Matthew West Brings Back Christmas Magic with New Album!

CHRISTMAS WITH MATTHEW WEST

Five-time GRAMMY-nominated and award-winning artist Matthew West is stepping into this Christmas season with a renewed passion for helping families refocus on what matters most. As an extension of his 2024 book, Come Home for Christmas: Jesus Is Calling You Back to the Greatest Story Ever Told, West released a new holiday album, Come Home For Christmas, blending original songs with timeless classics in a way that draws listeners back to family and back to faith. “My brand-new album Come Home For Christmas arrives Oct. 10, and we are hitting the road this December for the Come Home For Christmas Tour,” Matthew shared. “These nights will be full of songs, stories, and the true meaning of Christmas, and I hope you will bring the whole family along.”

The seven-city tour started Dec. 11, following the fourth annual Come Home For Christmas Weekend in Nashville, which began during the Pandemic. What started in 2022 as a simple idea to lift spirits after the pandemic has grown into a beloved holiday tradition. That first year, Matthew wrote a song he titled Come Home for Christmas while reflecting on childhood trips to visit his grandmother in snowy Iowa. “I sat down and wrote a Christmas song one evening at my Story House studio, which brought back memories of my favorite Christmas songs on the radio and those snowy drives to my grandmother’s house in Iowa each year,” he says. Inspired by that moment, he invited fans to his hometown of Franklin, Tennessee, for a weekend of tree lighting, worship, and music. “Come Home for Christmas was born as a song and a yearly event to invite people to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.”

ACKNOWLEDGING THE BROKEN

Matthew is keenly aware that the Christmas season isn’t a joyful time for many people.  “The Christmas season brings a flood of nostalgia and emotion and has a way of churning up stuff that has been hidden in the attics of our lives for the past year – just like those broken ornaments and lights.  The celebrations and festivities of Christmas exist alongside the reality of brokenness.  With the countdown toward Christmas set in motion, things like depression, chronic illness, job loss, or strained relationships become more evident.  While there are wonderful things about Christmas, the great reality is that broken hearts, broken bodies, broken humanity, and broken creation are the true ‘reason for the season.’”

The solution, he points out, is not to put on a false holiday smile and pretend that everything’s fine.  He directs us to the only One who can heal all wounds.  “It is a time to be honest with God about the brokenness in a family, a time to face up to addiction, a time to address the need for healing in our relationships, in our communities, and in our world.  Christmas is when we turn our attention to the truth that the Son of Man didn’t come to earth for us to choose to hide in our brokenness but to acknowledge it and place it in the hands of the Healer.”

COMPASSION DURING THE HOLIDAY

Exercising the compassion of Christ draws us closer to Him, and is a great way to make the holiday season more meaningful, Matthew believes.  “The New Testament understanding of the word compassion is best described as a gut-level intense emotion that moves people to relieve the suffering of others – to act.  Maybe the very people who need you most this Christmas are the ones to whom you can say, ‘I’ve been there, too.’  I can 
tell you about my friend, Sean, who lost his wife and now leads a grief recovery group for those who have lost their spouses.  Or Jason, who is a recovered drug addict and now volunteers as a counselor at a faith-based rehab center.  Joe is a veteran who came home from war with PTSD and now helps other vets deal with the lasting effects of their time in combat.  And there is Jan, who nearly lost her marriage and now counsels young couples on how to maintain a strong relationship.”  

Matthew also offers the example of two favorite Christmas movie characters, who display hearts of compassion:  George Bailey, of the perennial favorite, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Ebenezer Scrooge, of the Charles Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol.  “George Bailey finds out that it is his compassion as a businessman that makes him essential to so many families in the small town of Bedford Falls,” he explains.  As to ol’ Ebenezer Scrooge, the miserly man transformed into a compassionate, warm-hearted person, Matthew discovered an interesting fact about the character’s creator, Charles Dickens.  “When Dickens was only twelve years old, he was forced to work ten-hour days in a rat-infested shoe polish factory because his father, mother, five brothers, and sisters (aged two to eleven) were put in prison over a family debt.  It was compassion formed in real-life experiences that led to this famous Christmas story, and I can’t help but wonder if that is why it had such a big impact on people.”      
  

For more information on Matthew West, click the LINK!

CREDITS

5x Grammy-nominated artist/ Six-time ASCAP Christian Music Songwriter of the Year / Prime Time EMMY nominee, Original Music and Lyrics for feature film The Heart of Christmas / Author of eight books (nine with his latest book releases in Feb.) / Songwriting credits include songs by Rascal Flatts, Casting Crowns, Scotty McCreery, Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Danny Gokey, Mandisa / Married to Emily; two teen daughters, Lulu and Delaney