Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Hometown Tour - Christmas Lights!!

By Valerie

Hello Everyone,

Did you know that Alabama was the first state in the Union to declare Christmas a legal holiday? It's true this occurred in 1836. There are several towns that have great Christmas light shows during the holiday season. I thought I would highlight a couple since Christmas is this Friday.





Christmas on the River is held each year in Demopolis. It debuted in 1972 and today has developed into a week long festival. People come from all over the United States to attend this celebration. Last year they had an attendance of 40,000 people. The week starts off with the Lightning of the Love Light Tree the second night consists of Crowning of St. Nicolas & the Lantern Light Parade. The rest of the week is packed with other celebrations, singings, fairs and candlelight tours of the older homes. It is all topped off on the last night with Christmas on the River. A wonderful display of floats all decorated with Christmas lights. It is really a beautiful sight seeing the lights dancing off the water. A fun treat for the whole family.





Now we are going to head up towards the northern part of the state. Huntsville Botanical Garden's Galaxy of Lights is another great Christmas light show. This is a walk through or a drive through which ever you'd like. I would suggest the walk through though. They also hold a Walk Your Dog Night for all you (like me) dog lovers. They have synchornized, animated, musical displays that are really a lot of fun to watch. The Galaxy of Lights was listed last year and this year as one of the Southeast Tourism's Top 20 Event. That is really quite an honor and once you see their display for yourselves you will know why.


Now if you are looking for something locally you need to hop over to Grayson Lights. Grayson Lights is located in Grayson Valley. Their display consists of 35,000 lights and synchronized to music. While sitting in your car you can tune your radio to 100.1 FM and watch the lights dancing in rhythm to the music.




Another local light show is right in my own neighborhood. Fultondale Lights is also synchronized to music and you also can sit in your car and listen to 88.1 FM. The Fultondale Lights consist of 40,000 miniature lights, over 40 light plastic figures, 35 strobe lights, hundreds of yards of rope lights and it goes on and on. Since you can actually see the display from Highway 31 N a lot of people just pull up on the side of the highway and watch the display from there. I must tell you that from personal experience during the last week of Christmas the entering and exiting of our neighborhood is quite crowded. It doesn't bother me at all because I enjoy the lights and I also have enjoyed this year showing my grandson. There are about three other families across the street that decorate their homes almost as elaborately - without music though.

I am pretty sure that all of the light shows are still operating except for Christmas on the River. If you know of any other great light shows please leave the details in the comments. One of the best things about Christmas are all of the beautiful lights!! I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!!!



If you would like to feature your hometown on Alabama Bloggers, please contact Rachel (rachel@alabamabloggers.com) or Valerie (valwonderfullife@aol.com) and let us know!

3 comments:

Dirt Princess said...

Bellingrath Gardens

http://northmobilegardensociety.blogspot.com/2009/12/lights-of-bellingrath-gardens.html

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