Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, in lights. (James Payton, CMRU.ca)
December is the month in which Christmas lights start to appear everywhere. Some houses just have a modest display hung on the trees in their yards. Others go to the lengths of lighting up their whole house. But the Lion’s Festival of Lights is just a little bit bigger than that.
Located at the Confederation Park Golf Course at 14th Street and 24th Avenue NW, this display of Christmas lighting switches on every year in December. 2018 marks the thirty-second year of the annual tradition, put on by Lions Club members from Calgary and area, as stated by the official website.
As the Festival is a free event that you can either quickly drive past or stop and walk through slowly, it’s a display that everyone, even cash-strapped students, can enjoy. But wrap up warm if you’re heading over there, it can get chilly out on the open golf course.
Thousands of volunteer hours went into setting up 16 000 strings of multicolored Christmas lights, with over 450 000 total bulbs. Some of the displays that have been arranged for this year include classic Christmas scenes and images, including Santa Claus, who welcomes you via voiceover, the Nativity scene, gingerbread men, and a large number of fully lit up trees. All of this was witnessed by myself when I took a trip down there just this week.
The Lions Festival of Lights is open nightly from 6pm until midnight, running until January 9 2019.
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- Candles and holly
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- Santa Claus, in lights
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- Stockings by the fireplace
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- The lights of Christmas train
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- Santa and his reindeer
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- Lights on the bridge over the creek
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- A wreath of lights
