My Talk In Sacrament Meeting

Nick and I spoke in sacrament meeting this past sunday. Even though it was the sunday after Christmas we were still given Christmas topics. Mine was Christmas traditions and Nick's was the true meaning of Christmas. Here is what I read:

You’ll have to excuse me, but it seems as though when we were all in the preexistence and we were signing up for our preparation for earth-life classes, the Public Speaking 1010 was completely full. And somehow I got sent to earth without ever having taken the course. So, although my hands are shaky, my mouth is dry, and I fear I could pass out at any given moment, I stand before you today because my husband wouldn’t tell the bishop no! That being said, today I would like to direct my words to the young men and women in the ward. Anyone that is not between the ages of 12 and 17, you’re welcome to zone out, take this opportunity to take a nap, completely forget that I’m here.

A little introduction; I’m Sara Hendricks and my husband is Nick. We bought a home in Bridgerland Meadows and have been in the ward for 2 months. Nick and I met in Nauvoo while he was working on the pageant there and I was going to school. We got married in Arizona a year later in the Mesa Arizona temple and have been married for a little over three and a half years. We don’t have any kids, but recently adopted a puppy and he’s as much of a handful as we can take. Like everyone else, we’re up here going to school; Nick in History and me in the Deaf Education program.

Also, I want to recognize my parents who came up from Arizona to spend Christmas with us. I’m very grateful to have their familiar faces in the congregation today!

I’m also grateful for the topic I was given. Traditions are something I love, especially at this time of year; and I’m excited to share how I feel about traditions. It’s important to me to have traditions not only for our children to have something to look forward to, but also because traditions are a great way to spend time together and create a special bond.

First, I want to talk about a few traditions that are found in many homes around the world at Christmas time. One tradition that is widespread throughout the world is that of St. Nicholas. While the current view of Santa Claus is mostly the work of American propaganda and Coca Cola advertising, he had humble beginnings as a bishop in a small town called Myra. When his wealthy parents died and left him a fortune, he followed Christ’s admonition, gave all that he had to those in need, and devoted his life to God. Many Christmas traditions stem from the legends surrounding St. Nicholas and the festival celebrating his deeds.

One of the most common legends is concerning three young girls whose families were too poor to provide them with a dowry. Women without a dowry often had to turn to prostitution and this dire situation was facing these three poor girls. Bishop Nicholas heard of their plight and decided to do a secret Santa for them. Bags of gold found their way into the girls’ homes. This is why children began putting their shoes or stockings out to receive from St. Nicholas’s generosity. They would even try to bribe him with treats for him and his horse and later, his reindeer. Some versions of the story changed the bags of gold into balls of gold, which is why we put baubles on the tree and put oranges in stockings.

The tree is filled with traditional symbols of the nativity. The lights of the starry night, the Star showing the wise men the way, the gifts laid at the feet of the savior, the multitude of angels, the candy cane shepherds’ hooks.

One of the most prevalent traditions is the singing of Christmas carols. The stories behind the carols are as meaningful as the songs themselves. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer was a story written by Robert May about his own life as a small picked-on child in reindeer form. When his wife died a few days before Christmas, he used the story to comfort his grieving daughter before handing it over to Montgomery Ward who had hired him to write it in the first place.

My favorite carol is Angels We Have Heard on High, believed to be the oldest Christmas carol. There’s record of it being sung as early as 129 AD for the bishop of Rome and is called the Westminster carol because it is sung annually in the Westminster chapel. Perhaps it was sung even earlier when the first Christmas carol was sung to the shepherds.

My husband’s family has a tradition of reading a book called ‘The Best Christmas Pageant Ever’, by Barbara Robinson. It tells the story of a community’s nativity pageant held hostage by the Herdmans, a family of parentless hooligans who had never heard the story of the first Christmas. The boys who chose to be the wise men didn’t understand why they were bringing perfume and oil to the Christ-child, so they brought him the Christmas ham given to them in their charity basket. Imogene, the oldest and leader of the family, convinces everyone that she should play the role of Mary. As she holds the doll that will play the baby, the love of Christ fills her heart and she understands the true meaning of Christmas. And perhaps the most telling is Gladys, the youngest who plays the Angel of the Lord and terrorizes the shepherds like the avenger in her comics. She doesn’t know the actual declaration of the angel, but she gets the basic idea: “Shazaam! Hey, unto you a child is born!”

I’m sure all of us have participated in most, if not all of these traditions. Now I want to talk about some of mine and Nick's traditions. The last time we spoke in church, it was together during Christmas time about Mary and Joseph. However, this is one tradition I’m hoping to do away with. As a newly married couple, one of the most important things to me was establishing some traditions, but neither of us had many traditions growing up. I had an idea one year and decided I wanted to do it every year. I call it our “Three Wise Men” tradition. We wanted a tradition that was more Christ oriented, so we decided to have three family gifts about Christ or some sort of present or service for someone else. We’ve gotten hymn books and pictures and books about Christ to help us have the spirit in our home, but the more meaningful gifts are when we’re able to serve others. One year, Nick was talking with one of his coworkers who mentioned that she had trouble reading the scriptures and wanted a way to talk about Christ with her children. So we decided to buy a copy of the Children’s Book of Mormon stories and give it to her. We lived next to a family who we had become friends with and so we decided to share some presents with their children.

This was our fourth Christmas together and we are still developing and creating traditions for our family. A few have transferred from our past, like one day I hope to have a Christmas village around our tree with a train to circle it. We go with Nick’s family every year to look at Christmas lights; down in Salt Lake or at Thanksgiving point or Ogden. But most important is making Christ the center of our celebrations.

Like the star that guided the Wise Men to Mary and Joseph, like the declaration of the Angel to the Shepherds, like the birth of John the Baptist and the example of St. Nicholas, like Samuel the Lamanite and the day and a night and a day to symbolize the birth of Christ to the Nephites, like service and missionary work and the holiday spirit; they’re all given to us to bring us closer to Christ and to help us remember the angel’s declaration.

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.” Or for those that need it a little simpler: “Shazaam! Hey, unto you a child is born!” It is now our job to take that message to the world.

TESTIMONY