A Christmas Message from the First Presidency to the Children of the World:

The Spirit of Christmas

Christmas is a wonderful time of year. It is a season when there are more smiles, cheerful greetings, and acts of thoughtful kindness, than are found through the rest of the entire year.

What is it that brings such love into our hearts, such joy into our lives? It is, of course, the spirit of Christmas. To understand the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable, and it becomes the Spirit of Christ, who is the Savior and Redeemer of the world.

The glorious news of His birth was announced by the angel to the humble shepherds on that first Christmas so long ago:

“For, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10–11).

It is our hope that each of us this Christmas season will find the Spirit of Christ in our hearts and homes as we try to be more like the Savior—forgiving others as He forgives us, serving others with a glad heart, and keeping the commandments.

We bear witness that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, that He is our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Friend, and that the true spirit of Christmas is centered in Jesus Christ.

With love,

The First Presidency

Gordon B. Hinckley

Thomas S. Monson

James E. Faust

[illustraiton] Be It unto Me, by Liz Lemon Swindle, courtesy of the Museum of Church History and Art, Fifth International Art Competition