Home Care In Santa Clara, UT

SANTA CLARA — There was a different Santa Claus in Santa Clara – one with a dark sidekick.

That’s because they do Christmas a little differently in Santa Clara — one with a Swiss flavor. And it was on full display at the city’s third annual Samichlaus Abend – translated from German Swiss as “Santa Night” – and tree lighting Wednesday at the park across the street from Santa Clara Town Hall.

The lighted tree was not a traditional fir but a pecan tree. A dark and foreboding figure looking more like Ebenezer Scrooge’s ghost of Christmas future than an elf oversaw visits to Santa.

Known as Schmutzli in the Swiss Christmas tradition, the dark hooded figure acts as a kind of bouncer for Santa, making sure kids who are on the naughty list don’t gain access to treats from the Swiss St. Nick, known as Samichlaus.

Schmutzli normally doesn’t talk, but St. George News managed to pry two words from the hooded figure.

“Be good,” he said through a foreboding white smile that glistened.

Apparently, there weren’t any naughty kids at the Santa Clara event, as each was provided with a traditional Swiss gift from Schmutzli.

That didn’t stop a crying child or two from recoiling from the scary Schmutzli. But not Clara Reed, who just celebrated her 8th birthday.

“I’m not scared,” she said.

But her 4-year-old little brother Milo then chimed in, saying, “I’m still scared. The people who had the mask on? This scared me.”

Nonetheless, and perhaps with the help of his not-so-scared older sister, Milo said he still managed to let Santa know what he wanted for Christmas.

“A new Spider-Man suit because mine was short,” he said. “Mine was short because I got bigger.”

For mother Chalyn Reed, it was just a chance to give her kids a taste of her Swiss roots.

“We’re Swiss,” Reed said of her family, no relation to the author of this story. “We’re just here doing the traditional stuff.”

Along with Samichlaus and Schmutzli, there were also free Swiss pastries and hot cocoa, though St. George News was unable to confirm whether the beverage was Swiss Miss.

This was the third version of Santa Clara’s Samichlaus Abend that was started by Santa Clara City Council member Leina Mathis and others as a way for the city to have its own tree lighting ceremony, even if the tree being lit wasn’t the traditional fir or evergreen but a pecan tree in the Town Hall park.

Angel Gradilla helped wrap the tree in thousands of lights.

“It’s honestly kind of a pain because we had to bring buckets and go all the way up there,” Gradilla said.

But as Santa Clara Mayor Rick Rosenberg counted down and the darkness turned into glistening light shining on the eyes of the children below, Gradilla, who brought his younger 13-year-old brother and other young family members to the event, he put the pain aside.

“It’s worth it,” Gradilla said. “I mean, look at the joy to all these kids.”

Big advent calendar

Along with the Samichlaus Abend, Santa Clara has another Swiss holiday tradition that lasts throughout the month: The Adventsfenster.

Translated as “advent windows,” it’s a kind of advent calendar. Except in this case, the entire city becomes on big advent calendar.

Adopting a tradition from Switzerland, 24 different addresses, consisting mostly of residences, are decorating a single window with a Christmas display. That display is kept behind a curtain until it is revealed each night at 7 p.m. from Dec. 1 until Christmas Eve.

A list of each address and the date it is revealed can be found here. Once displayed, it will remain so through the holiday.

One such display, revealed on Dec. 3, can be found at Lisa Frei’s home on Covey Lane. Inside is a lamb skiing down a mountain of cotton as well as elves, mice and unicorns galavanting around towers of candy. A nearby placard challenges visitors to find all of the hidden characters.

The Adventsfenster continues through the end of the month.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.

Author of new book says ‘I’m not embarrassed at all admitting or saying that I believe in Santa Claus’

Written by Stephanie DeGraw December 7, 2023

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ST. GEORGE — A granddaughter’s concern that Santa Claus wouldn’t be able to find her while visiting her grandfather has launched the latest Christmas book from a Southern Utah author.

Lyman Hafen remembers similar feelings he experienced as a young boy. And the grandfather’s comforting words to his grandchild several years ago have morphed into “A Christmas Journey” this year.

“A few years ago, when my granddaughter was younger and they came from Boston, she was concerned. And I remembered that same concern when I was a little kid,” Hafen said. “My parents were always very careful about making Christmas magic. I love parents who do that. I think it’s so awesome. And you get that Santa Claus is not real, but if we grew up with that, we also know he is real.”

Hafen said Santa Claus’ spirit is real and passed on from generation to generation.

“I’m not embarrassed at all admitting or saying that I believe in Santa Claus,” he said.

Hafen said the book is very relatable for readers. The artwork comes from his longtime collaborator Esther West, a well-known Southern Utah artist and painter. She digitally created this book’s illustrations by drawing them into a computer. West hand-painted the illustrations directly onto paper in the other books they worked on together in the past.

In the book, young Hafen asks his parents in despair, “Oh no, how will Santa know where to find me?” So the grandpa tells this story to his granddaughter, who has that same concern.

The young boy writes a letter to Santa, hoping he’ll receive it in time for Christmas, but he’s worried it won’t arrive in time. In the letter, young Hafen tells Santa where he will be and explains all the back roads he has to take traveling with his family to his grandparents’ home, which seems so far from St. George.

Geographically, it’s vague in the book. Still, it’s from Hafen’s childhood of traveling from St. George, Utah, to the Four Corners area. It showcases traveling across the canyons, valleys, and mountains. It mentions Monument Valley and the old Navajo Bridge.

“They leave early in the morning and make the trip; on the journey, he’s concerned all the way along. How will Santa Claus find him as he gets farther and farther from home?” Hafen said. “He falls asleep and dreams about being concerned.”

Hafen said driving through the landscape as a child was mythical since, in the winter, the vivid red sandstone was usually lightly dusted in white.

“So pretty; it was awesome,” he said.

The family wouldn’t get to their grandmother’s house until after dark.

“I remember driving all the way to Tuba City, Arizona, and then back up through to Blanding. In those days, a lot of it was dirt road. We didn’t have these nice roads that we have now,” Hafen said.

He fondly remembers his grandmother living in a beautiful gabled home. Hafen remembers sleeping upstairs, and there was an old Victrola and chess set.

“So the book shares that story of the Christmas journey of Grandpa when he was a little boy and he’s reinforcing that for his granddaughter,” Hafen said. “And then we come back to Grandpa and Grace, the granddaughter.”

An interesting feature of the book is that the artist chose to represent the grandfather’s boyhood days in a sepia tone, but the “present” events involving the granddaughter are classic bright Christmas colors.

Hafen’s granddaughter Grace is his daughter’s child. Her parents are Julie and Ricky Valadez. Hafen is grateful they have moved from Boston to Southern Utah.

“It’s tying Christmas in with what Christmas really is,” Hafen said. “And that whole idea of the farm set and the manger with the farm set. And then Grace makes that connection. She’s looking at the nativity pieces in Grandpa’s living room. Then, she makes the connection of bringing the baby Jesus from the modern nativity and placing it in Grandpa’s old toys.”

Grandpa still has that old farm set and he lays it out almost like a nativity in his home. And Grace makes that connection at the end of bringing the actual nativity into the more Santa Claus kind of Christmas that her grandpa remembers.

“A Christmas Journey” is the third holiday book Hafen has written. The other books were “A Snowball’s Chance, Dreaming of a White Christmas” and “Ohh Christmas tree.” West has illustrated all of the books.

“A Christmas Journey” is available at Desert Book in St. George and Buck’s Ace Hardware in Santa Clara. Orders are also being taken on Hafen’s website. He is also the author of a dozen books connecting landscape and story. Hafen was the executive director of the Zion National Park Forever Project.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.

ST. GEORGE — A granddaughter’s concern that Santa Claus wouldn’t be able to find her while visiting her grandfather has launched the latest Christmas book from a Southern Utah author.

Lyman Hafen remembers similar feelings he experienced as a young boy. And the grandfather’s comforting words to his grandchild several years ago have morphed into “A Christmas Journey” this year.

“A few years ago, when my granddaughter was younger and they came from Boston, she was concerned. And I remembered that same concern when I was a little kid,” Hafen said. “My parents were always very careful about making Christmas magic. I love parents who do that. I think it’s so awesome. And you get that Santa Claus is not real, but if we grew up with that, we also know he is real.”

Hafen said Santa Claus’ spirit is real and passed on from generation to generation.

“I’m not embarrassed at all admitting or saying that I believe in Santa Claus,” he said.

Hafen said the book is very relatable for readers. The artwork comes from his longtime collaborator Esther West, a well-known Southern Utah artist and painter. She digitally created this book’s illustrations by drawing them into a computer. West hand-painted the illustrations directly onto paper in the other books they worked on together in the past.

In the book, young Hafen asks his parents in despair, “Oh no, how will Santa know where to find me?” So the grandpa tells this story to his granddaughter, who has that same concern.

The young boy writes a letter to Santa, hoping he’ll receive it in time for Christmas, but he’s worried it won’t arrive in time. In the letter, young Hafen tells Santa where he will be and explains all the back roads he has to take traveling with his family to his grandparents’ home, which seems so far from St. George.

Geographically, it’s vague in the book. Still, it’s from Hafen’s childhood of traveling from St. George, Utah, to the Four Corners area. It showcases traveling across the canyons, valleys, and mountains. It mentions Monument Valley and the old Navajo Bridge.

“They leave early in the morning and make the trip; on the journey, he’s concerned all the way along. How will Santa Claus find him as he gets farther and farther from home?” Hafen said. “He falls asleep and dreams about being concerned.”

Hafen said driving through the landscape as a child was mythical since, in the winter, the vivid red sandstone was usually lightly dusted in white.

“So pretty; it was awesome,” he said.

The family wouldn’t get to their grandmother’s house until after dark.

“I remember driving all the way to Tuba City, Arizona, and then back up through to Blanding. In those days, a lot of it was dirt road. We didn’t have these nice roads that we have now,” Hafen said.

He fondly remembers his grandmother living in a beautiful gabled home. Hafen remembers sleeping upstairs, and there was an old Victrola and chess set.

“So the book shares that story of the Christmas journey of Grandpa when he was a little boy and he’s reinforcing that for his granddaughter,” Hafen said. “And then we come back to Grandpa and Grace, the granddaughter.”

An interesting feature of the book is that the artist chose to represent the grandfather’s boyhood days in a sepia tone, but the “present” events involving the granddaughter are classic bright Christmas colors.

Hafen’s granddaughter Grace is his daughter’s child. Her parents are Julie and Ricky Valadez. Hafen is grateful they have moved from Boston to Southern Utah.

“It’s tying Christmas in with what Christmas really is,” Hafen said. “And that whole idea of the farm set and the manger with the farm set. And then Grace makes that connection. She’s looking at the nativity pieces in Grandpa’s living room. Then, she makes the connection of bringing the baby Jesus from the modern nativity and placing it in Grandpa’s old toys.”

Grandpa still has that old farm set and he lays it out almost like a nativity in his home. And Grace makes that connection at the end of bringing the actual nativity into the more Santa Claus kind of Christmas that her grandpa remembers.

“A Christmas Journey” is the third holiday book Hafen has written. The other books were “A Snowball’s Chance, Dreaming of a White Christmas” and “Ohh Christmas tree.” West has illustrated all of the books.

“A Christmas Journey” is available at Desert Book in St. George and Buck’s Ace Hardware in Santa Clara. Orders are also being taken on Hafen’s website. He is also the author of a dozen books connecting landscape and story. Hafen was the executive director of the Zion National Park Forever Project.

Photo Gallery

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.

SANTA CLARA — Residents in Santa Clara might now be the envy of other Southern Utahns who have made a pastime of complaining about their internet service on Yelp, Facebook, Google Reviews and other review sites.

With announcements from UTOPIA and TDS this month that they have completed projects to bring fiber-optic internet to just about every household in the city, Santa Clara now has more internet provider choices at higher speeds than any other local city.

Fiber-optic internet is considered the fastest form of internet technology, using beams of light through specialized cabling to transmit data.

Nearly two years to the day since the Santa Clara City Council voted to back-up a bond by the Utah Infrastructure Agency to bring an open access, fiber-optic network to every address in the city, that project is completed.

On Nov. 8, the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency – also known as UTOPIA – announced it has completed its fiber-optic network to every household in the city, reaching 3,242 different addresses.

UTOPIA and the Utah Infrastructure Agency are a combination of multiple cities that say they are working together to provide high-speed internet to every resident.

About two weeks later on Nov. 21, cable and internet provider TDS announced it had completed its own fiber-to-home network to “nearly the entire community of Santa Clara.” TDS says it has fiber networks reaching around 2,800 households and businesses in town.

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, there are approximately 2,736 households in Santa Clara.

CenturyLink, through its Quantum Fiber service, said it has also expanded service in Santa Clara and is doing the same in nearby Ivins.

There are 15 providers available through UTOPIA’s lines including InfoWest, Beehive Broadband and Fibernet. Along with TDS, CenturyLink/Quantum and Kayenta Technologies. Santa Clara residents now have around 18 internet providers from which to choose.

No matter the provider, it is the first time a Southern Utah city has had every address covered with the highest-speed internet access.

South Central Communications, now known as SC Broadband, committed in 2019 to privately build fiber-optic internet to every address in Cedar City, though as of 2023 still hasn’t completed the task.

Santa Clara City Council member Jarett Waite, who spearheaded the efforts to bring Santa Clara into the UTOPIA partnership, said the move has spurned competition, decreasing the prices for internet while increasing speeds nearly 900%.

“Residents of Santa Clara now have the most options for internet. The UTOPIA initiative has been very successful in vastly improving internet availability and stability in Santa Clara,” Waite said, adding he has had many residents call him to thank him for pushing for the fiber-optic initiative. “The incumbent providers definitely stepped up their game, and prices for internet packages have become very competitive.”

Between TDS and UTOPIA, a household in Santa Clara can now pay $70 per month and receive a minimum of 1,000 Mbsps without a contract according to both companies. Previously, the same household might have been paying slightly more per month for, at best, 100 Mbps.

The UTOPIA lines are considered public infrastructure that multiple internet providers can utilize to bring internet, voice and television services to customers. Private companies TDS and Quantum/CenturyLink build and operate their own fiber lines.

Ivins, St. George and Washington City have also considered partnering with UTOPIA to bring high-speed internet to every household and, in their words, increase internet competition in their cities. But Santa Clara is the first city locally to actually put that idea into practice.

What remains to be seen in Santa Clara’s internet experiment is whether user fees will pay off the bond by the Utah Infrastructure Agency used for the network’s construction, as was the plan when the network was announced two years ago. The city has committed to backing-up the bond, but city officials say the agreement doesn’t allow for the city to be on the hook for paying the bond off.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.

SANTA CLARA — Residents in Santa Clara might now be the envy of other Southern Utahns who have made a pastime of complaining about their internet service on Yelp, Facebook, Google Reviews and other review sites.

With announcements from UTOPIA and TDS this month that they have completed projects to bring fiber-optic internet to just about every household in the city, Santa Clara now has more internet provider choices at higher speeds than any other local city.

Fiber-optic internet is considered the fastest form of internet technology, using beams of light through specialized cabling to transmit data.

Nearly two years to the day since the Santa Clara City Council voted to back-up a bond by the Utah Infrastructure Agency to bring an open access, fiber-optic network to every address in the city, that project is completed.

On Nov. 8, the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency – also known as UTOPIA – announced it has completed its fiber-optic network to every household in the city, reaching 3,242 different addresses.

UTOPIA and the Utah Infrastructure Agency are a combination of multiple cities that say they are working together to provide high-speed internet to every resident.

About two weeks later on Nov. 21, cable and internet provider TDS announced it had completed its own fiber-to-home network to “nearly the entire community of Santa Clara.” TDS says it has fiber networks reaching around 2,800 households and businesses in town.

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, there are approximately 2,736 households in Santa Clara.

CenturyLink, through its Quantum Fiber service, said it has also expanded service in Santa Clara and is doing the same in nearby Ivins.

There are 15 providers available through UTOPIA’s lines including InfoWest, Beehive Broadband and Fibernet. Along with TDS, CenturyLink/Quantum and Kayenta Technologies. Santa Clara residents now have around 18 internet providers from which to choose.

No matter the provider, it is the first time a Southern Utah city has had every address covered with the highest-speed internet access.

South Central Communications, now known as SC Broadband, committed in 2019 to privately build fiber-optic internet to every address in Cedar City, though as of 2023 still hasn’t completed the task.

Santa Clara City Council member Jarett Waite, who spearheaded the efforts to bring Santa Clara into the UTOPIA partnership, said the move has spurned competition, decreasing the prices for internet while increasing speeds nearly 900%.

“Residents of Santa Clara now have the most options for internet. The UTOPIA initiative has been very successful in vastly improving internet availability and stability in Santa Clara,” Waite said, adding he has had many residents call him to thank him for pushing for the fiber-optic initiative. “The incumbent providers definitely stepped up their game, and prices for internet packages have become very competitive.”

Between TDS and UTOPIA, a household in Santa Clara can now pay $70 per month and receive a minimum of 1,000 Mbsps without a contract according to both companies. Previously, the same household might have been paying slightly more per month for, at best, 100 Mbps.

The UTOPIA lines are considered public infrastructure that multiple internet providers can utilize to bring internet, voice and television services to customers. Private companies TDS and Quantum/CenturyLink build and operate their own fiber lines.

Ivins, St. George and Washington City have also considered partnering with UTOPIA to bring high-speed internet to every household and, in their words, increase internet competition in their cities. But Santa Clara is the first city locally to actually put that idea into practice.

What remains to be seen in Santa Clara’s internet experiment is whether user fees will pay off the bond by the Utah Infrastructure Agency used for the network’s construction, as was the plan when the network was announced two years ago. The city has committed to backing-up the bond, but city officials say the agreement doesn’t allow for the city to be on the hook for paying the bond off.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.