South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Branson is brighter than ever this Christmas
Long popular as a go-to place for country music, Branson, Mo., is staking its claim as home to the most spectacular and longestrunning Christmas celebration of the 2018 holiday season.
At the center of all the excitement is Silver Dollar City, the Ozark Mountain town’s omnipresent 100acre 1880s-era theme park. In early November, it unveiled its biggest and brightest Christmas lighting array ever, throwing the switch on 6.5 million colorful LED lights. This is now the world’s second largest Christmas lighting display. Only Busch Gardens’ Christmas Town in Williamsburg, Va., is brighter, boasting some 10 million lights.
The annual holiday festival, known as “An Old Time Christmas,” continues through Dec. 30. It features a nightly light parade, two Broadway-style musical productions, a five-story special effects Christmas tree, strolling carolers, a Living Nativity and a selection of seasonal food offerings at the park’s more than 20 restaurants and food stands. Fine craftsmanship also is showcased, as the park’s 100-plus artisans create one-of-a-kind holiday items.
The impact of so many millions of lights is best experienced in Silver Dollar City’s Midtown area. Here, Christmas in Midtown takes holiday lighting to an entirely new level, filling a single acre with more than 1.5 million lights. Visitors enter Midtown through huge light tunnels and wreath portals to witness a number of innovative lighting elements, including flying angels and running reindeer.
Twice nightly, a parade of lights, Rudolph’s Holly Jolly Christmas Light Parade, winds through Midtown streets. The festival also features two original musical productions, “Dickens’ A Christmas Carol” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”