Welcome to the cutting room floor, a Southern Christian Church podcast.

Each week, we sit down with our teachers to talk through what didn't make it into Sunday's sermon.

Thoughts, stories, or questions that got left on the cutting room floor, but still matter.

There's no script, just real conversations that allow us to go deeper into last week's sermon.

Thanks for being with us. Let's jump in. Well, hey everyone and welcome to the cutting room floor. Thanks for being here with us today. My name's Neil. Today we have Scott Nickel, the guy who loves Christmas. I do love Christmas. More than anyone else. I love it. You do have some pet peeves. Yeah, well, of course. Who doesn't have pet peeves on Christmas? I don't know. Are there people who don't have pet peeves? Probably. Very selfless kind people. We have someone on staff who like loves all things Christmas. More of the Grinch, but all things Christmas. Toria just doesn't, she's not that, she doesn't have strong opinions. That's fair. Yeah, she's just cool with things.

Yeah, I like Christmas, but there's a couple things about Christmas. I like Christmas, as opposed to last week where I feel like it was drained or nailed in that I don't love Christmas. Yeah, I love Christmas. Right out of the gate you wanted to get that in there. I like Christmas. We're in Christmas according to kids. You know what? It makes people the most mad and historically has

when I've talked about it and I haven't, I don't

think I've done it in a couple years. No,

the people are on my team with that. I already watched

you. And I mean, it's just so obviously

a Christmas movie. It's Christmas from

start to finish. Was it like

Thanksgiving and then die hard? Is that what you did?

Pretty close. Okay. Like we, when we decorate the tree, we usually watch Christmas vacation afterwards. Okay. So we've done that already, and then we'll watch it again on Christmas Eve. So we've hit Home Alone. The kids watched Home Alone, too, the other day, but I went to bed before it was over. Okay. Before all the good parts. And then I started die hard a little bit by myself and then the family finished it with me. I got home the other day before everybody was out doing stuff. And you're like, I got home from work. I was like, well, I watched, you know, the first 30 minutes to die hard. Why wouldn't I? You know, but the thing that gets me in the most... coming home and they'll be like yeah of course dad's watching die hard the thing that gets me in the most trouble is when I talk about the elf on the shelf

uh But the thing that gets me in the most... You're like, yeah, of course. Dad's watching die hard. The thing that gets me in the most trouble is when I talk about the elf on the shelf. Parents get so mad at me when I bring it up, you know. And it's just he's a spy. That's all he is. Yeah. And he's trying to... He's there to help Santa. He's there to help Santa convince you to... You better watch out. You better not pal. It's a great ploy for parents to be able to get their kids to just do the right thing all the time. Yeah, which is the opposite of the gospel. Yeah. It's the literally opposite of the gospel. So when I say that, I didn't use those at all. Yeah. When I say that, people get mad. But it is. That's fair. Yeah. I am, am, I'm grateful. We don't have to have them there anymore.

It's great.

No elves.

You never had to have them, Neil.

I know.

You never had to have the elves. We don't have them anymore. No elves, no shelves. You don't need any elves on shelves. Sometimes it was fun to put him in precarious situations.

I totally get it.

Just don't tell your kids that he's an actual spy from Santa to make sure they behave themselves.

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