Entertainment
Email
Print
Light Highlights: Tanglewood leads the way, but there are other bright spots
Journal Photo by Lauren Carroll
The holiday lights at Tanglewood are on and ready for visitors.
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: November 20, 2009
For some people, the holiday season includes helping make drivers and walkers a little more merry with decorated yards. They can range from a few lights strung around the windows to elaborate displays with inflatables, music and thousands of lights.
□ Of course, the most elaborate display in the area is Tanglewood Park's Festival of Lights, which started in 1992 and has expanded over the years into a four-mile route with about one million lights. There are 180 displays, 70 of which are animated. There's also a gift shop with 120 arts-and-crafts booths and a roaring fire where people can roast marshmallows and drink hot chocolate.
This year's centerpiece is a 110-foot LED Christmas tree with different lighting programs on a five-minute cycle.
Costs for the festival for a family vehicle is $10 Monday through Thursday and $14 Friday through Sunday, holidays and holiday eves. Commercial vans are $20 or $25 depending on the day. Buses and motorcoaches are $90 every day.
The display is up now and will run through Jan. 3 from 6 to 11 p.m. daily, including holidays.
□ Robert and Lynda Frailey are cutting back their display at 1301 Whitworth Court in Kernersville. But there will still be plenty to see.
They have more than 3,000 lights, down from 4,000 in previous years. But there will also be reindeer and a sleigh, a gazebo with a Christmas tree, two trees on the front porch, shrubs with lights and luminaries along the sidewalk.
The display will also include a giant greeting sign with the Three Wise Men. The display is 55 years old, and this may be its final Christmas, Robert Frailey said.
"The display is getting pretty worn," he said. "I've been patching it."
But he doesn't expect it to be the last year he puts on a Christmas display.
"I've been doing this about 60 years, and I can't quit," Frailey, who is 78, said. "All my neighbors say they can't wait till I turn the lights on."
They'll have to wait until early December. The lights will run from 6 to 11 p.m. each night through Jan. 1.
□ Clarence Huie, at 315 Graydon Court in Lewisville, will have more than 50,000 lights, most of them in animated displays including Santa Claus, polar bears, snowmen and more.
He has been putting up these displays for more than 10 years.
"I don't have any major changes, but I add something new each year," he said.
"It started with a couple of deer and it just grew," he said. "I enjoy the people telling me how much they enjoy it, and also because some of the displays represent Christ and the nativity and even make reference to the Resurrection. It helps people keep in mind the reason we have Christmas."
On weeknights, he said, he averages 15 to 20 cars -- especially impressive since he lives in a cul-de-sac.
"On weekends, it's not unusual to have 50 to 100 cars come through a night," he said.
His display will be up from Dec. 1 to Jan. 1, from 5:30 to 10 each night.
□ Wayne Davis, at 4755 Randall Ave., off Jones-town Road, has 40,000 lights and six themes in his yard, combining religious and patriotic themes.
"The whole point was to make a beautiful display, something people can write home about," Davis said. He calls it the "Wow Effect."
Displays include 12-foot Christmas trees with lights that change colors, a manger scene and a salute to men and women in uniform.
That display started out devoted to the Armed Forces, but it has expanded to include police and firefighters. Six different songs play on the radio at 92.3 FM. They include holiday songs and such classics as "Amazing Grace." An FM transmitter broadcasts the signal for a quarter-mile. The lights dance in time to the music.
"We moved here in 1975, and we've been having (the display) for the last 34 years," Davis said. "It's gotten more elaborate. It keeps getting bigger and bigger. It's a very fun type of thing to build and watch."
The display starts the Friday after Thanksgiving, and expands until it is fully operational by Dec. 5. It runs from 6 to 10 p.m. weeknights, 6 to 11 on weekends.
tclodfelter@wsjournal.com
727-7371
Email
Print
