Late August is such a special time of year in Yellowstone National Park. The bison and elk are beginning their rut. Trout swim lazily in the park’s river system with restrictions in effect due to elevated water temperatures. Fire danger is at its highest.
And don’t forget Aug. 25, when Christmas carols and trimming the tree are in full swing.
Wait, what?
Park employees again celebrated Christmas in August last Sunday as they have for decades. The quirky tradition traces its roots back to at least the 1950s and probably as early as the 1930s, but its exact origin remains shrouded in mystery.
The celebration, though, is real.
Signs of Christmas cheer are everywhere at this time in Yellowstone National Park, no doubt confusing more than a few puzzled visitors.
Santa Claus made his appearance at Old Faithful Inn where guests enjoyed cookies and punch and popping popcorn in the grand fireplace. Hotel lobbies from Grant and Canyon villages to Mammoth and Tower are decorated with boughs of holly. And gift shops throughout the park feature Christmas stockings hung with care.
The Yuletide decorations didn’t stop at the park’s facilities, either.
Christmas Tree Rock in the middle of the Firehole River was once again decked out in style much to the bafflement of park visitors Sunday morning.
What gives?
No Snowstorm
At the risk of playing the grinch, the longstanding tradition has nothing to do with the old wives’ tale about a freak Aug. 25 snowstorm in Yellowstone stranding visitors when their stagecoach became stuck.
That’s the yarn someone is trying to weave, evidenced by several handmade signs and posters throughout the park’s facilities and service areas.
Leslie J. Quinn is an interpretive specialist at Yellowstone. Since his humble beginnings as a tour bus driver in 1980, Quinn has also trained park guides since 1988 and has probably forgotten more about Yellowstone than most of us will ever know.
In 2001, Quinn went digging into the Yellowstone Park archives for the definitive answer as to why the nation’s first national park came to celebrate Christmas twice a year.
His first order of business was debunking the weather-related legend.
It is important to note that snow has been recorded in Yellowstone in every month. Snowfall in August is not only possible but is documented, especially at higher elevations.
But stalled wagon trains in August at Old Faithful Inn in the late 1800s? Didn’t happen. First off, the inn itself did not exist until 1904.
Want to move the tall tale to the early 1900s? OK, the popular six-horse “tally-ho” coaches were replaced by the automobile soon after the opening of Old Faithful Inn. Plus, historical weather records dating back to the 1880s reveal nothing that would have inhibited travel in Yellowstone in late August.
From 1887-1903, records show zero inches of snowfall for the month of August in the park. From 1904 through 1932, only trace amounts of snowfall were recorded for the month with the exception of Aug. 30, 1932 when 1.8 inches of snow fell in Yellowstone National Park, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture weather bureau. Probably not enough to hinder even the crummiest Model T at the time.
Whatever the origins of Christmas in August, it wasn’t weather related. Case closed.
Savage Days may have been the beginnings of Yellowstone Christmas in August. Here's a scene from the 1936 Savage Days. (Yellowstone National Park Archives) 
Savage Days may have been the beginnings of Yellowstone Christmas in August. A group of "pillow punchers," or maids for the Yellowstone Camping Co. circa 1915. (Yellowstone National Park Archives) 
Savage Days may have been the beginnings of Yellowstone Christmas in August. Here is a photo from the 1926 Savage Days. (Yellowstone National Park Archives) 
Savage Days may have been the beginnings of Yellowstone Christmas in August. Here's a pie eating contest in 1930. (Yellowstone National Park Archives) 
Savage Days may have been the beginnings of Yellowstone Christmas in August. These women were part of a play with an Egyptian theme in 1926. (Yellowstone National Park Archives)
Savages Started It
The more likely place to trace the roots of summer Christmas in Yellowstone is with park employees themselves.
These seasonal workers were once nicknamed “savages.” Even the derivation of this jargon is not well understood, but it probably came from the workers themselves as an indication of the strong bond they shared.
Anne Foster, a park archivist, stated the following:
“The largest group of former employees for Yellowstone National Park is actually the ‘savages,’ or concessioner employees, rather than the National Park Service. This is because the concessioners, especially the Yellowstone Park Co., employed hundreds each summer to serve guests at the camps, hotels, stores, and gas stations.
“Many of the employees were college students, recruited for their enthusiasm, endurance and often their ability to entertain in the evening. The students might only work a summer or two, but would always recall their experiences fondly. Despite the short tenures, the savages are a tight-knit community with their own lingo, alumni group, and occasional reunions.”
The first official use of the term “savages” can be found in an old 1953 Haynes guidebook to Yellowstone. The phrase probably existed as far back as the 1930s.
Aubrey Haines, park historian and onetime assistant district ranger at Old Faithful, dug into the topic in 1977 and was able to find record of an annual celebration by park concessionaire employees called “Savage Day.” This merriment dated back to at least 1947 where an employee handbook included mention of the unconventional festivities.
“O.F. ‘savages’ (concessionaire employees) at Old Faithful held a gala affair on July 25 known as ‘Savage Day.’ Several floats were entered in the long parade up the main street at Old Faithful. The day concluded with a large masquerade ball in the evening,” Haines from quoted the handbook.
There is no mention of any Christmas holiday inclinations and the date was July 25, not Aug. 25. That would correspond with what was reportedly a thing for a while in the Rockies, “Christmas in July.”
Some say it is a way to celebrate the halfway point of the real Christmas, although that would be June 25 not July 25. Others point to a possible marketing ploy led by Hallmark or a lesser-known Australian thing.'
Christmas in August in 2018. (MJ Jones via Facebook) 
Leslie Quinn, and interpretive specialist at Yellowstone National Park, has debunked many of the myths about Christmas in August. (Courtesy Photo) 
Some Yellowstone traditions refuse to die, like celebrating Chrtistmas in August. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
Christmas Tree Rock, two of them actually, in the middle of Firehole River decorated on Aug. 25 2024. (Courtesy Photo) 
Christmas poster in Yellowstone from 1986. (Courtesy Photo) 
Another sign in Yellowstone perpetrating the snowstorm myth. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
A 2018 poster still pushing an unlikely narrative about Christmas in August in Yellowstone National Park. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
Confused yet?
Savage Days Becomes Savage Christmas
Pinpointing when Savage Days began, or why, is difficult as Haines admits it “seems to have started as a private employee party” that few outside the seasonal workforce knew about.
By the early 1950s, concessions managers and park officials worried that the celebrations were off-putting for guests and distracting for workers. Savage Days appears to have gotten a makeover around this time and was changed to Savage Christmas and moved to August.
The last known reference to Savage Days is for 1953; the first mention in the Yellowstone Weekly News of Savage Christmas appeared in 1955.
As for the move to August, it would make some sense as Aug. 25 is the date commemorating the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916. Aug. 25 would also better fit an end-of-season blowout for the park’s concessionaire employees as the summer season began to extend through August by the 1950s.
One final piece of the puzzle is a burgeoning Christian ministry that began with the Old Faithful Choral Society, conducted by Warren W. Ost, a bellman at the inn and a divinity student at Princeton. An inaugural concert took place Aug. 7, 1949.
Ost returned to Yellowstone in 1950 with fellow student Donald Bower. They launched a student ministry that eventually became Christian Ministry in the National Parks and could very well have helped influence Yellowstone’s “Christmas in August.”
Certainly by the 1960s, Christmas in August was a regular occurrence and fairly well known. Quinn discovered a 1966 article published by the park's recreation department titled, “Christmas Comes Twice a Year — Once at Home and Once Up Here.”
Susie Sturman and Diane Whatley are two of numerous former employees who fondly remember Christmas in summer in Yellowstone.
She and her husband “worked for Hamilton Stores and the employees would make and trade handmade ornaments. We would have a Yellowstone Christmas party and turkey dinner, too. Good times and great memories,” Sturman said.
Whatley added, “I worked for Yellowstone Park Co. in the summer of 1965. I worked at Fishing Bridge and remember celebrating Christmas on Aug. 25.”
Christmas Comes Again, Right On Time
Last Sunday morning dawned on the cool side with temps in the low 40s to start the day. Two park ranger vehicles stood parked at the Firehole River turnout about 3 miles south of the Madison Junction.
A pair of park law enforcement officers looked on with amazement, wondering just how in the world Xanterra employees managed to put up the Christmas Tree at Christmas Tree Rock in the middle of the river. At some point in the dead of night on Aug. 24, Santa’s helpers had struck again.
“That’s something else,” one of the officers said shaking his head. “We don’t condone this or recommend this activity in any way, but that is something else.”
“Look, they even left a six-pack of Rainier for us,” commented the other officer.
August in Yellowstone. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
Contact Jake Nichols at jake@cowboystatedaily.com
Jake Nichols can be reached at jake@cowboystatedaily.com.
