Southern Missouri's guide to entertainment, travel, and community

SEASON OF LIGHTS
by Bill Hendee

Christmas light displays have been an American tradition since Edison invented the light bulb. From the living room to the front yard to the town square, Christmas light displays have grown in spectacle and complexity over the years. Many communities host sprawling drive-through displays filled with animated scenes composed of thousands of lights in a rainbow of colors. Some of the finest displays are only a short drive away.

Edward Johnson, an associate of Thomas Edison, first strung eighty hand wired red, white, and blue bulbs around a rotating evergreen tree in 1882, unknowingly beginning a holiday custom that would endure to this day. Johnson’s idea went public in 1895, when President Grover Cleveland commissioned the first White House Christmas tree to be lit with Edison bulbs rather than candles.

It took a 15-year-old Spanish immigrant to realize the full potential of replacing candles with electric lights. Albert Sadacca’s family ran a novelty business selling

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wicker cages with imitation birds lit with electric lights. When a Christmas tree lit with candles caused a tragic fire in New York City in 1917, Albert proposed to his family that they manufacture strings of electric lights as a safe alternative for Christmas decorations. The Sadaccas sold only one-hundred strings of clear lights that first Christmas, but business picked up briskly after Albert began to paint the light bulbs in various festive colors. The growing popularity of multi-colored electric Christmas lights turned Albert into a millionaire. Prior to 1965, the Sadacca’s business, the NOMA Electric Company, was the leading manufacturer of Christmas lights.

Plaza Lights

Kansas City’s Plaza Lights is among the oldest public Christmas light displays in the nation. The Country Club Plaza was conceived in the early 1920s as the first shopping center in America designed to accommodate automobiles. The Plaza’s distinctive Spanish-style design features courtyards and stucco buildings with red tile roofs and ornate towers, meant to evoke both European and American Southwest influences.
The Plaza Lights tradition began in 1925 with a single strand of lights. The display has grown over the decades in size and acclaim. Every building in the Plaza is covered in festive lights. 2004 marks the 75th official Plaza Lights festival. The celebration begins on November 25 with fireworks, music, and the illumination of 75 miles of lightbulbs.

Festival of Lights

Some of the most elaborate displays in the Ozarks can be found in and around Branson. The Branson Area Festival of Lights, now in its 15th year, sprawls across 15 miles of Missouri’s tourist mecca. The cornerstone of the display is the Festival of Lights Parkway. This two-mile drive through experience is located just off Highway 65 at Bee Creek Road. The Parkway consists of 500 Christmas trees and 70 displays, many of the animated, made up of more than 75,000 individual lights.
The ride hardly ends there, as the Festival of lights weaves its way through Branson from November 1 until December 31. Shops and theaters along Highway 76 will be lit up, and 300 electric stars run the length of “Music Boulevard.” Branson’s signature display—lights arranged to resemble musical instruments—returns as well, perched on a bluff overlooking the junction of Highways 76 and 65. Other highpoints of the Festival of Lights include displays along the Taneycomo lakefront opposite downtown Branson, as well as strings of light along Shepherd of the Hills Expressway, Thousand Hills on Green Mountain Drive, and Indian Point Road.
The Port of Lights in nearby Kimberling City has also become a popular destination in recent years. This three-mile drive through display along the shore of Table Rock Lake features elaborate displays like toy soldiers, a candy cane forest, and a paddle boat. Two drive-through tunnels—one resembling a snowflake, the other a holly wreath—add to the unique flavor of the Port of Lights.

Lake Lights Festival

Communities around the Lake of the Ozarks kick off this year’s Lake Lights Festival on November 20. The event begins with the Holiday Caravan Parade through Osage Beach and Lake Ozark with businesses along the route decked out in Christmas lights and ornamentation. The parade will make its way to the Spirit of Christmas display below Bagnell Dam for a lighting ceremony that includes a bonfire, fireworks and entertainment. The display will remain lit through January 1.
Another popular Lake area display is the 11th Annual Enchanted Village of Lights at the Laurie Fairgrounds. This 27-acre drive-through experience is adorned with decorated trees and nearly 200 lighted scenes. The display is open to the public from November 27 through December 31.

Find out more!-- Santa's List: A Comprehensive Guide to Christmas in the Ozarks