Favorite Friday - Favorite Christmas Traditions

I thought that it would be fun to take a minute today to tell you about some of the things that our family loves to do in the Salt Lake area at Christmas time. Most of the things that we like to do cost very little money, but they are an integral part of our Christmas celebration.

One of the first things we do, each and every year is to go see the lights on Temple Square. This building is very important to us Latter-Day Saints (aka Mormons), we believe that in it our families can be sealed together for ever. We like to go see the lights the first weekend they are on and that's right after Thanksgiving. This year the weather was perfect that first weekend, we went Friday, the day they turn on the lights and it was 60 degrees outside. It was fantastic. There were crowds, but there almost always are. We like to go and eat dinner downtown (Usually either the Lion House or Nauvoo Cafe, we went to Nauvoo Cafe this year), and then you're there as soon as they turn the lights on. The lights here are amazing and we feel blessed to be able to go every year, when we know there are tons of people around the world who will never make it. 

Next we go see Santa. The last few years we've seen him at Bountiful Orthodontics where our kids have gotten their braces done. He is fabulous. If you notice, I'm sitting on Santa's lap, and that's because our little guy wants nothing to do with him. As soon as Santa walks into the room, he grips on tighter and forget waving, fist bumps or high fives. No way!




Next up is Christmas in Color. This is so much fun! It's a mile long drive full of fun lights that are all synchronized to music. And the tunnels of lights are our favorite parts. It was warm when we went and we had so much fun laughing at all of the people on the roofs of their cars as they drove through. This really is a fun tradition! Here's a tip on this one, if you go early 5:30 to 6:30 Monday through Thursday, you can either go twice or get a second car in free. Next year we might rent a bigger car and fill it with people for even more fun!

This year we went back to Temple Square a second time, during the day this time. We love eating at Lion House, so we went there on this trip for a fun family outing. Then we went to the Joseph Smith building to see the service vending machines they have out for the #lighttheworld event this year. This was so cool! I loved to see the line of people patiently waiting their turn to do something nice for someone else. You can buy anything from a water to help someone in the world have clean water, to pairs of socks for someone, all the way up to a goat for someone who needs it. We bought some glasses for kids. There's actually a free machine too. That one has great ideas for ways you can serve others. This was the main reason we went during the day. During the day there was a line, a short line. At night the line is huge as all of the people who are there to see the lights crowd in to donate service.

And then we went to see the windows at the Grand America Hotel. This hotel is beautiful and their windows are stunning. We loved looking at them. They also have a huge gingerbread house and they give you a cookie by it. That's one of our favorite parts of seeing the windows. There were crowds of people here too, but there's room for everyone. A really nice thing that The Grand America does is that they give you a parking voucher to park in their parking lot while you see the windows at Christmas time, making this a free and fun activity for families.

What kind of traditions do you do with your family, where ever you live? I'd love to hear about family activities around the world! 












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