My first Christmas away from home was spent in Teotihuacan, Mexico. I was an LDS missionary far from home and dreading the wave of homesickness I was sure would come during the Christmas Season. But to my amazement, I didn’t feel homesick at all. Why? It didn’t seem like Christmas to me. Christmas is blankets of snow and the sparkling lights of Temple Square, not mild weather, cactus, and dusty streets. There was no Nat King Cole singing “The Christmas Song”, just the occasional and unfamiliar, trumpet-filled tunes about La Navidad. Christmas in Mexico was posadas, piñatas, and tamales; and I loved it! It was fun, but it didn’t feel like Christmas. Thank heaven it didn’t or I would have been homesick indeed. It was that Christmas in Mexico that helped me to understand that Christmas is a unique cultural experience for any group celebrating it. For an LDS Utahn, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without certain foods, opportunities charitable giving, and our own brand of activities.
Food has an enormous role for Utahns during the Christmas Season. First, because LDS people don’t drink, we tend to go completely overboard on the sweets during the holidays. Neighbors make each other plates of goodies: homemade fudge, caramel popcorn, and piles of sugar cookies. Some families treat their neighbors to 12 days of Christmas treats. Can you say “sugar overload?” Another food tradition for Utahns comes from our pioneer heritage. While we may experience a sugar overload during Christmas, our ancestors were lucky to receive an orange on Christmas morning, and many times that was all they received. Most LDS families will place an orange in each stocking in honor of the pioneers. My dad liked to take the tradition a step further; we had to eat an orange before we could even look at our presents. Finally, the most significant food traditions come with Christmas dinner. Like many parts of the United States, we eat a Christmas ham. But our ham is usually accompanied by “funeral potatoes.” These are what most people call Au Gratin Potatoes, potatoes baked with cream, cheese, and bacon, but since we LDS people almost always serve them at funerals, the name has stuck. We also like to serve Jell-O salads in hundreds of varieties. Without these foods, Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas.
Food isn’t the only passion the LDS people have; finding opportunities for charitable giving during Christmastime is another. Within most wards (our name for congregations), someone will invariably start a Secret Santa. One family will choose another to give Christmas gifts or goodies to. Usually this is done like a relay. A note that says to choose two other families to give to is placed with the goodies. Families who have received from someone are asked to put a picture of Santa in their window so other members of the ward or neighborhood will know not to give to them again. Another opportunity to give comes from participating in the Relief Society’s service project. The women in each ward will choose a worthy cause and work to provide the needed help. Some groups spend months making Christmas stockings and filling them with hygiene supplies and small gifts for the homeless. One year my ward made over 30 twin sized quilts to send to a South American country that was suffering through a natural disaster. Lastly, the most common charitable giving comes through Sub-for-Santa. Families will ask the Bishop of the Ward or a Service Missionary Couple for the name of a needy family and a list of what each person needs or wants. The family doing the Sub-for-Santa will often forego some presents for themselves in order to provide for the less-fortunate family.
Beyond the food and service opportunities, Christmas wouldn’t feel like Christmas for Utah Mormons without certain completely necessary activities. First comes the Christmas Devotional broadcast from Temple Square in Salt Lake. The First Presidency of the LDS Church along with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir present a program focused on celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This sets the tone for the rest of the Christmas season. Next, attending the Ward Christmas Party is a must. Usually the ward will put on a spiritual program with hymns and a reenactment of the nativity. Dinner will be served, and then Santa shows up with a bag of treats for each child in the primary. This tradition is a good example of how the LDS people revere the religious meaning of the holiday, but do not shun the secular part of it either. But the most defining Christmas activity is a trip to see the lights on Temple Square. There are plenty of light displays in Utah, but Mormons and their neighbors often have the tradition of bundling up and heading downtown in the snow to see the tasteful beauty of Temple Square--the Christmas lights throughout the gardens, the candles on the reflecting pool, and the nativities and Temple that direct our thoughts heavenward. This tradition combines the most important elements of Christmas for LDS people: family, a celebration of our pioneer heritage, and a desire to rejoice in the birth of Jesus Christ.
Without the funeral potatoes and plates of goodies, the stocking stuffing and the Sub-for-Santa , and Ward Party and the trip to Temple Square in the snow, Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas in Utah. These things are as important to LDS people as a white Christmas with “chestnuts roasting by an open fire.” I found that out in Mexico all those years ago. Each culture has special holiday traditions, and I love the traditions that make an LDS Christmas in Utah feel like Christmas to me.
Beyond the food and service opportunities, Christmas wouldn’t feel like Christmas for Utah Mormons without certain completely necessary activities. First comes the Christmas Devotional broadcast from Temple Square in Salt Lake. The First Presidency of the LDS Church along with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir present a program focused on celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This sets the tone for the rest of the Christmas season. Next, attending the Ward Christmas Party is a must. Usually the ward will put on a spiritual program with hymns and a reenactment of the nativity. Dinner will be served, and then Santa shows up with a bag of treats for each child in the primary. This tradition is a good example of how the LDS people revere the religious meaning of the holiday, but do not shun the secular part of it either. But the most defining Christmas activity is a trip to see the lights on Temple Square. There are plenty of light displays in Utah, but Mormons and their neighbors often have the tradition of bundling up and heading downtown in the snow to see the tasteful beauty of Temple Square--the Christmas lights throughout the gardens, the candles on the reflecting pool, and the nativities and Temple that direct our thoughts heavenward. This tradition combines the most important elements of Christmas for LDS people: family, a celebration of our pioneer heritage, and a desire to rejoice in the birth of Jesus Christ.
