A Good Turn Christmas Opens at Church History Museum

Contributed By Scott Lloyd

  • 5 December 2013

Painting by Jeanne Clark is featured in the Church History Museum exhibit A Good Turn Christmas.  Courtesy Church History Museum.

Article Highlights

  • The exhibit A Good Turn Christmas opened November 23 and will continue through January 12.
  • Stories behind the artifacts on display portray Christlike “good turns.”
  • The Church History Museum is free and open to the public.

In keeping with this year’s observance of 100 years of the Church’s participation in Scouting, the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City has opened an exhibit entitled A Good Turn Christmas.

It opened November 23 and will continue through January 12.

Carrying forward the tradition of an annual Christmas exhibit, the display this year focuses on Christlike acts of service and relates to the Boy Scout Slogan, “Do a Good Turn Daily.”

Artwork and artifacts in the attraction portray the birth of Jesus Christ and include several crèches (Nativity sets) from around the world. Consistent with the theme, these sets and artifacts exemplify doing good deeds.

For example, one crèche was made by the Happy Factory. Founder Charles Cooley started the nonprofit organization in Cedar City, Utah, as a way to deliver wooden toys to children in need. To date, 1.14 million Happy Factory toys have been given to more than 600 organizations, groups, and people in 180 countries. The Happy Factory crèche exemplifies the Savior’s love.

An artifact on display that exemplifies doing a good turn is a walking cane given in the 1840s by the Prophet Joseph Smith to Joseph Knight Sr. The Prophet saw the elderly man hobbling down a street in Nauvoo, approached him, and offered him the cane, saying he was in greater need of it than the Prophet.

The cane is intended to display the Christmas spirit of showing kindness to all.

The Church History Museum, located at 45 North West Temple in Salt Lake City, is open to the public with no admission charge. Hours are 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

For more information, call 801-240-4615.

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