’s Christmas morning. The tree is over there by the window, with the presents beneath it and its branches loaded down with warm-colored lights, candy canes, ornaments, and the smallest gifts… The presents have to wait until after breakfast, but the stockings are for now…

Our children think breakfast takes forever on Christmas morning. Never do the grown-ups eat so much… But then comes the wonderful moment when finally they’re through, and they get up, scraping their chairs on the floor, and everyone goes back into the living room to open the presents.

It takes a long time because everyone wants to see what everyone else has received. But finally the very last package is opened. The floor is a heap of paper and ribbons and the grown-ups are saying, as they did last year, that there’s really too much and that next year they will have to buy fewer presents.

And now comes the moment that’s really Christmas. The fire is snapping. Christmas music is playing softly on the record player. Everyone makes himself comfortable, some on the floor, some in chairs, some on the window seat. It’s time for the Christmas story. Father opens the Bible to the second chapter of the Book of Luke. When he begins to read the room is suddenly still with a special stillness that it has only at this time on Christmas morning. We are very quiet as we listen again to the wonderful story.

From “Our Christmas Story” by Ruth Bell Graham (1959)