Mesa Temple Christmas Lights

The Mesa Temple Christmas Lights return in 2024 from 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM each evening from Friday, Nov. 29, through Monday, Dec. 30. Come and enjoy a wonderful feeling of peace and Christmas enchantment at the Mesa Temple & Visitors’ Center. See the Christmas lights and feel the spirit of Christmas at the International Nativity Display. All activities are open to the public, free of charge, and family-friendly.

Celebrate the original Christmas story by visiting the International Nativity Display — with hundreds of nativities from around the world. We invite you to explore the Christmas story as you witness inspiring works of art depicting Christ’s birth. The nativity display runs the same dates as the Christmas Lights event and is open 5:00 PM – 10:00 PM each evening with daytime viewing 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM on Tuesdays/Thursdays at the Visitors’ Center, 455 E. Main St. (just west of the temple grounds on the corner of LeSueur and Main Street).

What is a Giving Machine? This vending machine is full of service items needed by selected Arizona charities and 100% of the funds collected go directly to the donated items and the receiving charities. Light the World Giving Machines will return to Arizona during the 2024 Christmas season. Those unable to visit a machine in person can still participate by making an online donation at LightTheWorld.org/give.

For more than four decades, the lighting of the Mesa Arizona Temple gardens has been a holiday tradition for many who come to enjoy the lights and feel the spirit of this sacred place.

Over time, what had started out as a small display of lights, has grown to become one of the largest Christmas lighting events in the Southwest, recently drawing more than 1.5 million people during the holiday season.

The event started in 1979 when Mesa Temple President L. Harold Wright envisioned that lighting the temple grounds could be a “gift to the community.”

In its first season, the display included 5,000 clear and blue lights, centered around the visitors’ center roof and the reflecting pool where electrical outlets were available.

For 15 years, Murray and Nordessa Coates were assigned the task of developing, designing, and directing the lighting celebration and helped it grow each year.

Lights covered trees and shrubs and even tall palm trees. Early on, men climbed the palms to place the lights, and “cherry pickers” were later used to reach the trees that were as high as 65 feet.

In 1985, when a new sprinkler system was installed in the temple gardens, underground electrical lines were added to make more outlets available so lights could be placed throughout the gardens.

A live nativity scene –with a camel, sheep, and other animals – was part of the presentation in 1984 and again in 1985. That same year, ABC’s television morning show, Good Morning America, called the lighting of the Arizona Temple gardens one of three “must-see” holiday lighting extravaganzas in the United States.

Music was added to the celebration and various local musicians began giving nightly concerts. The groups, representing a variety of cultures and musical styles, include families, school and Church choirs, and private ensembles from all over Arizona.

By the early 1990s, more than 300,000 lights adorned the temple grounds, dangling from tall palm trees, wrapped tightly around tree trunks hanging from branches, clustered in bouquet-like arrangements covering flower beds and low walls.

Chartered buses filled with visitors from around the Valley congregated at the temple to witness the display each night. Even when the temple wasn’t on the specified route, some bus drivers were known to adjust their course, just so their passengers could get a glimpse of the spectacular sight.

On the grounds are a variety of displays designed to tell the story of Christ’s birth, including a large outdoor crèche underneath a star with nearly 23,000 lights, a shepherd’s field, Mary and Joseph figurines, the prophet Isaiah, and three lighted wise men with their camels.

In the early 2000s, Julie McFarland of Mesa, who, with her husband, Kirt, were serving as lighting directors when they were inspired by the cover of the December 2000 issue of The Ensign which featured a painting, “The Road to Bethlehem,” by Joseph Brickey.

“We wanted to add something more spiritual to the grounds,” said Julie. “This painting seemed to capture the quiet nature of that moment.”

The figurines are the work of artist and sculptor Rennie Godfrey of Safford, Ariz., and debuted on the temple grounds in 2005. Rennie said she spends much time researching and is meticulous in the details: she covers the sheep with real sheep pelts, the donkey’s tail is made of horse’s hair, she inserts eyelashes and hair with a needle, hand-dyes fabrics with natural products and secures items from Middle Eastern countries.

“I try to be as natural and authentic as I can,” she said. “Working on this has a lot of meaning for me and I hope to be able make something that will touch hearts and bring others to Christ; that’s what these images are all about.”

In 2015, special QR codes near the vignettes were added so visitors could use their cell phones to access additional videos and information for these scenes depicted.

The extravagant celebration of lights is possible because of the thousands who volunteer behind the scenes who give of themselves during this busy time of year and find joy in being a part of something that brightens the holidays for so many.

Some of these volunteers start working as early as the spring, when they begin inventory on the lights. The majority work feverishly during November transforming the temple grounds into a breathtaking display.

This ad hoc lighting crew comes from dozens of stakes in the Phoenix metro area. Many of these volunteers are young single adults, aged 18-31, who regularly show up on Monday nights to the warehouse where the hundreds of thousands of lights are stored year-round to design and assemble items to be a part of the display.

“It’s amazing!” Liesl Cardon of Utah told the Church News in 2017. She was visiting the lights display for the first time. “I especially love the reflection of the temple in the pool.”

She paused with her companion, CJ Passantino of Texas, both of whom are BYU students, in front of a large white nativity that appears to float in a small reflecting pond on the north side of the temple.

“I was thinking of how calm the water is,” she said. “It reminds me of the gift of peace that we get from our Savior—through His Atonement, and through prayer. It’s a peaceful place.”

Lubna Dent, who is from Pakistan but was living in Arizona, visited in 2016.

“The moment I entered I was in awe,” she told the Church News. “The people from their hearts are trying to spread the light of Christ and His message of hope. It’s amazing how they do it out of love and service.”

Lacey Ames of Mesa stood near the large nativity scene in 2017, explaining to her 3-year-old boy about the significance of the moment portrayed.

“Instead of the hype of presents we’re trying to focus on the true meaning of Christmas, which is Christ,” Lacey said. “There is always a special spirit on the temple grounds when you’re looking at the Christmas lights that you can’t get anywhere else.”

In May 2018, the Mesa Temple closed for a major renovation construction project of the edifice and surrounding grounds. The lighting event was suspended through 2021, when the temple was dedicated in December and a large, white nativity was the only Christmas decorations placed on temple grounds during the public open house and dedication weekend.

In 2022, the lights returned in full glory on the north side of the temple.

From the day after Thanksgiving through Dec. 30, visitors will fill wide pathways of the temple grounds nightly 5:00 PM – 10:00 PM.

In addition to the lighting event on temple grounds, a large, international nativity display — featuring more than a hundred nativities from nations and cultures from all over the world — also is presented each year. They are hosted in the multipurpose room at the Mesa Temple Visitors’ Center, 455 E. Main Street, (just across from the northwest corner of the temple grounds) throughout the Christmas season.