For many Utahns, it's a long-standing tradition to visit Salt Lake City at Christmastime to see the lights on Temple Square. While there are many gorgeous light displays all over the state, this one might just have the most glittering, sparkling Christmas lights.
The Christmas lights at Temple Square have been a Utah tradition since 1965.
The temple grounds turn into a magical place this time of year, with lights everywhere.
Main Street Plaza, also owned by the LDS Church, is all aglow with lights, too.
No one claims to know exactly how many lights are used here, but recent guesses exceed 800,000.
The temple converted from incandescent bulbs to LED bulbs over the last several years. The new bulbs use less than 10 percent of the electricity needed for the old bulbs.
It takes a long time to wrap all these trees in twinkle lights!
The crew starts in August to have everything completed by November. It takes the crew two and a half months to remove the lights after the holidays.
Dress warm and plan on spending about an hour walking through the grounds.
It's generally pretty crowded, so keep a close eye on your kids and pace yourselves. To get warm, you can stop in at the Visitor Center or the Nauvoo Cafe for some hot chocolate.
While you're at Temple Square, enjoy one of the free Christmas concerts, held in several of the buildings on the square.
Click here for a list of free performances.
The lights turn on every evening around 5:30 PM, and turn back off at 10 PM.
They'll stay on until 11 PM December 14th - 16th for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concerts, and will stay on until 12:30 AM on New Year's Eve.
Getting to Temple Square at Christmastime is an adventure.
That's putting it mildly. Traffic is crazy in downtown Salt Lake City during December. Instead of driving, consider taking TRAX, and you'll avoid a lot of headaches. If you absolutely must drive, you can park at City Creek or the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, for a fee. The city offers free parking meters downtown during the Christmas season, but as you can imagine, those spots are taken quickly.
Have you visited Temple Square yet this holiday season?
For another amazing Christmas light display, head to Lehi to see Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point.
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