Christmas in July - Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights

And a spectacle it is! No Holiday trip to Disney's Hollywood Studios

would be complete without an evening stroll down the Streets of America to enjoy this enormous display of lights.

As you wander down the street you may be surprised to know that the majority of the lights in the display were once part of a private "collection" owned by Jennings Osborne. A resident of Arkansas, Mr.. Osborne set out to fulfill his daughters Christmas wish of covering their home in lights for the holidays. Like my husband who will do anything to please his daughters a mere 1000 lights the first year was not enough. Each year, their display grew and grew. They even purchased adjacent properties to extend their Christmas passion. Over a million lights and many a traffic jam later, the neighbors (understandably!) had had enough. When the Osborne family refused to take down the lights, the local residents petitioned the courts for help. Fortunately, it was Disney to the rescue. An offer was made to move the lights to a permanent new home at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Since 1995 visitors, including the Osborne family, come from all over the world each year to wander through the streets, sip hot cocoa, enjoy the Florida "snow", and admire the spectacular display of dancing lights while Christmas music plays all around. While most of the displays are original, the teams of decorators (that begin this huge undertaking in late summer!) have started switching over to more energy efficient LED lights.

This is a magical event that must not be missed if you are headed to the World in late November or December. A few tips...learn from my photography mistakes!  Photographing this event can be a bit tricky.  If you are going to take pictures look for special nighttime settings on your camera and bring a long a tripod, or steady your camera on something stationary. Also, be sure to WATCH WHERE YOU ARE GOING...especially if you are pushing a stroller. This is an especially bad spot for folks to be looking up and randomly stopping...Not that I ran over my husband with the stroller or anything...;)

And I did not notice it at the time, but isn't this picture odd?  There are lights everywhere, but on the tree...which is where most people put them in the first place!  Go Figure!

Christmas in July - Holiday Wishes Fireworks

Who says fireworks are just for the 4th of July?!?!  Certainly not the folks at Disney World!

I am such a kid when it comes to fireworks.  Perhaps it is because my birthday is right around Independence Day and we are always at the beach...it always seemed to make my birthday extra special.

It should be no surprise that I aways try to catch at least one fireworks show each night I possibly can.  Last December, I not only managed to see Wishes inside and outside the park, but Holiday Wishes as well. (And if you are a huge fireworks fan, may I humbly suggest staying at the Polynesian!)

While I enjoyed the show each time I saw them - and Holiday Wishes is different, and even more specatular than it's not holiday cousin, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed not watching it from inside the Magic Kingdom.  Of course, we are a Disney loving family, but only one night at Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party was in the budget.  So I made plans to head out to the beach at the Polynesian at the approprite time and check out the fireworks from there, where they pipe the music in so you can get the full experience.

It is a very differente perspective from being right on Main Street, but I liked it just as well for Wishes, and perhaps even more for Holiday Wishes.  You see, for Holiday wishes they did not just shoot the fireworks from behind Cinderella Castle.  During 2 different parts of the show, the launched amazing rockets from several satelliete locations.  The entire skyline was lit up with 180 degrees of sparkly goodness!  My mouth literally dropped as the beach lit up like dayight.  I got a video of the entire show, but my camera work does not even come close to doing in justice.  You can check it out in the link below, but due to the whole tripod system breaking down when I hit record, the first minute or so is super annoying to watch, so you may want to skip ahead!

Christmas in (almost!) July - The Castle Lighting Ceremony

It is Christmas in July time! Our family did a week long trip to Disney World during the first full week of December last year. I think it is my new favorite time of the year to visit. So through out the month, I thought I would share some snippits of our December to remember...

One of my favorite things happens every night at the Magic Kingdom. Right around dusk, head to the hub and find a great view of the castle. It won't belong before you hear the Fairy Godmother lead the Castle Lighting Ceremony.

In case you have not been to the Magic Kingdom in late November or December, the castle is beautifully draped in over 20,000 lights. The "Castle Dream Lights" are turned on each evening by the Fairy Godmother's magic..."Bibbidi, Bobbidi, BOO!"

Enjoy this video of the castle lighting ceremony.  Please pardon the first few seconds of wiggling, the family next to me wanted to be a little ahem "cozier" than I expected.  If you want to get to the good stuff, skip ahead to the 4:30 mark.  Enjoy!