In October, a press release announced that the Light the World Giving Machines — part of the the Giving Machine Initiative which is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — will be making a return to Ogden for the third year. This includes a kickoff event during the opening of Ogden’s Christmas Village on Nov. 28, at 6 p.m. featuring a ribbon cutting by the Ogden-Weber Chamber of Commerce’s Spikers, choirs from Davis and Weber School District schools and remarks from Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski.

Doug DeFries, Ogden City Lead for Light the World Giving Machine-Ogden, told the Standard-Examiner that the program has grown significantly over the last decade.

“Every Christmas season, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has sponsored — for the last 10 years — a program where reverse vending machines are distributed throughout the world,” he said. “We’re on six continents, 126 cities right now. And it gives people opportunity to purchase items for local and global charities that they use to provide to the patrons that they work with.”

He noted there will be a major difference in 2026 from the first couple of years that the Giving Machines were part of Ogden’s Christmas Village.

“The first two years, we only had them for two weeks,” he said. “We shared them with Logan. However, this year, we will have them the entire Christmas season. … We’re just thrilled to be able to kick it off and have the opportunity to have more people come again this year because we’ll have the machines about twice as much time as we did previously.”

DeFries said over 18,000 items were purchased in the machines last year — a figure that helped Ogden get the highly-sought vending machines for a longer period this year.

“At the end of each season, we have to provide a report to the church and tell them how we are trying to get more opportunities,” he said. “We were able to convince them and they had machines available. These are old-time vending machines that have coils in them, and so they actually have a limited supply when they’re supplying them all over the world. But we were able to convince them that if we had more time, we’d give a lot more people opportunity. And Christmas Village is just a wonderful location — unbelievable at night, the kind of crowds that we get that are here to see the lights and they come over and visit the Giving Machines.”

He noted that local nonprofit beneficiaries this year include:

• Seager Memorial Clinic;
• Ogden School Foundation;
• Lantern House;
• Young Caring for Our Young;
• EyeCare4Kids.

Global charities will also be available for contributions.

Ogden’s Christmas VIllage will be open from Nov. 28, 2026-Jan. 1, 2027.