Temple Square throws the switch - Christmas lights on the Salt Lake Temple and Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah

Sunset, Dec, 1994 by Genevieve Rowles

For most of the year, Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City is synonymous with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Sunday morning broadcasts. But during the holidays, an unabashed festival of lights raises the music to new brilliance. This year, at 5:30 the evening after Thanksgiving, more than 300,000 tiny lights come aglow, winking and glittering on trees and shrubs, outlining the Assembly Hall's Gothic windows, illuminating a life-size creche, pointing up the historic Salt Lake Temple and Tabernacle, and adorning the trees and lampposts on adjacent Main and State streets.

The walled square's two visitor centers, Tabernacle and Assembly halls, sites of many informal performances by instrumental and choral groups during the holiday season, will be banked with 2,000 potted poinsettias and 500 poinsettia trees. Atop the 100-year-old Temple, closed to all but the Mormon faithful, a gold leaf Angel Moroni seemingly blows his horn in cadence with the music wafting from below. Holiday dioramas in the windows beneath ZCMI Department Store's handsome cast-iron facade have become part of the square's Christmas tradition, as have rides on horse-drawn carriages, which take on passengers at the S. Temple Street entrance to Temple Square. Six can enjoy a half-hour ride for $30.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir will present Christmas concerts at 7:30 P.M. on December 16 and 17. Earlier in the month, at 8 P.M. December 2 and 3, the choir hosts a Mormon Youth Symphony and Chorus Christmas concert. A Christmas carol sing-in is planned for 8:30 P.M. December 14.

The Oratorio Society of Utah and the Utah Symphony Chamber Orchestra will perform Handel's Messiah in the Tabernacle Hall December 9 and 10.

Except for Handel's Messiah, the square's musical presentations are free on a first-come basis. Young children are welcome at the Christmas carol sing-in, but other Tabernacle and Assembly hall concerts are limited to ages 8 and older. For more information about performances, call (801) 240-2534.

Messiah tickets cost $10, $8, and $5 at the Utah Symphony Box Office. To reserve, call (801) 533-6407 between 10 and 6.

The light display will be up through January 2. Regular Sunday morning Tabernacle choir broadcasts are at 9:30 A.M. For information on Ballet West's Nutcracker and other holiday musical presentations, call Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau at (800) 541-4955.