Latter-day Saints Observe Christmas as Jesus Christ’s Birthday, Church Materials Show

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints celebrates Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ, according to the church’s published materials. Members are often called Mormons, a title the church asks people not to use. The church’s Christmas page says there is “no one way” to observe the season. For many members, it includes family gatherings, singing Christmas songs, reading the Christmas story, attending church meetings and activities, and serving charity in their communities.

Each December the church broadcasts a Christmas program from its First Presidency to members around the world. The 2025 broadcast was held on Sunday, 7 December. The 2026 broadcast is scheduled for Sunday, 6 December, at 6 p.m. Mountain Time. The program includes messages from church leaders about the birth of Christ and music from the Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square. The church also holds a special Christmas service on the Sunday before Christmas or on Christmas Day, with words and music about Christ’s birth. Visitors are welcome.

The church describes Christmas as a “holy time” for members “to remember that our heavenly Father loves his sons so much that he has sent his son to show us the way to lasting happiness.” Its Christmas page opens with the angelic song in Luke’s Gospel and retells the nativity account, including the verse about Mary giving birth to her firstborn son and laying him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn (Luke 2:7). Throughout December, local congregations hold Christmas parties that the church says are open to the whole neighborhood, along with youth activities and charity campaigns.

The church’s “Enlighten the World” initiative, which began in 2016, is its call to Christmas service. The church describes it as “a global movement of love and service.” Under the program, participants choose a gift for a stranger, such as food, clean water, clothing or school supplies. Partner charities deliver the gifts in the months after Christmas. The church says it covers all operating expenses so that “100 percent of the funds donated go to participating non-profit organizations.” The source reports that the 2025 gift program took place in 126 cities in 21 countries, and cites figures of nearly one million people and about 4.8 million purchased gifts for people in need. Strangers in need were met with practical care, a neighbor-love reflected in the words of Matthew 25:35.

The church’s Christmas materials also include an account of a family tradition described by Susan H. Porter, who spoke of why Christmas Eve was her favorite night of the year and said she gathered with her family to read the Christmas story from Luke’s Gospel. The church’s materials also include the Book of Mormon, which members read alongside the Bible. The source says that book tells of believers who waited for a sign of the Savior’s birth, a night without darkness.

On the date of Christ’s birth, the church’s Christmas page states that “most religious scholars” recognize that the Savior was not born on December 25. The source says the church’s senior study guide quotes two church presidents who identified April 6 as the date of his birth. President Harold B. Lee said in 1973 that April 6 commemorates the birth of the Lord, Jesus Christ. President Spencer W. Kimball said in 1975 that Christ was born on April 6.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Arabic)