The Spirit of Christmas

In preparing my RS lesson for church I came across this powerful message. Howard W Hunter quotes the First Presidency of the Church back in 1919.

In defining the real spirit of Christmas:
"It is a desire to sacrifice for others, to render service, and to possess a feeling of universal brotherhood. It consists of a willingness to forget what you have done for others, and to remember only what others have done for you; and to ignore what the world owes you, and think only of... your duties in the middle distance, and your chance to do good and aid your fellow-men in the foreground --to see that your fellow-men are just as good as you are, and try to look behind their faces to their hearts -- to close your book of grievances against the universe, and look about you for a place to sow a few seeds of happiness and go your way unobserved."
[Improvement Era, Dec. 1919, 155]

"The real Christmas comes to him who has taken Christ into his life as a moving, dynamic, vitalizing force. The real spirit of Christmas lies in the life and mission of the Master."
-- Howard W Hunter