Skip to main content
Some links on this page are Amazon affiliate links. We may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.

With Apologies: Did Nephites Celebrate Christmas?

 

Disclaimer: the following is entirely satire.

Aaron: Did Nephites really practice Christmas? The answer might be less straightforward than you think, because critics of the LDS church have pointed out that the Book of Mormon says that Nephites were separated from the Old World centuries prior to the rise of not only Christmas as a holiday but the Christian religion as a whole. But that's what we're going to talk about today, especially because this actually turns into kind of a surprising evidence in favor of the Book of Mormon when you actually get to the bottom of the criticism and what the actual evidence says. So Mason, did Nephites celebrate Christmas?

Mason: Uh, well, obviously, they're Christians, they don't just practice "happy holidays."

Aaron, Mason, Dean: *laughing*

Mason: Only joking, and it's important to note that we aren't going to know for sure what festivals developed in the Nephite civilization.

Dean: We do have a good idea about some things, though!

Mason: Right! We know that the Nephites were a unique branch of the House of Israel from the moment they settled on the American continent. Nephi the First relates that his people were taught to obey the Law of Moses with exactness, and this is affirmed to still be their practice into the first century BC. But then Nephi also shows that his people were aware that the "law" - that is, Moses's law - was dead in Christ, an allusion to how Jesus would become the new law following his death and resurrection. Jacob, Nephi's brother, is very explicit that there will be a Messiah to redeem the world from sin, and even that his name will be "Christ," which is a really cool play on words that we see in Hebraic poetry. I mean, how could Joseph have known that "Messiah" and "Christ" are the same word in different languages?

Aaron: Yeah, and that kind of works against the critic's argument that Joseph made this all up, because you can read this all in the Bible. Are you telling me Joseph knew every word in the Bible to dictate it and include a Hebraic couplet at the same time?

Dean: But it's true that this rubs a lot of people the wrong way because it would mean that there are prophets on the Earth who got all these details right centuries before Jesus lived, so they assume 'Oh, Joseph must have made this up,' but then we get to the historical record that suggests maybe there is possibly evidence of indigenous rituals that behave like we would expect from 1st-century AD Christianity.

Aaron: Go ahead and tell us about that.

Dean: Yeah, so the critic's position can be boiled down to: "Christmas is celebrated only after Jesus and only in Old World Christianity, therefore the Nephites couldn't have also practiced it." But check this out, lemme just put this on the screen here for our audience...

Dean: Okay, so first we have the notion of using Christmas trees as a symbol of life, hope, and renewal. They're evergreen trees, they spiral upward, and trees have long been associated with rebirth and communal stability. And across from this you'll see we have the Navajo Corn Plant, which is another evergreen plant that spirals upward and is part of the Navajo Blessingway ritual, which symbolizes...get ready for this...life, hope, and renewal.

Aaron, Mason: Wow! Very cool.

Dean: Yeah, isn't it? And we don't intend any disrespect in making this comparison; in fact, we're paying high compliments to the Navajo people by acknowledging that their traditions have sacred and even divine roots.

Aaron: Haha, a pun!

Dean: Yup, I definitely intended that one, haha.

Mason: Okay, next up is celebrations on the winter solstice. Christmas is celebrated in the winter solstice because it marks the transition between winter and spring in the Old World, but wouldn't you know it...we have the same thing in the Soyal festivals held among the Hopi Indians on December 21, which is a bullseye for the winter solstice.

Aaron: That's amazing!

Mason: Right? All those critics who said there were no indigenous celebrations on winter solstice, and they were dead wrong!

Aaron, Mason, Dean: *chuckling*

Dean: Okay, but what about celebrations on the winter solstice that involve the veneration of a god who is seen as a savior to mankind? Well, look no further than Huitzilopochtli, the legendary patron deity of the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan. Known as the "fire serpent" -

Aaron: Whoa, I just got chills down my spine. Very cool.

Dean: - and depicted as a hummingbird that hibernates in a tree until reborn in the spring -

Aaron, Mason: Whooooooa!

Dean: - and whose festivities occurred across 18 holy days, culminating in a statue of Huitzilopochtli being created out of grain seeds to be divided up and eaten by the people. Sound at all familiar?

Mason: I remember stumbling onto this fact and being blown away. The parallels to LDS doctrine are incredible.

Aaron: So what you're saying is that there's in fact very good reason to believe that there could have been a practice among indigenous American populations of gift-giving and evergreen decorating in the winter solstice to celebrate the death and rebirth of their hero-god?

Dean: Yes, it's entirely possible...and remember, there's nothing in the Book of Mormon that says that Nephites didn't practice Christmas, and we don't know if they would have celebrated this date before or after Jesus, because they knew that he was going to be born.

Mason: And, at the end of the day, none of this matters anyway, because we have our testimonies as the best proof of the arrival of Jesus. We shouldn't need a cultural festival to commemorate Jesus' birth, because we renew our covenants every Sabbath day in church. When we participate in the Christmas holiday, it's with the understanding that we aren't celebrating Jesus's exact date of birth, just joining in the cultural expectations, as God's children done for thousands of years.

Aaron: All very, very cool. So we've talked in detail about the historical sources, and there's a lot to consider here - no matter how the Nephites celebrated their Christian heritage, we know that they worshipped the same God and Jesus that we did. Thanks for joining today, Mason, Dean.

Mason: You're so welcome.

Dean: Absolutely!

Aaron: Remember to smash that like button, subscribe, and tell us in the comments below what you've learned today, or what other scholarly information you've come across that strengthens your faith. Remember: there's always a reason to believe!

Category:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mormon Blood and the Esther Cohen-Tizer-Epstein Letter

With the recent release of nearly 3.5 million pages of the Epstein files, there have been several connections made regarding Jeffery Epstein paying tuition for several students at BYU. The most notable of which is presented in what is known as the Esther Cohen-Tizer-Epstien Letter.    Some are questioning the authenticity of the letter, but some clues seem to point us to a woman named   Esther Cohen .  Lets look at a few connections. Note that these connections are not an attempt at making any accusations and are simply connections made through publicly available information. I will be updating this page as I find more information. EFTA00129111  Reference to the Seven Bowls School of Nutrition From Esther's website: alchemyofnourishment.com (Update March 04, 2026: The site seems to have been taken down) She began studying nutrition as a teenager: Which also seems to align with her site. Alchemy of Nourishment Along with the claim of residing in Colorado Alc...
3 comments
Read

Candon Dahle to Marry After Child Abuse Conviction

Former BYU baseball player Candon Dahle is expected to marry this week, less than a year after receiving a plea deal that allowed him to avoid sex offender registration despite admitting guilt to two felony counts involving the abuse of a child. News of the wedding has reignited criticism online, where many argue Dahle's return to ordinary life has come far too quickly in light of the allegations against him.  The topic was recently discussed on Instagram by  @justinthenickofcrime View this post on Instagram A post shared by Justin (@justinthenickofcrime) Dahle first made headlines in February 2025 when he was charged in Fremont County, Idaho, with felony lewd conduct with a child under the age of 16. According to the probable cause affidavit summarized by East Idaho News , prosecutors alleged Dahle sexually abused an 11-year-old girl and covered her mouth during one of the assaults. Authorities also filed a separate juvenile case in neighboring Bing...
1 comment
Read

Visualization of the LDS Canon

Around the 1230s, Hugh of Saint-Cher and a team of Dominican scholars produced the first Bible concordance, working through the Latin Vulgate and recording where its words appeared. Because modern verse numbers did not yet exist, the compilers divided chapters into smaller lettered sections so readers could locate an occurrence. Printing made the method far more useful. John Marbeck published the first complete concordance to the English Bible in 1550 . Alexander Cruden's Complete Concordance followed in 1737 and became one of the best-known English Bible reference works. The basic structure remained familiar for centuries: choose a word, then receive a list of passages where it occurs. Latter-day Saints soon adopted the same approach for their own scriptures. In 1900, George Reynolds published A Complete Concordance to the Book of Mormon in Salt Lake City. The 852-page volume was the product of roughly twenty years of work and classified the words of the Book of Mormon so reade...
Post a Comment
Read

The "Mormon" Trademark is About to Expire

 The request for Mormon Stories to rebrand has spread quickly through Mormon spaces. Followers learned that om November 14th 2025, the LDS Church had reached out with claims that the podcast was infringing on the “Mormon” trademark. The demand leaned on the legal idea that the Church owns the word.  The request was shared on social media by @mormstories, but those posts seem to have been removed. Fortunately, copies of the email were  shared on reddit. But there is a significant detail sitting behind this entire dispute. The Church will have to renew the "Mormon" trademark in the 2026 to 2027 window.  Source: USPTO database When that time comes, they must prove that they still use the word “Mormon” in active commerce. USPTO rules are clear on this point. A trademark only survives if the owner can show that it is still printed on actual goods or services that are still being sold or distributed. The official guidelines spell it out at uspto.gov under “ Keeping your r...
3 comments
Read

Everything You Need to Know About the Salt Lake Temple

  The Salt Lake Temple will open to the public from April 5 through October 1, 2027, before it is rededicated and again restricted to Latter-day Saints with temple recommends. [2] Reservations opened on September 1, 2026, and one million tour spaces were claimed in less than 24 hours. [1] The Church describes the event as only the second public open house in the temple’s 134-year history. [2] The building visitors will enter is both old and substantially new. [12] [13] Construction began in 1853 and ended with the temple’s dedication in April 1893, but the interior has been altered repeatedly since then. [3] [20] The current renovation adds about 100,000 square feet of underground space, two baptistries instead of one, five instruction rooms, and 22 sealing rooms instead of 13. [12] The temple now rests on 98 base isolators about 20 feet below the structure, part of a seismic system designed to allow substantial horizontal movement during a major earthquake. [14] [24] The chan...
Post a Comment
Read

The Church is Changing the Sunday Schedule... Again

On September 6, 2026, Latter-day Saints will arrive at church to find the second hour rearranged. Sacrament meeting will remain no longer than 60 minutes. Adults and youth will then attend 25 minutes of Sunday School every week, followed by 25 minutes of Relief Society, elders quorum, Young Women, or Aaronic Priesthood quorum instruction. Primary will meet for 55 minutes. The alternating schedule introduced with two-hour church in 2019 will be gone.¹ The First Presidency's March announcement put the change plainly: In the new schedule, sacrament meeting will continue to be no longer than 60 minutes. After a 5‑minute transition, youth and adults will attend a 25‑minute Sunday School class each week. Following another 5‑minute transition, they will attend a 25‑minute priesthood quorum, Relief Society, or Young Women meeting. Primary will continue to meet weekly and will now last 55 minutes.¹ The schedule is a modest administrative revision. The institution capable of making it, thoug...
Post a Comment
Read

The 1911 Salt Lake Temple Photographs

In September 1911, President Joseph F. Smith received eight unauthorized photographs of the Salt Lake Temple interior and a letter from Salt Lake theater promoter Max Florence. Florence said his associates controlled sixty-eight negatives and suggested that, unless the Church bought them, the images could be sold to magazines, postcard makers, or lecture bureaus. Smith refused. “I will make no bargain with thieves or traffickers in stolen goods,” he replied. Within days, the Church published seven of the photographs itself. What had begun as a secret photography project inside the temple had become a public contest over who would control the images and what the public would be allowed to see. [1] , [3] , [4] How Bossard got inside Bossard was twenty-one years old when his name became public in September 1911. He had emigrated to Utah after converting to Mormonism, had been baptized in 1907, and had received an Aaronic Priesthood ordination in 1908. By 1911, however, he had b...
Post a Comment
Read

A Girl's Letters from Nauvoo.

On January 3, 1843, Charlotte Haven sat down in a small cottage overlooking the Mississippi and wrote to her parents in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She had arrived in Nauvoo only days earlier to spend the winter with her brother Henderson and his wife, Elizabeth. Haven was not a Latter-day Saint. Her skepticism appears in the opening lines: [1] As I write Nauvoo, I look at the word with perfect amazement, and almost doubt my own senses when I find myself an inhabitant of this city of fanatics, for never did I expect to see the place, far less to indite letters to my dear parents from it. [1] Haven's letters appeared nearly forty-eight years later in the Overland Monthly under the title "A Girl's Letters from Nauvoo." They are openly critical and should be read as one outsider's testimony, not as a neutral transcript. Still, she recorded small details that official histories often leave out: the bitter cold, muddy streets, unfinished homes, crowded worship services,...
Post a Comment
Read

Are You Temple Worthy?

Temple worthiness isn’t just about "good behavior" in Mormon teaching. It’s a gate that determines who qualifies for the highest blessings the religion offers. The church teaches that only people judged worthy can enter the temple, make covenants, and receive the ordinances that lead to exaltation, which is the belief that humans can become like God and live forever with their families in the celestial kingdom.  This makes worthiness interviews a spiritual checkpoint that can shape someone’s identity, their standing in the community, and even their hope for eternity.    Are You Worthy to Enter a Mormon Temple? Are You Worthy of the Mormon Temple? Yes No Restart Enter the Temple
6 comments
Read

What Would It Take to Show Christianity Is False?

If Christianity's central claims are correct, then the universe has a creator who became incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth, died for the sins of the world, rose bodily from the dead, and continues to offer eternal life to those who trust in him. If these claims are true, they deserve not merely admiration but allegiance. They would represent the defining events of human history. If they are false, however, the implications are equally profound. Christianity has shaped civilizations, inspired art, influenced governments, comforted the dying, motivated charity, justified wars, and guided the lives of billions of people. A religion with that kind of influence should not simply be accepted because it is ancient or widely believed. It should be examined with the same seriousness its claims demand. C. S. Lewis understood this point perhaps better than anyone. Although remembered as one of Christianity's most influential defenders, he famously observed in God in the Dock: Essays on Theol...
1 comment
Read