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.