Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 541 | Christmas Hot Takes | Guest: Nathan Nipper

Episode Date: December 21, 2021

Today is all about helping everyone get into the Christmas spirit! First, we listen to several voicemails sent in by listeners who shared their unpopular hot takes on Christmas. Then, we talk with author and writer for Glenn Beck Nathan Nipper, who has written a new novel about this most wonderful time of the year, "Life on Christmas Eve."  --- Today's Sponsors: Bambee customizes policies to fit your business. They're your dedicated HR manager available by phone, email, or real-time chat. Go to Bambee.com/ALLIE to schedule your free HR audit for your small business! Birch Gold has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, countless 5-star reviews & thousands of satisfied customers and they can help YOU protect your hard-earned savings. Text 'ALLIE' to 989898 & request your free info kit! Good Ranchers has a variety of boxes to try yourself or to gift this season. It's the gift that keeps on giving, plus it keeps local, American farms & ranches open & donates 10 meals to people who would otherwise go hungry. Go to GoodRanchers.com/ALLIE & use code 'ALLIE' at checkout to get $20 off & free express shipping on your order. --- Buy Allie's book, You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love: https://alliebethstuckey.com/book Relatable merchandise: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Tuesday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far, getting ready for Christmas. As you guys know, these are pre-recorded episodes this week and next week that I recorded before this week.

So my team and I can take a break. Enjoy the holidays, spend time with our families, rest, all of that. good stuff, but I wanted to make sure that you still got new episodes. So two new episodes this week that were pre-recorded, two conversations next week that are awesome that were pre-recorded. Then that first week of January, there are going to be no new episodes. We might do some replay episodes of some older episodes, but no new episodes that week just taking a break. Today, we're going to listen to some fun voicemails from you guys. I asked you your unpopular Christmas opinion and then we're going to talk to a friend of the show, Nathan Nipper.

He just wrote his first fiction novel, and it's a Christmas novel, and it's just lovely. He's a lovely person. And I think this novel is going to be especially great for my audience. And so we're going to talk to him at the end of the episode. This is just going to be a fun, lighthearted Christmas episode to get you in the mood as you are making those gingerbread houses. I don't think I've actually ever made a gingerbread. bread house, but I think that's something that people do before Christmas. When I tell you guys that I am not a crafty, artistic person, I really mean it. So anything creative like that, I'm just,

I'm just not good at it. And honestly, I don't enjoy it. But for those of you who do, maybe you're enjoying that right now and you're listening to this podcast episode as you do that. And so this is going to be fun. And then on Thursday, we're going to have a little bit more, a more profound, a deeper episode, a theological episode, an encouraging episode about why we celebrate Christmas, what the gospel is, who this Jesus is, who came to be born in a manger, and died for our sins on our behalf that we might live forever with him. So we'll be talking about all of that on Thursday. I highly recommend listening to that episode. But today, today, we're going to do some fun stuff. We're going to listen to your voicemails, and I'll have some commentary to give

after each voicemail, I'm sure. So let's go ahead and get started. with that, our first voicemail for the day. Hello, this is Karen. I'm calling from Florida. I love your show, but my Christmas pet peeve is people taking photos in front of their Christmas tree on Thanksgiving. How do you know the following year or later was this Thanksgiving or this Christmas? It is Thanksgiving.

You don't take your family pictures in front of the Christmas tree. All right, that's all. Have a great day. I love your podcast. Wow, that is oddly specific. I had to really think about that as you were talking about, okay, so you don't like when people take their Christmas picture in front of their Christmas tree on Thanksgiving. I didn't know that was something that people did. However, it does remind me of my Christmas pet peeve, which that wasn't totally the assignment, but I appreciate it because I love hearing people's peeves and pet peeves. And so thank you for for telling us. what you dislike when it comes to what people do on Christmas. But I don't like it when people decorate before Thanksgiving for Christmas. I want everything to have their season.

Now, I understand there are people who literally, they legitimately get offended when I say that I think we should wait to play Christmas music and put up your Christmas tree and your lights and all of that stuff until after Thanksgiving. My preference is December 1st. But some people, they do it. They're like before Halloween, they're starting to take down their Christmas. Christmas decorations from their attic. And when I, you know, I speak truth to power about that. When I push back about this very important issue, I get some people who message me and say,

why can't you just allow people to enjoy what they want to enjoy it? It's been a hard year. And people enjoy out of Christmas. Why can't you just let people enjoy it? Well, look, I am not, I am not proposing any legislation here. Okay. I am not, I'm not banning your Christmas celebrations. You can leave your, you can leave your Christmas lights on, on your front porch all year. And in fact, if you drive through Arkansas, you'll see a lot of people with their lights on their front porch all year and their Christmas decorations. So that's fine. If you, if you want to do that. And by the way, I can say that because most of my family is from Arkansas. And we go to Arkansas a lot and you're lovely people. I'm just saying that a lot of people leave their Christmas decorations

outside all year in Arkansas. And that's fine with me. If that brings you joy, you should do that. I am just saying my preferences and my opinions. And you listen to this podcast and follow me on Instagram because you want to hear my opinions. So you can't get angry with me when I say that I think that you should leave your Christmas decorations in the boxes until after Thanksgiving.

I just like everything to have their season. And there's a time to celebrate fall and harvest and Thanksgiving and all of that good stuff. And I just feel like we railroad it. with Santa Claus. And I don't know, I'm just against it. I'm against it. All right, let's listen to the next, the next voicemail. Hi, Allie. This is Stephanie from Indiana. Here's my hot take on Christmas no-noes. Adults just should not wear Santa hats. It's kind of the equivalent to putting eyelashes on your car. Just had to say it. Thanks for all you do. Thanks for your work. Putting eyelashes

on your car. That's hilarious. I think it's weird when people do that too. If you do that. You know, going back to what I just said, if that brings you joy, that's fine. There's no moral qualm that I have with putting eyelashes on your car. I just think, I feel like it only happens with people who have VW bugs. And people who drive jeeps and VW bugs have like their own personality trait. It's like your own, it should be your own enneagram number, like VW bug over here, Jeep people over here, you have your own characteristics. One of the characteristics of people who drive VW bugs is that they put eyelashes on their car. I don't understand it. But again, you know what? If that makes you happy, that's fine. Okay, so adults wearing Santa hats. All right. I guess if you're doing

it in like a serious way, I would have a problem with that. If that was like your real accessory, it doesn't really bother me, I think, for just, you know, taking a picture in front of the tree or something like that. That doesn't bother me. Now, Now, adults dressing up in like Christmas footy pajamas or something like that, that freaks me out. I think when adults are, when adults are into things that really are just for children, that kind of freaks me out. And that also is true when it comes to like Christmas traditions personally, I don't want like, I don't think adults should be wearing like footy pajamas. on Christmas. So maybe that's also like the vibe that you're going for, the eyelash on car vibe. I'm going to really start thinking about, I'm going to start thinking about what that means.

What does it mean for someone to do something that is similar to putting eyelashes on your headlights? I'm going to be thinking about that. Kind of like I thought about, you know, that term chugie that has gotten so popular this year. That's kind of intangible, unquantifiable, and not definable. like what exactly is Chugi, all of us millennials probably fall into that category. I'm going to be thinking, what is an eyelash on the headlights of your car vibe? That's very interesting. Thank you for introducing me to that. Hey, this is Steve Day.

If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos.

If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Okay. Next voicemail. Hey, Allie. It's your girl, and Celine. I loathe Hallmark Christmas movies.

I don't understand them. The plot is the same every single year. Every title is the same. He's got a Christmas star, a match made at Christmas, a pin pal for Christmas, a royal Christmas. They're all the same. They're all about city flickers with high-paying corporate jobs who are sent to a small town that loved Christmas. and I'm just over the same movie, and I would rather watch Will Ferrell eat spaghetti with chocolate syrup and candies on it,

aka Elf, for 24 nights in a row, then be subjected to curling up with Hot Coco watching Hallmark Christmas movies. No thank you. I will find anything else to do with my time than to subject myself to poor movies like the home of Christmas movies. Anyways, love you, friend. Hope you're doing well. Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas. Okay, so that actually is a real life friend. All of you are my friends in one sentence. But Ansley, she really is my girl. I love, I love you, Ansley. Thank you for leaving a voicemail. Thank you for listening to Relatable. That means so much.

So Ansley and I, this is a total, like, aside. And I don't know if anyone is interested in this. at all. But the first job I worked after college, I worked at this PR and social media firm. And the people that worked there were just the most amazing people. I still love them to this day. I still talk to my bosses from that first job. I learned so much from that first job. But my coworkers were just amazing. I'm still friends with them. And Ansley was my co-worker. I think I started working there. It was like a week after graduation. I think she had just gotten engaged like the night before. And I remember it was the night of her wedding. I went to her wedding that my now husband,

me to go on a first date and I couldn't go because I was at Anzley's wedding. So that's Anzley. And Anzley also did my makeup for my wedding. She's just an incredible person. She and her husband are awesome and it's got a cute kid and a really cute dog and they're just wonderful. And she's hilarious. And I loved her unpopular opinion about the Hallmark movies. I know a lot of people love Hallmark movies. Let me tell you my experience with these Christmas Hallmark movies. I don't have very many because I feel the same way that Anzley dies. They are super cheesy. Now, I know. I can see why people like them because it's so simple. And it's just like, you know, it's going to be pretty wholesome, although some of you have told me there were maybe some woke progressive themes in Hallmark movies this year that you don't appreciate and you feel like you're not going to watch the Hallmark movies.

I mean, Hallmark has got to know their audience. Like they're mostly like conservative 50 year old women that are watching these Hallmark movies. But of course, they're going to push, you know, Hollywood ideals on you eventually. but I understand why people like them. So I'm not, you know, making fun of you for that. It makes a lot of sense to me. But I just personally don't accept for. So sometimes I get my hair done at, what's it called?

What's that, what's that called? Is it, what's it called? The place that does your hair. What's it called? No, not fly bar. What is it called? Dry bar. Okay, I think I'm mixing.

I think that there is like a bar, B-A-R-R-E place called Fly Bar. And I think that at Dry Bar, they call, they like, there's like signs that call you like a bar fly if you go there. Okay. So that was just my moment of not being able to use my brain properly. But dry bar. So sometimes I go there to get my hair done. And this month, they have like this deal with Hallmark where they play Hallmark movies continually.

And so I just find myself because I'm. just getting my hair done. It's right in front of you and they've got the captions on. I find myself just raptured watching these. I think I watched two in a row the other day when I was getting my hair done. As you guys know, I have a lot of hair and it takes forever for me to do, which is why I go ahead and get it done. And it takes, I have to sit there for like two hours as they're blotrying my hair. And I was watching these Hallmark movies. And I was thinking the same thing that Ansela was watching. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is the same exact storyline is the last one I just watched. and yeah but you know I think that they probably make a lot of good money on that because

people watch them so it must be a good industry but Ansley my friend I'm right there with you I would watch elf any day of the week over a Hallmark Christmas movie okay next voicemail hi Allie this is Stephanie I'm calling from Virginia in response to your request about Christmas movies and traditions and that kind of thing I'm with you I love it's a wonderful life. So hands down, that's probably one of my favorite movies. The one movie that I can't stand, and I've never watched it because I just can't get through it is I think it's called the Christmas movie. It's about the one with the Red Rider, BB gun. Anyway, I can't stand that movie, and they play it like for 24 hours on Christmas Day. It's like, oh, my goodness, give me a break.

Yes. Anyway, one thing that I love and other people around me don't like, I love fruitcake. My mom and dad made the best fruitcake. They make a baked fruitcake and they made a unbaked fruit cake that you use marshmallow with. And I'm just, I love fruitcake. But anyway, so I thought you might get a kick out of that. Thank you so much. I hope you have a great Christmas and I love your show. Bye.

Well, thank you so much for leaving a voicemail. So right there with you on It's a Wonderful Life, as I said last week, you can give me all kinds of unpopular opinions in these voicemails. one thing you cannot say is that you don't like it's a wonderful life you can have your own opinions but you're not entitled to your own facts like you're not you're not and that it's a fact it's a fact that it's a wonderful life is a good movie and we have some um atrocious opinions on the relatable team and it just goes to show how truly tolerant i am that there is a person who will not be named but uh his name rhymes with billen and he not only doesn't like it's a wonderful life. He also, he also doesn't like the office. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking,

oh my, oh my gosh, is he even allowed in the building when you guys record? And I say, yes, we've had to talk through it. I've had to really try to understand where he's coming from. He says there are no jokes in the office. I'm pausing for dramatic effects for you to just be able to take that in because I know some of you out there, you had to gasps and say, what is he talking about? So maybe it doesn't surprise you. you that the same person doesn't like it's a wonderful life. We've had to we've had to hash it out and talk through it. He brings other things to the table. And so we say, okay, well, you're not fired for that. It's close. Those are two strikes. If he says, I don't know that he doesn't like

I don't know that he doesn't think curb your enthusiasm is funny or he doesn't like cheesecake or something like that, then that just might be, that might be it. That might be the final strike. I'll let you know about that. So it's a wonderful life. Yes, beautiful, wonderful movie. I will say that it's long. It's long. Okay. So by the time he is trying to jump off the bridge, it's like, whew, we got a whole other half of the movie left. This is usually on Christmas Eve for me. And so I'm like trying not to fall asleep, but it is a great, wonderful, redemptive movie. Christmas movie or Christmas story, whatever it's called. I also don't know. I also haven't been able to get through it. It's just like very dark and depressing to me. I don't like it at all. Now, this is coming from someone who just watched the movie Stepmom for fun the other day and who actually love sad movies. I was just talking about this. I love movies that end sadly.

I don't know why. Like I love the notebook. I love what's eating Gilbert grape. But it's like a Christmas story or a Christmas movie again, whatever it is called is different. It's not just sad. It's just like, like miserable. It's just as pitiful. I guess that's the way I describe it. I just don't think it's funny or good or classic at all. And it's strange to me that we have decided that we are going to play it constantly. And then for your unpopular opinion about fruit cake.

So I think everyone kind of has a different definition of what fruit cake is. We have these like fruit logs that my grandmother used to make. can she pass down the recipe and my mom makes them and she does a really good job and i honestly am not even totally sure what's in it there are different nuts in it there are raisins there's like gram cracker on the outside i think um but it's i don't think it's like your traditional fruit cake but that's really good i mean i could eat like a whole one of those by myself but i some people have like fruit uh like congealed fruit salads that they call like fruit cake in a way so i don't know what your definition of fruitcake is, but I believe you when you say that it's good. I'm more of a

chocolate gal myself. I would rather take chocolate than something broody, but I also just like sugar in general, so I probably wouldn't turn it down. All right. How many more voicemails do we have? Lots. Okay. Maybe like three more. Okay. So let's play the next one. Hi, Ali. My name is Marissa Lee. I basically listened to your show and you had asked your listeners to call in and say something that is funny about Christmas or like a Christmas tradition that most people like, but we don't. I guess I'm kind of boring. I like most of the things that you're supposed to like at Christmas, but I do have a good,

funny, recent Christmas story for you. So my family and I, my husband and my two children went to a Christmas tree farm. We live in Washington State and it's our family tradition to go pick a Christmas tree cut it down or have them cut it down a fresh tree. So I'm out hunting for trees and

I'm seeing some good ones in a certain area so I call my husband over and I say come check these trees out. I find a nice looking tree and I see kind of in the middle of the tree it's a noble, a noble

tree. What I think is is like a long pine needle sticking down out of the tree. And I go to reach for it with my bare hands. And at the very last second, I discover it's actually a rat tail. So there is a dead rat that had crawled up inside this Christmas tree, and its tail was just hanging down ready for me to grab. And I realized what I was doing at the very last minute, and I just kind of screamed. And freaked out and did a little bit of a, you know, kind of freak out thing and just realized, like, tried to process like what I almost did, grabbed a dead rat with my bare hands.

Oh, so gross. Never had that happen before. My husband, of course, was laughing and thought it was hilarious. And I finally realized, you know that. Oh, okay, so it kind of cut off there. Oh, my gosh. Did you cut off your hand? I think that I would have and I think I just would have moved my family to a new state.

And I would never be able to live down that memory. What? Oh my gosh. That is terrifying. I'm really sorry that that happened to you. Wow. I didn't know where that story was going. I didn't.

And I was just shocked by that. But we had the exact same reaction, like the same exact exact picture. like the same exact pitch to our, to our scream. That is really scary. I'm sorry that that happened. Maybe that's a sign. You're not supposed to be in Washington state. You're not supposed to be in that liberal hellscape anymore.

You need to move to a free state. And maybe that was the Lord telling you that this place is infested with rats, figuratively, literally, just kidding. I'm sure it's a lovely area where you live. Thank you for telling me that horror story. Now everyone's not going to be able to sleep tonight because they're going to be thinking about that. But I do appreciate you taking the time to leave your voicemail. All right. Next, next voicemail. I'm Lacey, and I'm from Ohio, and my unpopular Christmas opinion

is that I don't like the Christmas dinner potatoes. Here for Thanksgiving, and my family actually takes a different meal. One year we did seafood boil, and this year I think we're doing Italian again. And we're not Italian. But we like Italian food. I love it. I don't think that's unpopular. I don't really like it either. We just went through having to eat the turkey in the hand that no one really likes on Thanksgiving.

We don't need to pretend again on Christmas. There's no need for us to go through that. I think we have had Italian in the past, too. Like, I'm good with barbecue. I love the idea. The seafood boil. That's a great idea. Like, just eat what you want to eat.

Now, for Thanksgiving, I do for whatever, stick more to the formality of tradition and all of that. I'm more of like a sides and dessert kind of girl for Thanksgiving. But for Christmas, just do what you want to do. I don't know what we're going to do this year. I think we're kind of laying low. I don't know if we're going to do anything special for Christmas Eve dinner. I think we're going to do like a Christmas day breakfast. And I'm thinking of doing some. My mother-in-law makes these amazing ham and cheese rolls that she puts in the oven that are just like melty cheese and butter and ham. you can tell my whole family is from the south. And it's so good. She also makes these really good kishes and breakfast kishes that are so good. So maybe I'll attempt to do those things. I have limited

abilities as a cook. And so I might try to do those things. Might do some, you know, cinnamon rolls out of the can or something because I think my whole family is going to come to my house for breakfast. And so, yeah, and I like breakfast food, maybe even better than that. dinner food. So that's probably how we'll do it. I don't think that's that unpopular of a position. So I support you. I support you in your Italian

food endeavors this Christmas. All right, maybe one more voicemail. Hi, Allie. My name's Heather and I live in Georgetown, Texas. Okay, so my unpopular Christmas take is The Grinch. But let me be clear, it's not the original Dr. Suh's book

with the cute characters and the sweet story book ending. I appreciate the classic cartoon character and story as much as the next person. It is the cosplay type dressing up as the Grinch that totally freaks me out. I think it's scary, the face paint or the mask, and how he always has that big belly sticking out of a Christmas sweater. It's just super weird. It's not cute.

It's disturbing. As much as I desperately want to love Jim Carrey as the Grinch, there is just something about the humanoid Grinch that freaks me out. We have a huge lighting of the square event in Georgetown, Texas, every Christmas, and every single year, the Grinch is there, and people love it, and here I am cringing and crossing over to the other side of the street to avoid him. Those pictures that trend every year during the holiday season where parents pay to traumatize their kids or pets and snap a picture of it as the freaky Grinch pops out of the bushes behind them, and the photographer captures the moment of pure terror in their faces. that is just a big Christmas no for me. Let's leave the story of the Grinch in the pages of the sweet classic book and stop terrorizing the town in our scary Grinch costumes.

Surely I'm not the only one who feels this way. I love your podcast, Ellie Best. Merry Christmas. Thank you and Merry Christmas. I love how you so clearly explain your position on that. So I agree with you and disagree with you. So I love the, like, I don't know what year it was, 2000, maybe

2003 version of the Grinch with Jim Carrey. I have always loved it. I think it's so quotable. Now, I agree with you. There are some, like, freaky parts to it. It actually came on TV the other day and I was watching it. And I was like, I don't really like this part where he is, like, being force fed eggnog and he is being forced to, like, eat all of this food to the point of being overly

to it. It's weird. There are definitely some dark parts to that movie. but Jim Carrey is hilarious as The Grinch and it's so quotable and I love I just think that he does a really good job. I don't with myself, but I can cancel that again. I love that part. I love that part when he says like a 630 wallow and self-floathing or something like that when he's deciding whether or not to go to the whole, you know, the whole shebang down in Whoville. It's so quotable. It's so quotable. We also do love the original Grinch book in our house. We are, we have to read it on repeat like every single day because it is a favorite in our household. And it's super cute. I do agree with you though. I don't think that I would take my young kids to get their picture with the Grinch. It is kind of freaky. It is kind of scary. And so that's not something that I would be like clamoring to do. So I'm with you there. I'm with you. It is kind of freaky. It is kind of creepy. I, I,

just think that the not the original Grinch, which is the cartoon, but the Grinch in the early 2000s, I personally think it's just really funny and is good acting. It has a lot of quotable lines. That's my take on that. All right, that's all we have time for as far as unpopular Christmas.

Christmas things go. Nathan, thank you so much for joining us. Can you tell everyone who you are and what you do? Sure. Well, I'm a Christian, a husband, a dad, father of three, and I work for, I'm a writer by trade and work for the Glenn Beck team on his TV and radio shows writing primarily for them. And yeah, I've been here for several years. Yeah, how long have you been here? That's what I was going to ask. I started here in 2016.

Okay. So about five and a half years. Yeah. To join the show. There's a lot that has happened since 2016. Yes. If I had been able to see, at the time, oh gosh, I mean, I did not know what I was in for. Right? Yes. Not job-wise, it's been great. I love the team that we work with and everything, but just the chaos and U.S. politics has just been something else.

You've been really busy. And you've also written a novel, Life on Christmas Eve. Is this the first novel that you've written? Yes. It is. I wrote a non-fiction book several years back, but this is my first attempt at fiction. Okay. Although it's not totally out of left field because way back early in my career, I did some screenwriting.

And so, in fact, this started as a screenplay years ago. Oh, yeah? And I thought it might actually get made into a movie. But, you know, in the screenwriting world, so many times deals get to the on the cusp, you know, and then fall apart. And that happens all the time. It's just part of the process. And so that's what happened with this one. And then, yeah.

So tell us about it. Life on Christmas Eve. What is this about? Why'd you write it? Yeah. Life on Christmas Eve is about a 31-year-old small-town woman who watches It's a Wonderful Life for the very first time. And shortly after she does, she starts to notice some kind of weird similarities between things that happened to her and things that happen in the movie. And so it's her journey basically to figure out why these things might be happening and what they might mean, if anything, leads her to an encounter, a life-changing encounter.

with a mysterious stranger on Christmas Eve. So there's kind of, it's kind of a fun, I hope, a quirky type story that is set during the holiday season, very heartwarming, sort of fun read that I hope in the end kind of packs a surprise emotional punch. Yes. And I'm sure that it will. And I think a lot of people in my audience can relate to this because there are a lot of 31-year-old women who are in this audience.

Maybe some of them who haven't seen It's a Wonderful Life. Maybe they'll be watching It's a Wonderful Life for the first time this Christmas. Yeah. And so they can actually see themselves in this story, which I think just kind of adds another layer to it. Yeah. And is really fun. And where can they find it? So, well, the hardcover actually have almost gone.

That's awesome. You can still find it on Amazon. They, because of the supply chain issues in the publishing world, there hasn't been a second print run, but there are still paperbacks. So they had to do a paperback actually to try to, uh, keep up with the demand here. So you could still get it in time for Christmas, but it may be a paperback. Okay.

And of course, digital. It's available. Okay, so life on Christmas Eve, they can get it on Amazon and wherever, and they can get the digital use that. They can get it on Kindle. Okay, that is wonderful. And what else would you say that people,

in my particular audience, what do you think that they could get from this or that they would like about this? As you know, most of my audience, is young women. Like I said, they kind of fit this category? What's your hope that someone would get out of this book?

Yeah, I mean, there are several themes. You know, the main character is a Christian. There's this theme woven throughout of faith, not just sort of a generic faith, but this idea as believers, you know, we want to know answers for why things are happening in our lives. And, you know, sometimes you get that clarity and sometimes you don't. And what do you do when you don't get it? do we still trust God?

He's infinitely trustworthy, but we're, and I'm speaking from personal experience here, we're kind of bad at the trust part. A lot of times, you know, we just, we fade easily in that walk. And so there's that element. There's also a strong theme of grace and sort of generosity and love. There's sort of a nemesis character in this book that the main character Julie has to deal with. and I was really sort of preaching to myself, you know, this idea of do I really love my enemies as I'm commanded to by Christ? Do I pray for those who persecute me or even if I'm not personally persecuted by something, which I'm not that often?

But do we, do I pray for those who are on the opposite side of the political spectrum from me or whatever? those are convicting words and I don't spend a lot of time with that on that. You know, I don't love my enemies very well. And so I was really sort of working through that as one of the themes in the book as well. And then ultimately, it's not a book about abortion. That word is not mentioned. That's not part of it. However, without giving away sort of the surprising ending, I do hope that this book, the story gives you sort of a different lens for considering the unborn.

And the theme of the inherent value of each individual life is very strong in the end. Yeah, I think that's something that a lot of people can learn from that point that you made about the importance of forgiving our enemies, even when they don't ask for forgiveness or praying for those who persecute us or who slander us or whatever it is, that's certainly something that we like to say that we do as Christians or that we want to do. And certainly at Christmas time, there's a lot of talk about redemption and love and reconciliation and things like that. But I think a lot of times, myself included, we pay lip service to those things without actually examining our hearts. Is this really true? And, Am I living out the undeserved love that God gave to me toward other people?

And very often we talk about, you know, Christmas cheer and generosity and charity and things like that. But when it comes to repenting of our lack of things, our lack of those things in our heart, that's much more difficult to do. It's easy to put it on a Christmas card and just talk about it, you know, or hear about it in a sermon or sing about it in Christmas hymns. but when it comes to applying it to our lives, it's a little bit more difficult.

Easier in theory than in practice a lot of times, right? Yeah. You know, if there's one thing the last couple of years in our culture has shown, we've had a pandemic, and then we've had a pandemic of a lack of grace, I feel like. And goodness, I mean, just preaching to the choir here, but, you know, the Christian community,

our reputation has taken a hit. Yeah. And there are freedoms to be defended, certainly. There are issues in our culture that are concerning and all of that. But if we don't have a – if our approach isn't graceful from the get-go, then no one's going to listen to what we have to say. Yeah. And we're not representing Christ if we aren't stepping out with grace first.

And it can be difficult to balance grace and boldness because grace doesn't – Being gracious doesn't mean that you don't speak the truth. But thankfully, we see such beautiful examples of that grace and truth and boldness and bravery and love in the person of Jesus. That's what his ministry was. He was harsh toward the people he needed to be harsh to. He was clear when he needed to be clear. But he was also full of grace.

We see that in the testimony of Stephen too, who was filled with grace and truth. And so Christians, when he was. we're trying to balance that and say, okay, what does that look like to love our enemies, but also to speak against, you know, ideologies and ideas and policies that we see as dangerous. We actually have really good examples of that in the Bible. Absolutely. So, well, I'm very thankful for this book that you've written and talk about all of that stuff in a very fun way in a lighthearted way, but also with serious and profound themes. and that can be the most effective way

to communicate some of these important issues, don't you think? I hope so. And, you know, it's my small way of putting a little salt and light out there because just pushing back against the darkness a little bit. I mean, these are dark times. I mean, there's so much to be grateful for

and celebrate about life still, of course. But, I mean, it's discouraging sometimes, especially in the entertainment world or, you know, the books that are the big hits and whatever, it's just such overwhelming darkness sometimes. So true. This is my flying the rebel flag a little bit to say to push back against that. And I think that that's important. It is so important.

And, you know, there are times when I feel overwhelmed with that stuff too. And I just feel like nothing that we do as Christians, nothing that we say, nothing that we push back against is effective. And, you know, we're just two people. even this entire network. We're a drop in the bucket of everything that goes on in the world. And my dad always reminds me. He always says, fish is and loaves, fishes and loaves. And it's true.

God does use what seems like small obedience and small faith. And he is going to do what he wants to do with those things. Like we are small and finite, but we do serve a big God. And all he calls us to is obedience. And if this book is an act of obedience, then God is going to use it for his glory and the good of other people. and that's all any of us can do. And speaking of the darkness, we were talking about before we filmed, I was telling them just about some of the trashy things that I read as a teenager

that were not good for my mind. Just, you know, the trashy teen fiction and romance that I look back, and I'm like, that was not good for my little 15-year-old heart and processing what love looks like. And so for parents who are thinking, how can I get my kids to, like, consume good things, especially over Christmas break when they're in front of a screen. Like this book, Life on Christmas Eve, could be a good, like it could be a good option.

Like you could give it to one of your teenage kids and say, read this instead of, you know, whatever it is. And hopefully you won't be bored to tears, right. No, no, you definitely won't be. So they can get this on Amazon, correct, life on Christmas Eve. And if you want it before Christmas, which I recommend, get the digital copy. If you've got a Kindle or something like that, you can get the paper back if you can't get the hard back. Thank you so much. Can people, if you put out other books, can people follow you and follow your writings and, you know, the work you do?

Is that possible? Yes. I do have Nathan Nipper.com. It's in I-P-P-E-R. And so they can get in touch with me there. And I'm on Twitter, but I'm not a big, not a big Twitter guy, you know? Yeah. You're mostly behind the scenes when it comes to what's being talked about.

So, but you can find me on Twitter as well. Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much, Nathan. I appreciate you taking the time to come. on. Thanks for having me. All right, guys, that is it for today. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you to everyone who sent your voicemails. I'm sorry that I couldn't play all of the voicemails. They are all hilarious and charming and awesome. And I have the best and the smartest and the most wonderful and

kindest listeners in the world. And thank you guys so much for the time that you take out of your week, out of your busy schedules, to listen to relatable, to leave me voicemails, to send me messages and emails, to leave me reviews. It means so much to me. I'm so thankful for you guys. and thankful for this Christmas season that we get to enjoy together, even if not in person with each other. I still feel like we are a community and we get to celebrate as fellow Christians and, of course, as a relatable community, the wonder of our Savior's birth. And we're going to talk about all of that, even more on Thursday. So make sure you tune into that episode. You can listen or you can watch on YouTube. Thank you guys for being awesome. I will see you guys back here soon.

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

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