How Do You Celebrate Christmas?

            My family celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas Eve in a religious way. This is the night that we have our big Christmas dinner with our fanciest dishes. After the dishes are cleared, we act out the Nativity story. Then we a dessert made with angel food cake and sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus. Our celebration continues on Christmas Day with the opening of presents and doing fun things. However, our annual celebration always starts with Christ. The Nativity story can be found in Luke 2: 1-20 as follows:

1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.

2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

5 To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6 And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

            Another annual event is the Christmas message from the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. President Russell M. Nelson, President Dallin H. Oaks, and President Henry B Eyring released the following message on Friday, November 26, 2021. 

When we sing “Silent Night,” we know the life of that Babe of Bethlehem did not begin there, nor did it end on Calvary. In a premortal realm, Jesus was foreordained by His Father to be the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of all humankind. He was foreordained to atone for us. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5). He came to make immortality a reality and eternal life a possibility for all who would ever live (see 1 Corinthians 15:20–22; 3 Nephi 27:13–14).

At this sacred Christmas season, we testify that our loving Heavenly Father “so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

            My family has completed its religious celebrations, and all members are ready for bed. We wish you and yours a wonderful Christ-filled Christmas. 

Jesus the Christ

            My VIP for this week is Jesus Christ because He is the very most important person to have ever been born on earth. He is important for a multitude of reasons that begin with the fact that He is the literal Son of God. He is the Creator of the world. He is the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind.

            Christ was born in the humblest of circumstances that He might descend below all people. He took the pains, sicknesses, embarrassments, griefs, and sins of all of us that we might follow Him and become as He is. He did it all for me, and He did it all for you! All that He asks in return is that we remember Him and keep His commandments.

            Some years ago I decided that I would give a gift to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ for Christmas, and I decided that it would be an additional session in the temple. I have continued to do a special session in the temple each year as my gift to them, and I completed that gift a few days ago. I feel certain that many other people prepare themselves to give a gift to Heavenly Father and to the Savior.

            Marilynne Todd Linford is one of those individuals, and she shares some of her experiences with her readers in an article titled “Selecting a Christmas Gift for the Lord.” She begins her article by expressing the joy and ease of purchasing gifts for little children. She then explains some of the difficulties of gift giving to teenage and adult children.

            I could readily relate to her experiences because I had and still have the same ones, but I was fascinated with her next statement: “Every Christmas, I meet these same dilemmas in desiring to give a gift to Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son. I know I cannot surprise Them, but is it possible to delight them? Is there anything They, the perfect gift givers who have everything, want?”

            I realized that I had become too complacent in my gift giving because I did not invest any time in attempting to learn what They might want from me this year. I feel much like the person described in Christina Rossetti’s “In the Bleak Midwinter” as quoted by Linford:

What can I give Him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb,

If I were a wise man I would do my part. Yet what can I give Him? Give my heart.

            How do I go about giving my heart to God? The heart is associated with feelings of love, so I can give Him my love. It is one thing to consider giving Him my love, but how do I actually go about doing it? As a parent and grandparent, I am deeply grateful for those people who say or do anything that help my children and grandchildren in any way. I feel certain that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have similar feelings to all those who help Their children along the pathway of mortality.

            In this way, I feel certain that my gift of a temple session was acceptable to Them, but I wonder if it was what they really wanted from me this year. Elder Neal A. Maxwell spoke about something else that I can give.

The submission of one’s will is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. The many other things we “give,” are actually the things He has already given or loaned to us. However, when you and I finally submit ourselves, by letting our individual wills be swallowed up in God’s will, then we are really giving something to Him! It is the only possession which is truly ours to give (As quoted by Linford).

            Elder Maxwell said that we should give our “will” to God. How does one go about doing so? One way is in our prayers. I offer daily prayers in pleading for God’s watchful care over my children and grandchildren. My oldest daughter recently made a business trip, traveling by car from Anchorage to Homer. She left Anchorage about the middle of a string of eleven days when we received measurable snow fall and had to travel over a dangerous mountain pass. She later reported that she could hardly see anything ahead of her at the pass and mainly followed the lights of the cars ahead of her on the highway. I pleaded with God constantly to protect her that day as she traveled and was relieved to hear that she had arrived safely. I continued to pray for her often until she returned safely to Anchorage. However, it was not until the final day that I actually delivered my will to God when I pleaded for His blessings upon my daughter and then added, “Thy will be done.” That is kind of a scary thing to do even with faith in Jesus Christ and His ability to know what is best!

            It takes courage and faith in Jesus Christ to actually give Him my will or to be willing to accept whatever way that He chooses to bless me and my family. So faith is another gift that we can give to God. Linford suggests others gifts in her article, such as honesty, mercy, service to others, repentance, and being a peacemaker.

            Another great gift that we could give to God is gratitude for the many blessings that He bestows upon us. I often express gratitude for fresh air and clean water because I am grateful for them. I was even more grateful for clean water after an earthquake hit Anchorage on November 30. The warning came out that we should not drink or cook with the city water until after it was tested because there were several breaks in the system. The water certainly looked clean, but I took the extra precaution to boil all the water that we used for drinking and cooking. Now I am even more grateful for the constant stream of clean water!

            Tonight in our home we will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and sing “Happy Birthday” to Him. We have held similar celebrations for more than forty years, and we always end with a birthday cake especially for Him. It is, of course, angel food cake. I recently discovered a tasty recipe that includes strawberries and whipped cream, but it is the angel food cake that is meaningful to me.

            However you choose to celebrate the birth of Christ, I hope that you will include your own gift to Him. I hope that you will make it something meaningful to you and something that will bring delight to both Heavenly Father – who gave His Son – and Jesus Christ – who gave His lift – that all of us may have eternal life with Them.

Jesus Christ and His Prophet

            I would normally write about a principle of the Constitution for my post tonight. However, I feel that I should write something for Christmas Eve. The people of the world, including many so-called Christians, have fallen to the allure of the commercial side of Christmas and forgotten the true reason for this season. Jesus Christ is the reason that we celebrate Christmas, and tonight I had a glimpse of the heaven that He desires for me.

            My younger son brought his wife and daughter over to my house, and we called our family in Salt Lake City on Facetime. My older son and two daughters, along with their spouses and children for a total of eighteen people, met together tonight for their annual Christmas Eve celebration. They held their get-together a day early this year because my son has to work Christmas Eve as an emergency room doctor. We were grateful to have the opportunity to join their celebration this year because we are having a quiet Christmas this year due to my daughter-in-law fighting brain cancer and have too small of group to do our usual nativity.

            We did the nativity, watched the children decorate graham cracker houses, visited, and generally had a wonderful time together. I witnessed heaven as I saw and heard the love expressed between siblings and their spouses and watched the grandchildren play and interact with each other with love. The experience tonight is all I need for a wonderful Christmas.

            This family activity came about because a Baby was born in Bethlehem more than 2000 years ago and grew to be a man capable of overcoming death and hell. We do not celebrate Christmas because a baby was born; we celebrate it because that Baby brought to pass immortality for all mankind and eternal life for all who will follow Jesus Christ and keep His commandments. In other words, we would not celebrate Christmas if there had been no Easter.

            President Gordon B. Hinckley shared his thoughts about the birth, ministry, and atonement of Jesus Christ at a First Presidency Christmas Devotional in 2001. He begins his talk by greeting everyone and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and then explains the reason for being together that evening.

… We are met tonight to pay homage to our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, whose life and death mean so very much to each one of us. This is a gathering for prayer and song and speech, in tribute to the Master of all, the Lord Omnipotent, who condescended to come to earth, to be born in a stable, in a conquered nation, under the humblest of circumstances. He was the Prince Almighty who left the royal courts on high and came among us to teach us and to lead us in His quiet and wonderful way….

So it is. When all is said and done, when all the legions of the ages have passed in review, when man’s terrible inhumanity to man has been chronicled, when God’s great love for His children has been measured, then above all stands the lone figure of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world, the Savior of mankind, the living Son of the living God, the Prince of Peace, the Holy One.

He was the lowly babe who came to earth in the meridian of time and brought to us the gift of Christmas. He was the Resurrection and the Life, who brought to us the wonder of Easter. And it was He who in this most glorious of dispensations was introduced to the boy Joseph by His Father, the Almighty Elohim, the God of the universe. And this same Joseph has become the preeminent witness of His living reality in this season of earth’s history.

            Is it any wonder then that there is only one day between the birthdate of Joseph Smith and the day that we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ? The Savior was born in Bethlehem as a wee Baby. He organized His church on earth in the meridian of time and gave His life that all mankind could live again. He appeared to Joseph Smith in 1820 and began the process of restoring His gospel to the earth. He will come again to earth in the near future to gather the faithful followers of the House of Israel. We love Him. We honor Him. We praise Him, We worship Him. Above all, we are grateful that Heavenly Father saw fit to send His Beloved Son to earth as a Baby who grew to become the Savior and Redeemer of the world.

Reason for the Season

            Today is the Sabbath Day. It is also Christmas Eve. Since my family does its big dinner and celebration on Christmas Eve and because it is also the Sabbath Day, today was a little different than our normal Christmas Eve.

            The first thing that is different is that I did as much of the cooking as possible yesterday in order to have a more restful Sabbath Day. We attended our regular sacrament meeting where we took the opportunity to renew our covenants with Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. We worshipped them with music and with words.

            I returned home and invested a couple of hours in the scriptures. I completed the food preparation that I could not do yesterday. We had the unique opportunity because of Facetime to watch our family in Utah do the Nativity. That was fun to feel a part of a larger gathering.

            Local family members arrived in time to watch the Utah nativity. Then we had a delightful dinner together. We did an abbreviated Nativity reactivation because we were short on actors. (We invited three families to join us for dinner and the Nativity, but none of them could make it.) We played a Christmas-oriented game. We sang “Happy Birthday” to Jesus and ate angel food cake. Then we went our separate ways until tomorrow.

            It is now late on Christmas Eve. As we enter Christmas Day, I believe it is important for us to continue the holy feelings that have been a part of this day. You see, we would not be celebrating Christmas if the events of Easter did not take place. If Jesus Christ had not atoned for the sins of all mankind and then was resurrected, we would not be celebrating His birthday. Jesus is the reason for the Christmas season.

            Here is a poem that expresses my feelings this night. I do not know the author of it.

            One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village.

            He worked in a carpenter shop

until he was thirty. He then became

an itinerant preacher.

            He never held an office.

                        He never had a family

                                    or owned a house.

            He didn’t go to college.

He had no credentials but himself….

Nineteen centuries have come and gone,

and today he is the central figure

            of the human race.

All the armies that ever marched,

            and all the navies that ever sailed,

            all the parliaments that ever sat,

            and all the kings that ever reigned

            have not affected the life of man

            on this earth as much as that…

                                    One Solitary Life

Renewed by Christmas

                    Do you feel like a new person, ready to face the future with faith and joy?  Does the spirit of Christmas fill your soul to the point that you cannot contain it all?  As I write this post, I am filled to overflowing with joy and contentment!  My celebration of Christmas was complete and wonderful.

                    My husband and I invited family and friends into our home to share our Christmas Eve festivities.  We faced several problems before our company arrived:  We discovered water where it should not have been.  The printer ran out of ink just when I needed it most.  The ham had not finished cooking when I thought it should have been.  In spite of these problems, we had a wonderful evening celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and enjoying the special spirit that children bring to Christmas.  The dinner was delicious, and the children brought rich excitement into the evening as we acted out the Nativity.  The evening was topped by singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and eating angel food cake.

                    Celebrating Christmas Day on Sunday is extra special.  We had a perfect day!  We attended sacrament meeting with many of our brothers and sisters in the gospel.  In addition to partaking of the sacrament and renewing covenants with God, we enjoyed the program of music and the spoken word.  I was particularly touched by the beautiful solo rendition of "Silent Night."  The speaker reminded us that as we prepare for Christmas we need to not only think about the birth of the Christ Child but to think about what His birth means to us personally.  Our journey to Christ is not physical like the shepherds and wise men, but it is spiritual and emotional.  The words "come unto Christ" are an invitation to feel of His spirit. 

                    Our wonderful Christmas celebration continued at the home of our youngest son and his family where we feasted on leftovers and pumpkin chiffon pie before opening our Christmas gifts.  Our gifts were simple and mostly inexpensive, but we felt as though the windows of heaven had opened to us.  My favorite gifts were family pictures and individual pictures of my grandchildren. 

I appreciated very much the gift given by one of our daughters.  I told the children years ago that they didn't need to purchase items for us because we don't need very much and we can go purchase whatever we need or want.  I suggested that they use whatever money they wanted to spend on us to do good in the world.  I felt great joy as my daughter told me how she and her family - along with some other people - gave small gifts for the Twelve Days of Christmas to a co-worker who was struggling and the comments of the co-worker on Facebook.  It was one of the best gifts I have ever received.  My day was complete by calls from the children away from home.