{"id":17404,"date":"2026-03-10T14:15:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T14:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/how-ben-napier-spreads-christmas-cheer\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:03:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:03:36","slug":"how-ben-napier-spreads-christmas-cheer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/inspiring-stories\/stories-of-faith-and-hope\/how-ben-napier-spreads-christmas-cheer\/","title":{"rendered":"How Ben Napier Spreads Christmas Cheer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The big guy in the red suit and cap here in this photo?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s me, behind the wheel of my Chevy pickup on a scorching-hot August day (shades required, air condi\u00adtioning on full blast). I\u2019d just pulled out of the HGTV set<\/a> last summer after a shoot. I couldn\u2019t help my\u00adself. Christmas is part of who I am. I was raised on it. <\/p>\n

Mama and Daddy stretched the Christ\u00admas season out for weeks. In my family, it started on Thanksgiving morning with the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade<\/a> turned up loud on the TV. Then, on some random night soon after, my brothers and I were instructed to pile into the back seat of our Suburban to go see the wonderful Tech\u00adnicolor Christmas cheer deep on the back roads of Mississippi. <\/p>\n

There were three of us boys at first, stretching our skinny necks out the win\u00addow, sliding this way and that, depending on which side of the street the brightest houses (and bushes and broken-down Fords) sat. The best thing about country light displays is that if it\u2019s immobile, it gets decked out in lights. <\/p>\n

I was 10 years old when Mama told my brothers and me that we were going to have a new sibling. I heard her tell friends that this baby was a surprise. I wondered how that could be if we knew it was coming. Well, our baby brother arrived just as the holidays were beginning, and he was the most awesome gift. Could Christmas get <\/em>any better? <\/p>\n

Our parents sang in the church choir and took us along caroling. I was schooled in these songs long before I joined the choir of every church I grew up in. We moved to a new one every few years because Daddy was a Methodist minister. \u201cGo Tell It on the Mountain,\u201d \u201cSilent Night,\u201d<\/a> \u201cAway in a Man\u00adger,\u201d \u201cO Come, All Ye Faithful\u201d\u2014I love all of them. But a favorite? That\u2019s like asking me to pick a favorite brother. <\/p>\n

At Jones County Junior College, I lis\u00adtened to Christmas music when the sum\u00admer heat became unbearable. When my roommates weren\u2019t around, I\u2019d put on a classic like \u201cWhite Christmas.\u201d Somehow I got up the nerve to admit my Christmas \u201cthing\u201d to the smart, beautiful design student I started dating in Decem\u00adber 2004. One of our first dates was to Ma\u00adson Park in Laurel, Mississippi, to see the light display. I was as happy as that kid in the back of our old Suburban, craning my neck out the window.<\/p>\n

Erin and I went on to the University of Mississippi and eventually got married. We settled down in Laurel.<\/a> She started her own design company. I was a student minister turned woodworker. Our dream was to help revitalize this small town, to renovate all the old buildings and homes, one by one. With HGTV, we\u2019re making that happen. <\/p>\n

While I\u2019m proud of our work in our com\u00admunity, our best project together by a mile is our two-year-old, Helen. The only surprise there <\/em>is that somehow I love her more each day, when loving her any more than I already do does not seem possible. My little girl has so much to look forward to. <\/p>\n

For one thing, she can pretty much count on the fact that, even in August, one of the Home Alone <\/em>movies is bound to be running on a cable TV station and her daddy won\u2019t deprive her of it simply because the calen\u00addar suggests it\u2019s off-season. With all of this holly jolly going on, you might imagine that I keep all of our Christmas decorations up year-round. That\u2019s where we draw the line. <\/p>\n

By the twelfth day of Christmas (on January 6), we\u2019re packing the decorations away in the attic. It\u2019s okay though, because now I have this suit. This glorious old-world Santa Claus suit that the HGTV folks gave me for the show\u2019s holiday promo shoot last summer. <\/p>\n

The deep red velvet coat is lined in satin and trimmed with gold embroidery and white faux fur. The brown boots have buck\u00adles. Pretty snazzy. No heat wave can cramp my <\/em>style. Funny thing is, people tell me I remind them of the jolly old elf himself even when I\u2019m not wearing the getup. <\/p>\n

Can\u2019t say I disagree, even if my beard\u2019s not white\u2014yet. He makes toys; I make fur\u00adniture. According to Erin, none <\/em>of this is a coincidence. So on that August afternoon after the HGTV shoot wrapped, Erin and I jumped into my truck to pick up Helen. I wanted to surprise her with a hearty \u201cHo! Ho! Ho!\u201d <\/p>\n

Though she had no idea who Santa Claus was, she recognized me right away, and it seemed like it was the most normal thing in the world to her that I was dressed in a velvet outfit in the middle of the sum\u00admer. I guess you could say that she\u2019s her father\u2019s daughter. If I can pass on to her the joy Christmas brings me, my work will be done. Remember how I told you that Erin and I had our first date in December? <\/p>\n

We always celebrate that week we fell in love by going back to that same light display in the park. Christmas only gets better as I get older. Little did I know at 10. Someone once asked me, \u201cBy the time actual Christmas rolls around, aren\u2019t you tired of the carols<\/a>, the movies, the good cheer?\u201d <\/p>\n

No, ma\u2019am, not one bit. Same way I never get tired of spending time with my family or of going to church or of counting every surprise as a Christ\u00admas blessing.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The big guy in the red suit and cap here in this photo? That\u2019s me, behind the wheel of my Chevy pickup on a scorching-hot August day (shades required, air condi\u00adtioning on full blast). I\u2019d just pulled out of the HGTV set last summer after a shoot. I couldn\u2019t help my\u00adself. Christmas is part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":27391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[185],"tags":[24,25,40,42],"ppma_author":[1805],"class_list":["post-17404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-of-faith-and-hope","tag-christmas","tag-family","tag-holidays","tag-home"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Ben Napier Spreads Christmas Cheer - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Ben Napier Spreads Christmas Cheer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The big guy in the red suit and cap here in this photo? 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