To help us celebrate the most wonderful time of year, Charisma asked several artists to share a favorite Christmas memory or tradition. From Dec. 20-24, each day we will feature two artists who shared their thoughts with us.
From all of us at Charisma, Merry Christmas!
My favorite Christmas memory is when my wife and I picked out a tree and decorated it for our first Christmas together. Not only was it a blast, but it was an amazing feeling realizing that I had started a family of my own. —Phil Wickham
My favorite Christmas memory is Christmas Day, 2002, when my daughter, Skye, was born. I remember it was 3 o’clock Christmas morning. Tim, my husband, and I were holding our baby girl. We were the only ones on the floor and the nurses had turned all the TVs in each room to Christmas music. “Silent Night” was playing, and I will never ever forget those moments. God truly blessed us. —Heather Williams
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The memory that sticks in my mind the most is about the first time I remember asking for a specific gift. I asked for a gray, leather-bound Bible, King James version. Oh yes, and it had to have the thumb tabs! I got vinyl covered cardboard and not leather. But the words were the same. I should go find it and see what Scriptures I marked as a young man. I am sure they will still speak to me today. —Nathan Cochran of MercyMe
One of my favorite things is that each year we pick something to do outside of just giving to our own family members. My favorite memory was the year my dad, mom, sister, brother and me made sack lunches for the homeless and delivered them along with gloves and blankets on a cold Christmas Eve. It has always remained a special memory of seeing how thankful they were. —Kari Jobe 
If there had to be one special Christmas memory, it would be brand-new pajamas and slippers awaiting my brother and me as we braced ourselves for the brilliant, beaming, blinding lights on my dad’s Super 8 movie camera. Second only to that is the Christmas I received my first guitar, giving me musical bliss ever since. —Barry Graul of MercyMe 
For the last four years, my family and church have gone to Fort Hood Army base and fed 1,500 families Christmas dinner. The absolute joy on the faces of these kids is priceless as they open presents we’ve brought them. But the thing I have loved is seeing the faces of my children as they give instead of receive. “You’ll never know what this means to my family”—when I hear those stories I remember why He came.·—Randy Phillips of Phillips, Craig & Dean
My favorite memory is my brothers and me sleeping together Christmas Eve when we were little. We would wake up early in the morning and then form a single file line in the hall and wait for our mom and dad to let us attack our gifts. —Chris Tomlin
It’s incredibly hard to choose a favorite Christmas memory. I could say it was when I got the Hee Haw overalls I had asked for when I was 8 years old, or when I got the Madame Alexander Doll or the Easy-Bake Oven—these are great memories. But the memory that I’m so grateful for is that every Christmas Eve my dad would read the Christmas story—the entire story from beginning to end, not just the birth, but also the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It gave us the proper perspective before we began tearing into our presents the next morning, and I am so thankful for that. —Heather Payne 
