Salt Lake will light up for the holidays

Downtown Salt Lake City will be ablaze with holiday decorations starting Friday night as hundreds of thousands of lights go on at Temple Square, the adjacent LDS campus, the Gallivan Center, The Gateway and along many city streets.

No formal program is planned for the Temple Square lights this year. All downtown lights, including those on Temple Square, are expected to be turned on sometime after 6:30 p.m. Friday — except on the Conference Center and LDS Church administration blocks, where lights will be switched on at dusk.

The Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main, will offer its 12th annual lighting of the plaza, 6 to 7 p.m., on Friday. The plaza will feature 900 strands of lights, 75,000 light bulbs and the use of more than 340 electrical outlets. Musical entertainment, a visit from Santa and skating on the ice rink are among the festivities planned.

KUTV-Channel 2 will have a live 30-minute broadcast, 6:30 p.m., at Gallivan Plaza.

Santa and Mrs. Claus will be riding the "Jingle Bus" around downtown Friday night.

At 6:30 p.m., Santa will arrive outside Meier and Frank, with Christmas caroling and entertainment. To help warm up the evening, Meier and Frank will offer free hot cider and gingerbread cookies beginning at 6 p.m.

The third annual "Light Up the Night Concert," featuring special guest Kurt Bestor, will begin at 7 p.m. at the Olympic Legacy Plaza at The Gateway.

The public can sing along to holiday carols, enjoy complimentary hot chocolate and get into the holiday spirit. Members of the University of Utah Singers, Brady Allred conducting, and the 95th Infantry Auxiliary Band will add to the music.

According to Brent Roberts, director of headquarter facilities for the LDS Church, there is nothing new this year in the Temple Square and adjoining holiday light displays.

The lights — an estimated 700,000 — will be turned on daily beginning Friday and continuing through midnight on Sunday, Jan. 2. The lights will be switched on each night at dusk and remain on until at least 10 p.m., longer if special events are being held on Temple Square.

"We coordinate the best we can," Roberts said of the relationship with other downtown holiday lights.

He said crews begin putting up the thousands and thousands of LDS Church lights in September, trying to spread the work out and avoid an overtime crunch in November.