"Christmas Needs Love to be Christmas" by Adam Yankee

During this time of the year I feel it customary to write on the subject of love. For the past couple of days, I have been feeling fit to burst because I am so full of the Christmas spirit. Love is the true meaning of Christmas, after all that is why our Savior came to the Earth, “that they might rejoice and be filled with love towards God and all men.”1 Love is the most powerful force known to mankind, it is the whole reason we exist and the reason that we will one day be reunited together with our heavenly family.

It is a wonderful thing to imagine just how much the Savior loves each one of us, it knows no boundaries. We should be the same way in our love towards our fellow men. During the Christmas season we all have many opportunities to show others how much we care, whether it’s a food drive, a dollar for the Salvation Army, or giving a toy to child that has none, we can make a difference. When we focus on giving rather than getting, that is when you will feel what Christmas is all about. “Every man should love his neighbor as himself,”2 if we follow this simple instruction, we will not only be serving our fellow man, but the Savior as well.

A few Christmas seasons ago, I had an experience with my family that I will never forget. It was Christmas Eve, and my family and I were driving about town bringing plates of homemade goodies to friends and various others when we finally finished and had one plate left. Driving home that night, we drove past a homeless man on the side of the road pushing what was probably all of his belongings in a grocery cart and wearing what looked like a seventy year old coat. A couple minutes later, I told my mother that I was prompted that we should go back and give that man the remaining plate and she said that she was already thinking the same thing. So we drove back around and found him tottering along in the cold and black of night on his way to wherever he would call home that night. We stopped the car and got out to see him, as we approached him trying to get his attention he seemed confused that we were actually talking to him until we got up to him. We handed him the plate of cookies and told him we loved him and to have a Merry Christmas. After a few moments, tears began to trickle down his face and he told us that he had no teeth. With a smile on his face he asked us if we would give them to a child that would enjoy them in his place. He said not to feel bad that he couldn’t eat them, because the greatest gift to him was that he knew someone that Christmas cared about him. The greatest gift we can possibly give is our love. Love breaks all barriers and unites all the inhabitants of the Earth. “Having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another.”3

It is important to remember why we celebrate Christmas. We celebrate because of the birth of our Savior and the Love that he has for us. “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”4 Christ is the ultimate example of Love; He died for us so that we could live together again. It is hard to express in words how powerful his love his; it is something that once you come unto Him yourself that you will come to understand.

As I near the end of this blog, I would like to express how much I love everyone right now, how much I love my Savior and how much I want to help those in need. I would like to close by saying that I know for a surety that if we will focus on spreading love and kindness to everyone around us this season, that we will find true happiness. “Feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever.”5 With all my love, I wish you all a Merry Christmas.


1. Book of Mormon, Mosiah 2:4
2. Book of Mormon, Mosiah 23:15
3. Book of Mormon, Mosiah 18:21
4. Bible:New Testament, John 3:16
5. Book of Mormon, Jacob 3:2