The most important gift of Christmas doesn’t have bright wrapping paper, say pastors and theologians. It doesn’t come with a bow.

Believers say it’s a newborn babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, born in a manger, a symbol of God’s love for humanity.

The Nativity scene is a presentation of a gift, from God to mankind.

“When we give gifts, it’s because God gave a gift,” said the Rev. Jeremy Steele, executive director of the USA Wesley Foundation and former teaching pastor at Christ Methodist Church in Mobile.

Scarlett Paddock, 12, a sixth grader at Our Lady of Sorrows Elementary School who played the role of Mary in the Nativity during the Christmas program last week, wonders what it would have been like for Joseph and Mary, having the responsibility of presenting that gift to the world.

“I would think it would be really scary, because they were having … God,” Scarlett said.

“The real meaning of Christmas is that it is literally more blessed to give than to receive,” said the Rev. Van Moody, senior pastor of the Worship Center Christian Church, with branches in Birmingham, Anniston and Bessemer.

“The very first Christmas, God demonstrated this by giving us the greatest gift the world has ever known,” Moody said. “And Jesus continues to demonstrate that as he gives and gives to us on a daily basis, not based on what we deserve, but based on the richness of his grace and his mercy.”

The gift-giving theme at the Nativity continues with the wise men from the east, who according to the Gospel of Matthew brought the expensive gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to honor Jesus. Attending candlelight services on Christmas Eve, giving to the needy, volunteering at shelters, visiting the elderly in nursing homes and saying grace over Christmas dinner are among the ways ministers say families can keep faith an important aspect of the holiday.

Even going to look at seasonal lights has a spiritual dimension.

“One of the great things about Christmas is the lights, which aren’t just mere decoration,” said the Rev. David Eldridge, senior pastor of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church in Homewood. “There is something about the light that symbolizes something much deeper, much more powerful.”

Eldridge said as a child his family went riding to look at Christmas lights, and he does the same now. Those lights symbolize the coming of Jesus, he said.

It’s about bringing light into the world.

“The light has come, and it shines in the darkest of places,” Eldridge said. “The darkness does not have the last word in your life, nor does it have the last word in my life, but the last word is a word of light. It is a word of hope and it is a word of freedom.”

Many of the secular trappings of Christmas come trimmed with the roots of faith: Santa Claus was developed partly from stories about St. Nicholas of Myra, in modern-day Turkey, a fourth-century Christian bishop known for his generosity. The name Santa Claus derives from St. Nicholas.

St. Nicholas came from a wealthy family and was inspired by God to give gifts to the poor and needy, Steele said.

“St. Nicholas’ life was really a life of giving,” Steele said.

“What St. Nicholas was known for, what his life was about, his life was a life of caring for others,” Steele said. “St. Nicholas realized that when he came upon a need he could meet, that it wasn’t just him. When he was moved knowing that someone did not have enough money for food or clothes, it wasn’t just him that was moved, it was God. God’s heart aches for people who are struggling. When St. Nicholas came upon those needs, he realized it wasn’t just him in those moments. God had sent him to that place, to those people.”

Every Christmas gift has a sacred symbolism, Steele said.

“We’re going to be giving and receiving gifts,” he said. “The reason we do that, the reason that St. Nicholas gave the gifts he gave, it wasn’t just because he wanted to do something nice. It was because he realized this life of giving is an echo of what God has done for us.”

While many have spent the past month shopping online or at malls, racing to keep pace with the increasing commercialization of the season, most of us know that at its heart it’s not a holiday about presents, but about faith and family, if kept in the proper spirit.

“When you open a package and see that you got AirPods Pro, or a book, or socks, that gift would be filled with the Holy Spirit,” Steele said. “As you receive the gift, it will remind you that we’ve received an even greater gift than AirPods Pro, in Jesus. We received this incredible gift.”

Steele asks Christians to keep in mind the spiritual underpinning of gift-giving.

“As we give gifts, as we watch people receive the gifts that we have given, that we would be reminded of the way that God sent his son into the world as a gift for us,” Steele said. “That we might someday be sent into the world to be a gift for others. When we give gifts, it’s because God gave a gift to us. May this Christmas, and our gift-giving, be far more than what’s inside the bags. May it be filled with God’s spirit.”