How Did Modern Prophets Celebrate Christmas? — Part 2

The Know

As people across the world celebrate Christmas, the holiday can sometimes become more about things than about people. However, as one examines how some presidents of the church celebrated the holiday, a different approach to Christmas emerges. One is reminded that Christmas can revolve around love for others and for God, and not about the materialism sometimes associated with the holiday.1

Joseph F. Smith

Joseph F. Smith was only five when father, Hyrum Smith, and his uncle, Joseph Smith, were martyred, but he was a passionate supporter of Joseph Smith. In a December 1894 sermon, he even proposed that Joseph Smith’s birthday should be celebrated by the Saints, creating an extended holiday seasons He showed how serious he was about this when, on the anniversary of Joseph Smith’s birth in 1905, he helped to create and then dedicated a memorial to Joseph Smith at his childhood home in Vermont, and spent Christmas of that year visiting sites relating to Joseph Smith’s ancestors.2 Later in his life, he recalled that he did not remember a single Christmas before 1846, and spent many years without any money, when it was difficult to celebrate Christmas in the way he might wish. One year, wanting to buy presents for his children, but not having any money to do so, he said he “sat down and wept like a child, until my poured-out grief relieved my aching heart; and after awhile returned home, as empty as when I left, and played with my children, grateful and happy only for them.” From the 1860s–1880s, he spent Christmas far from home most years, away on missions and church assignments or fleeing persecution.3

Heber J. Grant

Heber J. Grant became president of the church in 1918. Having made a significant amount of money as a businessman before he joined the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he loved giving out books to friends as Christmas presents, sometimes buying entire print-runs of a book, as many as five thousand copies of a favorite book, and signing them all in person. One Christmas he recorded:

I spent with books. Books! Books! Had lunch at home today for the first time in several days. I am sending books to all the members of the Sunday School Union Board, Y.L. and Y.M.M.I.A. Primary, Relief Society boards, and to the directors of Grant & Co., Home Fire, Utah State National Bank, Zions Savings Bank, Utah Light & Power Co., Utah Light & Traction Co., Z.C.M.I.,  Utah Hotel, Salt Lake Theater, Consolidated Wagon & Machine Co., Beneficial Life Ins. Co., Union Pacific Railroad Co., and the Pacific Coast Joint Stock Land Bank, to say nothing about personal Friends. I am sorry to say that all the books have not yet arrived from the Deseret News press and that part of the books will not reach my friends until after Christmas. I am also sending books to the employees of Grant & Co., the Home Fire Ins. Co. and Zions Savings Bank and the Utah State National Bank and am giving over one hundred copies of the Lecture on Martin Luther to the employees in the Church offices.4

When he was not giving out books, he enjoyed spending Christmas with his forty-seven grandchildren and ten great grandchildren.5

George Albert Smith

George Albert Smith had to spent Christmas away from his family at times, busy with his calling as an apostle.6 Christmas of 1937 was surely poignant for him, as he lost his wife in November of that year. That Christmas, he went with his children to bring flowers to her grave.7 He never remarried. Even when surrounded by the joys of the season, it was difficult for him to deal with the loss he felt.8 George Albert Smith became President of the Church in 1945, and in Christmas of 1947, the centennial of the saints coming to the Salt Lake Valley, he gave a special Christmas message. He mentioned that “eighty-seven carloads of food, clothing and bedding” had been sent to those suffering from the after-effects of World War II, and encouraged, “Therefore, at this season of the year, let personal discords be forgotten and animosities banished. Let rejoicing be heartfelt but not boisterous. Let gift giving be as generous as circumstances will allow, but not extravagant. Let the hearts of the children be made glad, and let us live that the spirit of the Prince of Peace may dwell in our homes.”9

David O. McKay

In 1920 the First Presidency asked David O. McKay from the Quorum of the Twelve visit all the island missions of the Pacific Ocean. He left on December 7, 1920, and spent that Christmas in Japan. Although many people were decorating, most were decorating for the New Year, not Christmas. However, Elder McKay was pleased to spend Christmas with Latter-day Saints in Osaka, Tokyo, Kofu and Sapporo. Complete with Christmas tree and a visit from Santa. He was touched by listening to some young Japanese children sing “Jesus wants me for a sunbeam” and “Glory to God in the Highest,” despite none of them being Christian. He remarked, “When we, strangers to them, found our hearts filling with the same love for them that we have for the children at home, it was easy to understand that Christ included [these children] when He said: “Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.”10

Joseph Fielding Smith

Like many people, Joseph Fielding Smith enjoyed music with his family at Christmas. His grandchildren remembered that he had a wind-up record player called a Victrola that he would listen to, dancing to the Christmas songs, and they would all sing carols together to end the day.11 He used to give each grandchildren a silver dollar for Christmas, until he had so many that he had to start giving fifty-cent pieces.12 Joseph Fielding Smith became church president on January 23, 1970. During his first Christmas message, he said, “We need to know that in spite of all the troubles and ills which befall us, still the Lord is governing in the affairs of the earth and that if we keep His commandments and are true and faithful to His laws, He will bless us here and now and reward us with eternal life in His kingdom in due course.” He stressed the importance of Christ to Christmas, “And I now pray that at this Christmas Season, and at all times, we may center our faith in the Son of God and gain for ourselves that peace which passeth understanding.”13

Harold B. Lee

Before Harold B. Lee became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, he was a stake president during the Great Depression. He was struck by the poignancy of one Christmas experience. He recalled a time when he gave gifts to his daughters who rushed over to a friend’s house to show them their presents, and his daughters came back crying. When he asked them what was wrong, they said that their friends did not get any presents. He recalled, “All too late we remembered that just across the street was a family whose father … had been out of work, and we had forgotten. Our Christmas was spoiled. We sent for the children and tried to divide what we had in an attempt to make up for our lack of thoughtfulness, but it was too late. Christmas dinner that day did not taste very good to me.” He was so troubled that he could not sleep. He soon looked into the finances of the stake and found out that 4800 out of the 7200–7400 members of the stake were in dire financial straits. Over 1,000 children younger than 10 were not going to have much of a Christmas celebration if he did not do something. So he organized people to gather up all the broken toys they could find to repair so they could give them to the children of the stake. He said, “If you wanted to get the spirit of Christmas you had to only step in and see” all the people working on the toys. They also provided a good Christmas dinner for all 4800 of the impoverished people in the stake, as well as people in the area who were not Latter-day Saints.14

The Why

In their own ways, each of the presidents of the church showed their love for God and for others through how they spent Christmas. From Joseph F. Smith’s love for his children during a difficult time, to Harold B. Lee’s determination to help the families of his stake, each of these presidents of the church showed that love for others is what Christmas is truly about. Remembering the importance of helping others allows Christians to remember the true meaning of the holiday and avoid the commercialization of the holiday that seems to become more common with each passing year.

David O. McKay said in a Christmas address he gave in 1959, “The source of happiness is within one’s soul. So springs faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. First then, let each individual admit into his own heart the true spirit of Christmas. Then let it radiate throughout his home. A thousand such homes would make a true Christian city, and a thousand such cities would build a true Christian nation.”15 In 1968, he said, “Without Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, the world cannot survive. The true spirit of Christmas is the spirit of Christ.”16

Footnotes