Hiking Holiday Nights and Lights

Holiday Nights and Lights is a lighted display in a local park sponsored by our community’s chamber of commerce and is typically a “drive through” display.  But once a year on the evening before the display is open for car traffic, people can hike the lights with proceeds going towards developing our local trail system.

Hiking the lights has become a holiday tradition for our family and was part of our holiday kick-off week-end featuring Festival of Trees the next day—click here to read more, and Santa Paws the following day—click here to read more.  It was a trilogy of holiday delights all in one week-end and each one a fundraiser for a local organization.  Win, win!

Each year, the light displays get moved around a bit to new locations.  One of our favorite displays is the Frog Tree.  Check out of the video below to hear the frogs’ song:

The lighted tunnel is another favorite.  Check out the video below:

In my opinion, the only thing the lighted tunnel needs is some music to go along with those dancing lights.  Ah, but that would make it like the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Disney’s Hollywood Studios!

We’ve hiked the lights in a variety of weather conditions, some even requiring boots and snowpants, but this year, the temperatures were unseasonably warm and the crowd for the hike responded accordingly;  higher the temperature the higher the crowd. 

What are your holiday traditions?