No live 'Spoken Word' Christmas morning

SALT LAKE CITY — Mormon Tabernacle Choir officials announced today that the "Music and the Spoken Word" program that will be broadcast on Christmas morning will not be live. Instead, the program that will air on Dec. 25 will be pre-recorded on Thursday, Dec. 22, in the church's Conference Center auditorium in downtown Salt Lake City.

According to an LDS Church press release, the Dec. 22 recording session will be open to the public.

"The Conference Center auditorium will open to patrons at 8 p.m., with the recording set to begin shortly thereafter," the release noted. "Audience members will need to remain in their seats until recording is complete, which is expected to last about 30 minutes."

There is no charge to attend the Thursday night recording session, and tickets are not required. However, children under 8 years of age must be accompanied by an adult, and will be asked to watch from the media room at the back of the Conference Center. It should be noted that space in the media room is limited.

For those who don't hear about this change, the pre-recorded program will be shown in the Conference Center Little Theatre at the usual "Music and the Spoken Word" broadcast time: 9:30 a.m. (MST).

EMAIL: jwalker@desnews.com