BRANSON SHINING BRIGHT
Annual Christmas festival boasts 6.5 million LED lights
BRANSON, Mo. - Long popular as the Midwest’s go-to destination for country music, Branson, Missouri, is staking its claim as home to the most spectacular and longest-running Christmas celebrat-ion of the 2018 holiday season.
At the center of all the excitement is Silver Dollar City, the Ozark Mountain town’s 100-acre 1880s-era theme park. A month ago, it unveiled its biggest and brightest Christmas lighting array ever, throwing the switch on 6.5 million colorful LED lights. That makes it the world’s second-largest Christmas lighting display; Busch Gardens’ Christmas Town in Williamsburg, Virginia, features 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-storytall special-effects Christmas tree, strolling carolers, a dramatic 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 craftsmen/ women create one-of-akind holiday items.
The impact of so many millions of lights is best experienced in Silver Dollar City’s Midtown area, where 1 acre has more than 1.5 million lights — 145 miles of lights covering just 70,000 square feet — painstakingly strung by hundreds of workers over several weeks.
The experience is mindboggling. Visitors enter the Midtown area through huge light tunnels and wreath portals to witness a number of innovative lighting elements, including flying angels, running reindeer, rumbling trains, musical Christmas trees with moving lights, stars, snowflakes and a giant turning globe.
Twice each evening, Rudolph’s Holly Jolly Christmas Light Parade
winds through Midtown streets. Grand Marshal Rudolph leads the parade of nine musical floats, illuminated with 200,000 LED lights. Accompanying the parade are 45 costumed characters, including Bumble the Abominable Snow Monster, 12-foot-tall elves, 10-foot candy canes, penguins and wooden soldiers.
The festival also features two original musical productions, “Dickens’ A Christmas Carol” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The former is an adaptation of the Dickens classic, with revolving sets, flying spirits, pyrotechnic special effects and a cast of 15, accompanied by a live band.
“It’s a Wonderful Life” presents a musical interpretation of the original film, with special effects and a cast of 14 singers and actors.
Since its debut more than two decades ago, Silver Dollar City’s “An Old Time Christmas” has been profiled as one of America’s top holiday celebrations by CNN Travel, USA Today, The Travel Channel and ABC'S “Good Morning America.”
If you go
During “An Old Time Christmas,” Silver Dollar City is open 1 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays through Dec. 30.
For more information: www.silverdollarcity.com, 800-831-4386.