Retold and reenacted throughout history, the story of the birth of Christ is central to the celebration of the Christmas season for Christians worldwide.
Four years ago, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a new birth of Jesus video seeking to portray this story in the most accurate way possible — “The Christ Child: A Nativity Story.”
The inspiration behind a new take on the Nativity story
The film’s producers created this new version of the Nativity story because they saw the opportunity to explore the history and the context of the time in ways that hadn’t been seen before.
“We consulted with historians, biblical scholars, and we tried to create the atmosphere, the language, the dress, all these other details to the best of our knowledge,” Jeff Taylor, co-creative director of the film, told the Church News when the video was released in 2019.
“And as a result, you feel immersed in the story, it feels like you’re there. It feels like you’re in the fields of Judea, it feels like you’re in the cave where she gave birth. It’s like you’re watching a real moment happen.”
Tom Pratt of the Church’s Missionary Department said, “We really wanted to give a gift to the world that testified that this happened to real people, and the Savior really was born in the world in fulfillment of ancient prophecy, to come and bring light, and ultimately bring salvation to the world.”
Unlike other depictions of the Nativity story, “The Christ Child” portrays the accounts of the Savior’s birth as found in Matthew and Luke separately, rather than showing the wise men and the shepherds arriving to greet the Savior in the same scene.
Matthew Grey, Bible historian and scholar, explained in the behind-the-scenes video: “Rather than artificially blending them together in harmony where we have Luke’s shepherds and Matthew’s wise men all together in the scene at the same time, we separate those accounts out a little bit so that we can get to know the story as Luke tells it first, and then transition over to the story as Matthew tells it.”
Behind-the-scenes footage of the film on the birth of Jesus and the Nativity story
As Christmas approaches, the Church News invites all to re-watch “The Christ Child” and its behind-the-scenes video exploring the history, artistry and scriptural insights that went into producing the film.
Listen to Grey discuss the making of “The Christ Child” and describe what Bethlehem was like at Jesus’ birth on episode 115 of the Church News podcast.
2023 #LightTheWorld video
The message in the 2023 #LightTheWorld video “A Silent Night Surprise in Times Square” invites all to “let your light shine.”
The video was recorded in New York City on Monday, Nov. 27, in Times Square as part of the Church’s annual “Light the World” initiative. During a 30-minute period, the iconic digital billboards in Times Square featured images of stars, angels, shepherds, the Nativity, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. The billboards also proclaimed that Jesus is “the light of the world” and shared a global invitation for all to light the world: “This Christmas share His light by letting your light shine.”
Church News video of Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert 2023
For Broadway singer and actor Michael Maliakel, The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square’s Christmas specials were a “crucial part of Christmases in my family growing up.”
Maliakel and British actress Lesley Nicol joined the Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra and Bells at Temple Square and Gabriel’s Trumpets as the featured guest artists during the 2023 Christmas concerts Dec. 14-16 and “Music & the Spoken Word” on Dec. 17.
This Church News video “Christmas Concert 2023” shares about the concert and what Maliakel and Nicol said about performing with the choir and orchestra.
This article was first published in December 2022 and has been updated.
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