Christmas in Old Nauvoo

 

 Last night Russ and I attended the annual Old Nauvoo Christmas celebration.It started with a couple of high school choirs and a high school jazz combo presenting some musical numbers followed by a local politician turning on the lights for the big tree in the Visitors Center. The place was filled with the proud parents of the performers as well as lots of the temple missionaries who were fortunate, like us, to be on the morning shift so we were free in the evening.Without any long speeches or further fanfare, everyone was invited to ride in one of the horse drawn wagons down Main Street.

 The wagons pulled by these hard-working horses, normally filled with tourists, were festively decorated.We were delighted to find that the group of people of various ages that filled the wagon we got on happily sang all the Christmas songs we could collectively remember off the tops of our heads. The kids were the most exuberant and sang some of their favorites more than once, but we just enjoyed the happy spirit of the occasion. By the way, everything was free, just like it always is in Old Nauvoo.

 The night was cold, but not too cold and fairly still with lots of stars you could see because electric lighting in old Nauvoo is minimal. The sidewalk next to the street had been lined with luminaries (paper bags with cut-out stars containing battery powered tea lights). This picture gives you an idea but doesn't give the full effect of the old-time festive atmosphere. There are more site missionaries than temple missionaries, especially over the winter, but the site missionaries continue to work just as hard yet cheerfully as ever. In 4 of the buildings there were  couples who told stories of the origins of Christmas songs then sang them, a cappela, with guitar, or a keyboard. Outside each of those buildings was a group of missionaries standing around a burning barrel to keep warm while they enthusiastically sang Christmas carols. In the cultural hall (the largest historic building), there was a live nativity scene re-enacted every half hour. In the family living center where missionaries usually show visitors how rope, or rugs, or bread were made by the pioneers, there were refreshments. Hot cocoa was served along with cheese and crackers, vegetables and dip, and cookies. I had made candy cane cookies and dropped them off earlier but there were none of mine left when we got there. That wasn't a problem because there were others to try and I had some of mine still at home!