LDS writer tells of 'Christmas Where It Happened'
Los Angeles Times 11Dec99 P2
By K. Lubeck Peterson

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- LDS Church member Kathleen Lubeck Peterson has again written an article for the Times' On Faith column, this time covering her experience in Israel during Christmastime. Peterson, a former seminary teacher in her ward, reminisces about the trip, contrasting how different Christmas in the U. S. is with the Christmas she spent in Israel, and how that Christmas must have been different than the night of Christ's birth.

Peterson observes that her Christmas in Israel didn't have the glitz of a U.S. Christmas -- no lights, no carolers, no Christmas Trees, no Santa. She attended the annual "shepherd's fields" event of the local LDS congregation, taking place outside of Bethlehem. The event led her to reflect on the night of Christ's birth, where his family didn't have heating, or bed sheets or doctors to attend to the birth. But the warmth of her experience in Israel that Christmas remains with her.