Do They Know It's Christmas? - Flavors of the Day

Dear Diary,

Yesterday was Christmas at Yellowstone, a tradition that has roots nearly 100 years old here, but most definitely a holiday with mysterious origins. Nevertheless, we celebrated in our inimitably grand style, with food, work family, music, and gifts. This two-day event actually started on “Christmas Eve”–August 24– when we were serenaded by Burl Ives while eating a special Christmas breakfast in a decked-out dining hall! Rob and I were off that day, but those who worked in the store wore their special Christmas t-shirts. And after work, we partied up with finger foods, gifts, and other festivities!

So what gives? According to Yellowstone legend, there was a massive snowstorm back in the 1930’s on August 25 and stagecoach travelers were stranded at the Old Faithful Inn for a couple days. They decided to celebrate Christmas in August, and have done so every year since then. Try not to think about the fact that there were no stagecoaches in the 30’s; the Cowboy State Daily debunked this legend in 2024 but the celebration and goodwill are for real!

And it makes sense, in a weird way. We’ve all been living and working together for over three months now and have become a close-knit group. And we almost certainly won’t see each other for major holidays and festivities in the off-season. Or possibly ever again. Why not celebrate right now, while we’re together? So after dinner on Christmas Eve, we assembled in the rec room for photos and gifts. The gifts were more like a White Elephant giveaway than any gift exchange you’ve ever experienced: we all drew numbers and took turns choosing from a panoply of items from the store that were damaged, returned, or–like this adorable little snow globe ornament–unsellable due to a manufacturing defect. Kind of like celebrating Christmas on the Island of Misfit Toys. I didn’t have particularly high hopes for this event, as my number was 25 (out of 30), but even by round three I was able to find some fantastic items! And after three rounds the whole thing went free-for-all, so I snagged a few items that will undoubtedly become part of my actual family’s holiday traditions for years to come.

Back when I used to work at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I got a big discount on items from the museum. So Christmas at my parents’ house always looked like the Museum Shop had exploded across their living room. And that’s what our trailer looks like right now: various holiday and non-holiday items strewn across the living room. We have no storage left, so may have to ship a box of things to one of the kids with instructions not to open before December 25th.

Anyway, back to the festivities. At work yesterday (the 25th) we all wore our special holiday shirts and posed for the shift photo below. Some locations in the park, like the Old Faithful Inn, are totally decked out every year with holiday cheer. But we decorated more modestly, which is to say, not at all. I don’t know what our guests made of our shirts, as they were the only sign of Christmas in the store, although we did roll out Pumpkin ice cream at the fountain, which was a huge hit!

The real celebration, though, was after work, when the EDR staff had planned a Christmas dinner, complete with turkey, stuffing, and all the trimmings. Rob and I came home from work, changed into civilian clothes, and spent a few minutes relaxing in the trailer recounting the day. After a short time, I started hearing a faint beeping noise, kind of like the smoke alarm we don’t have, only much quieter. Rob predictably didn’t hear it, so I figured it must be something happening in another trailer. We decided to head to the EDR for dinner, but when we opened our door the noise grew louder, like a real fire alarm. That’s when we noticed all our coworkers assembled in the driveway as the fire truck arrived! No, it wasn’t dinner. Turns out something in the laundry room caught on fire and the dorm had to be evacuated.

And as if that wasn’t enough excitement, right at that very moment Santa’s reindeer strolled over from the campground to have a look-see. They didn’t stick around, though.

After some poking around, the firefighters set up a giant fan in the laundry room, then pointed mysteriously at the sky and gave us the all-clear to re-enter the building, where we had our absolutely delicious holiday dinner behind the fire doors to block the lingering smoke from the laundry room. Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires!

Now I’ve had some exciting Christmases: the year our dishwasher went on the fritz, the year my Uncle Nick accidentally left his car running in the closed garage attached to my grandparents’ house while he was inside eating dinner with all of us, the year we got in a fender-bender on the way home from my grandparents’ house, or the year my grandma got run over by a reindeer (JK on this one). So this fell right in with my holiday traditions. But I must say that when Rob and I chose to get married on August 24th, we never dreamed that our anniversary celebration would be pre-empted by Christmas! Guess this really is one for the record-books.