Christmas in a Mormon Household

As a young child growing up in the Tacita household (and Tacita is not my real last name by the way for those who have not figured this out.), I always looked forward with great anticipation to Christmas. This is not unusual for a child and this has not changed since I became an adult. True, the presents have gotten worse as I got older, but there is almost something magical about the Holiday.

The Christmas Season in a Mormon house is not that much different from the Christmas season in other Christian households. Decorations were hung on the tree, the weather in the more Northern parts of the country gets colder, and children and adults eagerly listen to the weather reports to hear whether or not the Christmas will be white. Religious families both Mormon and otherwise will sit their children down to read them stories. While mainstream Christian homes will read the story of the nativity in the Bible, Mormon children also get treated, if treated is the right word to a second story from the pages of the Book of Mormon. After or sometimes before the passages from Matthew were read, the family would then turn to the pages of the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon Christmas story, despite the inability of its author to write well is almost magical in its own right. As a young child, I sat there listening as the courageous Samuel the Lamanite stood high on the walls of Zarahemla and proclaimed that Jesus would be born far across the sea. If you do not believe in the prophetic powers of Joseph Smith, there is nothing impressive about this as the Book of Mormon was penned in the 1830s and the events that occurred in the Bible would have been well known to him, but for someone who believed it was in many ways an inspiring story.

Sure, the idea that arrows did not hit the person prophesying the birth of Christ is probably as much fantasy as is the entire Book of Mormon story, but how is someone standing up for his convictions, who is in fact, willing to die for them not inspiring even if the text, as much of the Book of Mormon is, is written badly? In fact, the image of Samuel the Lamanite preaching on the city wall has been adopted by some people who leave the Mormon church as their willingness as a British offer would put it to "suffer the slings and arrows" to stand up for what is right.

The Christmas story told to young Mormons may be one of adventure, but the lesson in it is the same as the one we can glean from the life of Scientists such as Galileo Galilee or Charles Darwin who dared tell the world that they were right and everyone else was wrong. Mormons, even young Mormons at Christmas should probably remember though that conviction is one thing, but actually being right about your convictions is another.

After the stories were read on Christmas even and the family finished celebrating with whatever snacks were available, the Children would be sent off to bed and the parents would wrap the presents they had hidden that we had not always found by the time and we would all eagerly await the next morning.