Who’s Celebrating Yellowstone’s First Christmas Of The Year?
When December 25th rolls around you'll be celebrating Christmas all bundled up and with your family. Imagine being able to celebrate Christmas in shorts and flip flops. You've probably heard that people will celebrate Christmas in July BUT...
According to Yellowstone Insider.com, on August 25 Yellowstone National Park celebrates Christmas in August. It's quite interesting though, because the origin of the event is a little cloudy. It's said the park employees will decorate a 'Christmas Tree' in the middle of the Firehole River, almost 13 miles north of Old Faithful. Some of the other park locations will get in on the fun too.
One story of why Christmas in August started was, sometime between the1930's & 1950's, there was a freak snow storm in Yellowstone on August 24th. The storm stopped travelers from traveling, so on the 25th they decorated a tree, sang Christmas carols and did other holiday like traditions.
This story can't be proven and there are no weather records to back the weird weather theory.
Another interesting story is that summer workers decided to have their end of summer parties on August 24th and 25th because they'd be heading home just after.
It's said that seasonal workers were called "savages" and their annual end of summer was referred to as 'Savage Days'. When they wanted to eliminate 'Savage Days', the celebration shifted to 'Savage Christmas'. Since you haven't always been able to travel into the park during wintertime, it gave park employees a chance to celebrate the holiday before heading home.
The stories may vary and the origin has different beginnings, but it's still a pretty interesting "holiday".
It's fun to think that park visitors will be surprised and maybe a little confused when Christmas in August parties start breaking out in the park.
If you've ever experienced "Christmas in August" at Yellowstone National Park, let us know.