Baptism of Christmas Grift in the spirit world
Published October 15, 2026 at 6:55 AM
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Young Woman's Journal Research
Little Chris Grift, who was dying of diphtheria and had a desperate desire to be baptized but could not be taken to the water, passed away. As he died, he was 'baptized with a wave of eternal glory' as his eyes opened in the spirit world and angels welcomed him with the cry 'Christmas Gift!'
In Their Own Words
“Then about an hour after daylight, he turned over to see his weeping mother and the contrariness all gone in the death struggle, he whispered with drawn lips, “Never mind the Christmas gift ma, but I wish I could be bap-tized.” And behold he was baptized with a wave of eternal glory as his eyes opened in the spirit world, and the angels who stood ready to welcome him whispered and sang and shout-ed and said, “Christmas Gift, Christmas Gift, Christmas Gift!” And he sprang into the outstretched arms of eternal, unchanging Love and soared swiftly up, up, up, while the chorus of ac-companying angels breathed the same refrain, “Christmas Gift, Christmas Gift!” — The Young Woman's Journal 3:3”
Sources & References
The Young Woman's Journal, vol. 3 no. 3 (December 1891). L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University digital collections. https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/YWJ/id/11790 (account extracted verbatim from the collection's page-level OCR; research confidence: high)
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