When you're ready to double down, dive in, try for a show, and not look back. Roll into Pearl River. Resume from tea times to table games, water slides by day, slots by night. Savor the flavors, feel the food. Win big. Let's roll into Pearl River Resort. Must be twenty one or older to play gambling problem called one hunter Gimbler. December is here, which means the Christmas season is upon us and it is that time of a year where people were rushing out to try to get the perfect
gift for one another. It actually started on Friday, of course, known as Black Friday, where people are rushing out to get the best shopping deals they can possibly find. But the reality is we should try to change our focus a little bit and maybe not obsessed so much over getting gift giving. Sure, it feels good to give a gift, and who doesn't love receiving a good gift. I'm not knocking any of that, and that is very much part
of the Christmas season. But the big thing that I think we are lost, that we have lost, is we've gotten away from remembering the actual reason for the season. Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. But we don't focus on that the way that we should. There are probably several people that don't understand what Christmas truly is anymore. Parents on all of us who are believers, to remind folks of what the Christmas season is all about. I'm not saying don't
get your loved ones gifts, don't accept gifts. No, I'm not saying any of that. I'm not telling you to not have a big, lavish meal with your family on Christmas Day. I'm just trying to hear. As we're getting started into the early portion of the Christmas season, I'm just trying to remind people that the gifts aren't what
this is about. If you get something that you think feels a little cheap, maybe just accept it that that was all that that person could afford for you and it's their way of showing you a little bit of love. If you give something that is extravagant and you don't get the response that you want, maybe maybe I understand that it's just your gift. You didn't have to go to that extreme, and maybe the person you gave it to feels bad because you did, and maybe they couldn't
go as extreme as you did. Again, people, Christmas, we put so much pressure on ourselves. Nowadays, we look up and we look at our bank accounts. At the end of it, we understand that we have spent a large, smart part of our money just on these gifts, and these are just material things when we should be making a point to sit down with our family and talk about the real reason for Christmas. Growing up my family, Christmas, yes, we usually got great Santa Claus gifts, got great gifts
from grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles. I mean, Christmas was a magical time as a kid. But one thing my father always did, one of those things that really helped us understand that this isn't just about the gifts. He always, on Christmas Eve wanted to sit us down in the living room before we went to bed and read the Christmas Story. Now, I don't remember when this stopped happening.
I know it did, but I remember those formative years sitting down there in the couch in our living room and Dad picking up and it was a big Bible. I mean, it wasn't just a small little bible. It was this big Bible that he would read from. I mean when the Bible you took to church. It's one that stayed right there in our living room on a mantle, right over there to the side. He would pick that big Bible up, he would crack it open, and he'd go to the park where we talk about the Christmas story.
He would skip around, of course, because there would be some years where he'd do he'd read us Luke one twenty six through thirty eight, where the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will give birth to Jesus. Other years, why he would do some of these hodgepodges. Maybe he'd leave that out and he'd start it Luke two one to twenty, the story of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem. That
part usually was always a part of it. But I do remember the years where he would jump around from different parts of the Bible, different parts of the story to tell us different things. Of course, there was Matthew one eighteen through twenty five, which gives you Joseph's perspective on Mary's pregnancy and an angel's instruction to name the child Jesus. There was so much that he would put into it, and like I said, it felt different every year, at least from the perspective of a child, and it
became something that we look forward to. That's why I hate that. I can't remember when it stopped, or I'm sure it stopped because we got older and less interested in hearing the story that we had already heard. And that's sad when you think about it, because we really should have been wanting to hear that story as many times as anybody's willing to read us that story this Christmas. If you have kids, sure do Santa make them feel special,
but maybe take a page from my father. I don't know if you have a supersized large Bible that is always in your living room like my parents had, but sit them down, open up to those chapters, make them understand this isn't about what they're getting. This is about the birth of their Lord and Savior and that's what they need to be celebrating. And if you do that, maybe maybe they'll understand the true magic of the Christmas season.
This has been Morning Coffee with the Right Side and I'm your host, Jack Fairchilds and we're a part of the Midnight Ride Network. This show has been brought to you by Pearl River Casino and Resort,