Lighting the World from Temple Square
In this post, Claire M. Haynie uses library collections to explore the inspiring origin of the Christmas lights on Temple Square and the lasting impact they have on visitors.
The night of December 9, 1965, was “providentially balmy” as visitors gathered near the southeast corner of Temple Square.1 President David O. McKay was poised to set the Square aglow amid the singing of carols by the Tabernacle Choir. Elder Richard L. Evans, member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and announcer for the Choir, was the evening’s master of ceremonies.
The mind behind the evening was a woman soon to be known as the “Official Hostess of the Church,” Irene Staples. Staples had served as a missionary at the Church’s pavilion at the New York World’s Fair in 1964–65, and following her service, she was a guide with the Church Information Service on Temple Square. In early November of 1965, she was discussing the approaching Christmas holiday with Earl Hawkes, then publisher of the Deseret News. Hawkes had recently moved from Boston and was regaling Staples with tales of the incredible light displays at the Boston Common and the wonderful tone they set for the season in the downtown area. The two quickly formulated a proposal to likewise decorate Temple Square for Christmas. The proposal was greeted with hearty approval by President David O. McKay. With a twinkle in his eye, President McKay declared, “The only thing wrong with it is . . . why haven’t you done it before?”2
Irene Staples in her office.
A committee organized by Staples and Hawkes got to work, designing and decorating the Square with small twinkle lights imported from Italy, as well as other Christmas decorations. Initially, the head gardener, Irvin T. Nelson, worried about the “beating” the Square’s trees would take from the winding and unwinding of strands and strands of lights. Before the first lighting in 1965, he approached President McKay to oppose the plan. President McKay told the fastidious gardener to remain open to the idea and oversee the work. As the tradition has continued, the gardeners take great care to rotate which trees are decorated every two years in order to “rest some of the trees” and give them time “to develop new wood and new flower buds.”3
In addition to the beautiful lights, other Christmas decorations were prepared for that first season, and many continue to be used today. Tom Lasko, then in charge of displays on Temple Square, commissioned a life-sized Nativity scene for the grounds near the Tabernacle. Accompanied by a prerecorded “Nativity Story” broadcast and the music of “O Holy Night,” the scene provided a place, as Elder Richard L. Evans said in that first lighting ceremony, “where [visitors] could come and reflect on the real meaning of Christmas.” This meaning was magnified when, in recent years, the Nativity display was moved opposite the large windows of the North Visitors’ Center, which reveal the beautiful Christus statue of the resurrected Lord, reflecting a sentiment from President Hinckley that “there would be no Christmas if there had not been Easter.”4
At another site on the Square, Irene Staples seized the opportunity to put her myriad skills to work. The Log Cabin, believed to be one of the first built in the valley in 1847 and placed in the southeast corner of the Square, was soon decked in Christmas cheer. Staples went to work outfitting the little cabin with gingham curtains and patchwork quilts, complete with a Christmas tree topped with a yellow star and a mannequin “pioneer family” enjoying the Christmas season.5
Over 15,000 people crammed into every available square foot of the southeast area of Temple Square on December 9, 1965. As President McKay pressed the switch to illuminate the 40,000 lights on the Square, an audible “gasp of delight” was heard from the crowd. He then declared, “Our minds tonight should be on the Babe of Bethlehem whose coming into the world on Christmas morning reminds us that each one should have in his heart the Light of Christ.”6 Traditional hymns sung by the Tabernacle Choir closed the event and ushered in a season of music, complete with dozens of performances by local choirs and the University of Utah Opera Company’s production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” in the Tabernacle. Above the south gate of the Square hung a banner which read “Good Will Toward Men,” specially designed to welcome all visitors with a universal message which radiated from every aspect of the first Christmas lights on Temple Square.7
For 54 years the tradition on Temple Square has continued unabated. Similar decorations and events soon followed at the Oakland, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., temple grounds and visitors’ centers.8 Like the first Temple Square lighting, it was hoped that such efforts would encourage reticent visitors to enter the sacred grounds of the temple to view the lights and linger a little longer to tour the area with missionaries.9 Though the lighting ceremony at Temple Square concluded in 1999 due to capacity and safety concerns, the lights are traditionally lit the day after Thanksgiving and continue until the new year. One year, however, the lights burned a little longer.
The winter of 2002 was a special time for Salt Lake City, and Church leaders knew that the Winter Olympics and all of its attendant events would bring increased traffic to the downtown area. While the Olympic Games fell outside the traditional time frame for the lights, Church leaders determined that continuing to light Temple Square throughout the duration of the games would encourage travelers to take in the sights and message of the Square. Nativities from all over the world and luminarias with messages in one hundred languages dotted the Square in an unprecedented display of light and warmth.10
Temple Square lights during the 2002 Winter Olympics.
In April 2019, when President Nelson announced the coming “renewal” of the Salt Lake Temple and surrounding Square, one of the first questions asked by reporters at the press conference was regarding the fate of the Christmas lights during construction. Church leaders assured attendees that the tradition would continue, though it would perhaps face modification and reduction due to closed areas.11
So the tradition continues, inspiring the millions of visitors who have stopped and pondered over this most beautiful time of year “wherein we truly honor our ‘King of Kings,’ and ‘Lord of Lords,’” the true Light of the World.12