Christmas Began with a Baby

"At the focal point of all human history, a point illuminated by a new star in the heavens revealed for just such a purpose, probably no other mortal watched--none but a poor young carpenter, a beautiful virgin mother, and silent stabled animals who had not the power to utter the sacredness they had seen. Shepherds would soon arrive and later, wise men from the East. Later yet the memory of that night would bring Santa Claus and Frosty and Rudolph--and all would be welcome. But first and forever there was just a little family, without toys or trees or tinsel. With a baby--that's how Christmas began.

"It is for this baby that we shout in chorus: 'Hark! The herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King! Mild he lays his glory by, Born that man no more may die; Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth' ( Hymns, no. 209)."
Jeffrey R. Holland