Historically, the Feast of Lights is an age-old tradition in Judaism as well as part of the history of Christianity. However, I don’t think that’s what the Osborne family had in mind when Jennings Osborne, of Little Rock, Ark. began hanging Christmas lights for his daughter.

A Genuine Feast of Lights
In the mid-1980’s he began his display of 1,000 lights, adding more lights every year. He even bought the houses on either side of his own home just to put up more lights. Throughout seven years he compiled more than 4 million lights. Though popular with tourists, Osborne’s neighbors complained, and he was ordered to discontinue his spectacle of lights, though he refused and was fined.

The Walt Disney Company was so enthused with his display of lights that they brought the spectacle to Walt Disney World, Orlando, Fla. in 1995. For the past several years it has made its home on Disney-MGM Studios’ back-lot, which is lined with facades (false fronts of houses, used in filming television shows), and during the day serves as part of a Studio Back-lot tour, showing off movie props and scenery. When dusk settles and the sun goes down, the lights go on…and the Disney magic begins once more.

Feast Your Eyes on This
The parade of tourists embarks as music sounds the melodic introduction to a winter wonderland in the Sunshine State. Faces stare up in awe at the glorious entrance sparkling in the moonlight. Children grow wide-eyed at the enormous Christmas trees – each respectively shimmering, standing at 70-foot-tall with 58,000 lights and 30-foot-tall with 27,300 lights. Angelic giggles escape the lips of the universal child hidden inside of each of us, as flights of angels come into vision; as visitors enter they are given a special pair of holographic glasses through which the twinkling lights reveal angels, hundreds of glowing angels hidden in the lights.

The millions of lights are hung and strung along the fronts of the facades, where guests wander through a neighborhood of Disney Christmas glory, sipping hot cocoa and basking in “snow flurries” along certain paths. Even the snow is real – although it melts too quickly to truly be appreciated; still it is a unique experience to locals, and a reminder to tourists of what they escaped from by coming to Florida. The magic doesn’t end without a goodnight kiss, though – gigantic light bulbs are turned into larger-than-life mistletoe, so be sure to share a kiss or two. The display has become so popular with Disney-goers that it is now the park’s third most popular attraction.

The display will not be lighting up for the Christmas season 2003, because of renovations the back-lot is undergoing for a new attraction, but they plan to light up the nights once more in November 2004. The display usually runs from mid-November until the first week of January. Don’t miss it!

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