It's Christmastime. Our ward sang 2 Christmas hymns during Sacrament meeting, none in Priesthood. There wasn't any Christmas decor anywhere .Unless you count the Relief Society's board in their room. But there wasn't any sign of Christmas anywhere.

Are there other chapels out there without any Christmas decor? Or is this SLC ways of saving more money again??

If no one wants to take on the responsibility, nothing is done. Mormons are short on money and time for something that can be shoved aside.

We always had a decorated giving tree in the foyer

Of course, back in my childhood, the building we attended had a tall ceiling in the foyer (at least) and there was always a really tall Christmas tree with ornaments I thought were so pretty. We also had Santa come to primary and give out sacks of nuts and candy. (I'm 57, so that was LONG ago.)

In the ward I attended before going inactive, there was usually a poorly decorated little tree in one foyer. I haven't been in so long, I don't know if they put one there anymore.

Easy: because it costs money that would otherwise go into the pockets of a select few.

Christmas decor encourages belief in the fantasies of mythical magic jesus and mythical santa.
That takes away from belief in mythical prophets and gold plates.
Church officials know there's only so much their members can be convinced to irrationally believe in...

They had more Christmas decor at the First Presidency Christmas devotional than a lot of chapels do!!

nailed it;

(some) ppl have discovered that Santa (Satan) has Nothing to do with Christ's (alleged) birth, nor do the Xmas trees.

silly rabbits!

Our ward ussed to have a plastic tree in the lobby but I think they lost it and are too cheap to replace it.

There is no money budgeted for decorations because LDS Inc is broke.

There is no one to install the decorations, if some were donated, because all the decorators are on janitor detail.

I used to be a florist. I put together some very nice arrangements and wreathes for our ward building. Someone stole all of it.

The buildings are closed unless Christmas Day happens to fall on Sunday, so when you think about it, there really is no incentive to decorate for the holiday season. There might be a tree brought into the gym for the ward potluck event where Santa shows up for the children, but that's really it for decorations.

I think the lack of decor is a visible indication of what's really going on in the wards. Many of the members who still attend do so for family reasons, force of habit, business ties. Other than that, they're not really into the whole scene. They just want to be seen and then get out of there. They're too busy and too exhausted to even think about doing anything else down at the meetinghouse and they just can't give a rat's a$$ about any of it. Even if someone was willing to take on the decorating chore there's no money for that. The brethren must live the lifestyle to which they are accustomed. What gets paid to SLC stays in SLC.

Why would they bother with that? It is about CHrist. They don't believe in Christ as the one to worship. You will notice that there are pics of SLIMY JS all over the place though.
BTW - JSs birthday is on Dec 23rd so they should have stuff for his birth.
Maybe they just don't care for either's birthday.

If not for the push by Mormon Headquarters in Salt Lake City to appear like a mainstream Christian church, Mormons would not celebrate Christmas at all.

Too much emphasis on the birth of Jesus Christ detracts from the worship of Joseph Smith, Jr.

Smithmas falls on December 23rd and conflicts with the gentile celebrations surrounding December 25th.

All the gentiles running around celebrating Christmas is a little annoying to Mormons because they KNOW that Jesus’ REAL birthday was on April 6th.

The Gospel of Joseph Smith is much more important than the message of Christmas.


ziller

Nothing so far to offset the bareness of our building

Poinsettias on either side of the podium--that's all we ever had.

I always thought it was the same reason we didn't have pictures in the chapel, no stained glass windows, nothing artistic or pretty--because we didn't want to look like the Catholics!

We have a lovely tree in the foyer, beautiful decorations all over the chapel, and just now, being Advent, we have Advent candles.

They have lovely decorations celebrating the ecclesiastical calendar as the year rolls by. During the Lenten period, all decorations are taken down and the church looks very plain, only to burst forth in all its normal glory plus lilies on Easter.

DH, having been Mormon all his life, had to get used to the decorations at first, but now he loves the way they change as the ecclesiastical calendar moves on. He feels that they enhance the worship experience.

Another tradition that we love is on Palm Sunday. One couple in the congregation owns a very sweet-natured little donkey, and they loan him to us on that day. A white blanket is draped over his back, and all the little kids are given palm leaves to wave as they parade in front of the donkey. I have no idea where they get the palm leaves, as palms are not native to this area, but nobody seems to worry about this. The minister - himself a young father - leads the donkey through our church garden, while telling the kids how we are re-enacting Jesus' final journey. I always love to scratch the donkey's ears before the parade starts - he is a very affectionate and docile little guy.

These celebrations make the various parts of the church year more "alive" for everyone. I love it.

Me too. Our church looks beautiful this time of year. We have a huge Chrismon tree with tons of handmade ornaments. The kids get to hang a few after children's sermon each Sunday. The sanctuary is full of beautiful poinsettias church members have purchased in honor or memory of someone. Greens are hung everywhere. And the beautiful advent wreath stands on the altar, ready to have one new candle lit each Sunday.

On the Sunday School floor the kids have a small tree and we make ornaments to decorate it during class. One year it was a Chrismon tree, another year a Jesse tree, this year it will have symbols of the season on it. The kids love it.

It's all so festive and the members don't mind helping to decorate it. It's much more fun than cleaning the Mormon church :)

Quite a few churches don't go in for the decorations. One Sunday Christmas Eve, I attended a Primitive Baptist church that had zero decorations, no Christmas carols, and no one even mentioned the holiday during the before and after service socializing. It's a Calvinistic thing. I rather liked it; fish who swim upstream have strong muscles.

It was 1987. We'd just moved into the Los Altos 2nd ward. We were newly out of school and dead broke. Our bishop wanted us to pay our ward budget of 120 dollars in a lump sum. For you youngsters this was money assessed to each family ABOVE the 10% tithing donation. It may as well have been 120 million--it just wasn't there. I told him we'd pay 10 dollars a month. Two months later I went to the ward Christmas party. There were thousands of twinkle lights, a 20 foot tree and a catered dinner.

I was angry. I'm struggling to pay 10 dollars a month and y'all are using that money for fancy parties. They changed the policy shortly afterward. Still, the whole thing stinks.

Mormons "know" that Jesus was born on April 6, not December 25. Thus, December is more important for celebrating the birthday of Joseph Smith.