BLUEFIELD, WV (WOAY)- Bluefield West Virginia was named the Christmas City of West Virginia in 2020 and has retained its title ever since, and it’s no wonder why because they host their annual Holiday of Lights, and it only grows every year. Deputy Director of the Bluefield Public Works explains how the lights started and where it is today.
“The Holiday of Lights is something that started back in, I believe is 1997. So, this is like our 26th year of setting up displays,” said Craig Strahm, the Deputy Director of the Bluefield Public Works. “It started back then with a few wood painted cutouts and a couple of displays and it’s grown into; I believe we’re getting close to two million lights now.”
This driving light display covers about a mile and a half of the Bluefield City Park that shows various holiday stories, songs, and traditions.
There’s a lot more to do here at the Holiday of Lights than just drive through it. They have a whole walking display that people can go park and go visit, they can go see Santa himself, go ice skating or visit their Mistletoe Christmas Market. So if you decide to take a pit stop during your drive, you have a lot of options of fun filled family activities.
The Christmas market brings in local vendors. People can purchase locally made food, drinks, and crafts and know they are supporting small businesses. The market is opened every Thursday-Sunday. Santa is there every Friday and Saturday till December 23rd to get everyone’s Christmas wish list before he takes his yearly flight. Though there are nights where you can find a familiar green Christmas character instead…
After visiting Santa and or the market, you can go ice skating! Skate rentals only cost $5 for a half an hour of skating! The walking display in the Holiday of Lights is new this year but why?
“Because we had to move our Christmas market, our Christmas tree, and stuff that we normally have downtown. But due to the construction that’s going on downtown, we put everything in the park this year,” explained Strahm. “So, to alleviate some of the traffic from people parking here, we had to get rid of our walking days we used to do walking days that would allow people to come down once in a while and just walk the park. But this way, they’re allowed to still come out and see the see the lights on from the ground.”
This event is free for people to come visit and drive through, and they plan on continuing to expand the Holiday of Lights to continue making it better every year.
The Holiday of Lights is such a beautiful and special event and luckily for us it only takes one tank of gas to get here.
