The Dancing Lights of Christmas have become a Nashville staple over the last several years at Christmastime. For good reason, too. It’s a veritable winter wonderland – Christmas lights like you’ve never seen. For just $25, you can load up the car and spend nearly an hour driving through a light display synced so tightly with your favorite holiday tunes that your mind will be blown. You’ll be leaving the place wondering how on Earth these people pull off something so extravagant.
It’s been a newer tradition of my family’s to go out and check it out every year. So, when we got together for an early Christmas dinner over the weekend, it came up. It was the perfect time! We were feeling the Christmas spirit, all of our shopping is already done for the season, so it made complete sense for us to use our evening to hit up the show.
Well, let me just tell you how our experience went down Saturday night.
We left for Lebanon at about 5:00 PM. For those unaware, it’s out at the fairgrounds, the same home of the Wilson County Fair each August. I actually opened my mouth and said, “I wonder if it’ll hurt their business being so far away from Nashville.” Dumb. We took our time – stopped to see Christmas lights in a couple of neighborhoods on our way out of Gladeville. Then, I had to fill up the gas tank and get a nice beverage. Just cruising at a leisurely pace.
Then, we hit the traffic.
We made it up Leeville Pike to Tennessee Blvd and the intersection of E Baddour Pkwy about 6PM. From there, it was about four hours before we made it to the ticket booth. Yes, that’s right. It was just shy of 10:00PM before we made it through the gates.
But, we didn’t know it was going to take that long to get to the front of the line. See, we thought once we made it to the entrance of the fairgrounds, we’d pull right up, pay for our ticket and cruise right in. Wrong.
The line of traffic veered away from the ticket booth. It curled and wrapped around the entire fairground like a labyrinth of standstill traffic. If we had known there would’ve been such a wait, we would have turned tail and ran for the hills. But, once you get in the complex, it’s nearly impossible to get out. You could bail, but then you’d have to wait at one of the gates for someone to open it and let you leave. Plus, at a certain point, you begin to think, “I’ve waited this long. We might as well see it through.” But, the flow never really picked up for us.
It was so slow that they had port-o-potties lined up in a couple of areas. We sat in that gridlock for four hours…four hours! Four hours of my life are gone because I was sitting in that. I won’t act like it was too torturous though. We did get a kick out of how absurd the whole thing was, and it wasn’t like we were in a rush anyway. Just tired.
Still, I can’t imagine what that would’ve been like with kids. We passed families that appeared to have just given up. Kids were hanging out the side of vehicles, poking out through sun roofs. It was madness. Some older kids were out in the field following along the family vehicle on foot as it crept along.
It would’ve been nice to see some sort of estimated wait time out front, but I guess that would deter business and you never want to do that if you’re the ones putting on the show. So, I can’t fault them too much for that.
Once we finally made it in, we turned our radio to the station provided so we could enjoy the music synced up, and for the next hour, we sat quietly and enjoyed the show. Well, except for when annoying ass Bobby Bones came on and talked to us about something I tuned out because I can’t stand his voice. Thankfully, there was much more Trans-Siberian Orchestra than there was Bobby Bones.
The display itself is everything they say it is.
We stopped by Santa’s Village on the way out. There’s all kinds of fun activities for kids, and they were even playing The Polar Express on a big projection screen outside. But, it was cold, and we were all exhausted by the time we got out (around 11PM). All we cared about was hot chocolate, cookies, and kettle corn. And, your boy had to have a hot dog. For the warm beverages and snacks, we paid a meager $16.
All in all, it’s a hell of a show. It’s well worth the price of admission, and Santa’s Village is an outright delight. But, my advice would be to plan to go on a week night or a time when you have no place to be for hours. It’s something worth seeing, and something I will still recommend to friends and family…just….with certain precautionary measures taken.
Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD and #BeBetter. “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Alabama Crimson Tide football, the WWE, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley
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