Memorizing Scripture as a Christmas Gift to Jesus

Have you ever thought about giving Jesus a Christmas gift?

Not something wrapped with a bow, but something deeply personal—something that costs time, attention, and love.

When our children were little and we were living in Africa, we wanted to do something special each Christmas to honor the Lord. One simple tradition we started was asking the children to choose a toy to give away before Christmas. Living among families with very little made generosity tangible, and it was a sweet way to bless others.

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But I wanted to do more than that for celebrating Christ’s birth.

I wanted to establish a family tradition that would bless us and bless the Lord too.

That’s when the idea came to me: what if we memorized Scripture as our Christmas gift to Jesus?

Instead of buying something new, we would hide God’s Word in our hearts. We would learn it together as a family. And honestly, the children were far more capable than I first imagined—even at very young ages.

In fact, one of our daughters and her husband have carried on the tradition with their children. Here is her daughter at age 2 reciting Psalm 23. This will make you smile.

Memorizing Scripture in Passages

We began by memorizing the Christmas story itself—Luke 2:8–14. What better way to celebrate Christ’s birth than by learning, word for word, what God says about it?

From there, the tradition grew.

Over the years, we memorized entire passages—not just single verses. There is something powerful about learning Scripture in context. When you memorize a whole passage, you don’t just remember a line; you understand the message. And interestingly, you don’t have to remember nearly as many references when the passage flows naturally.

We memorized Romans 12, Philippians 4:4-8, Psalm 112, Romans 8:26-39, Job 22:21-30, I Corinthians 13, the Beatitudes, and more.

One year, the girls and I memorized Proverbs 31:10–31. Another year, we chose the short but powerful passage Habakkuk 3:17–19. In 1992, after ten years of memorizing Scripture together, we made a chart listing every passage we had learned. Each child had to quote the passage to another family member to get it “signed off.” It was both meaningful and memorable.

As our children grew older, the tradition adapted. When each child reached their senior year of high school, they were given the privilege of choosing the passage—and even the Bible translation—we would memorize that year. It became a way of marking a milestone and honoring their growing ownership of their own faith.

When we later adopted Kinza and Colette—after their older siblings had already gone off to college—we started the whole series over again. God’s Word never gets old, and neither does the blessing of learning it together. (On a side note for a laugh, here is a funny Christmas morning video of them. )

Be intentional about putting Christ at the center of your holiday traditions. In a season that so easily becomes hurried and noisy, this practice brought us back to what truly matters.

It’s never too late to start.

Psalm 119:11 says, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

Lately, I’ve been inspired again by a wonderful book on Scripture memory, His Word in My Heart: Memorizing Scripture for a Closer Walk with God by Janet Pope. She encourages memorizing entire books of the Bible. Imagine carrying that much of God’s Word with you wherever you go.

What has been your experience with memorizing Scripture?

First published: Dec 2013

Updated: Dec 2025