Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights

Disney's Hollywood Studios

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It begins with Arkansas resident Jennings Osborne, a father who decorated his house in lights as a Christmas gift for his young daughter in 1986. The lights display grew bigger and brighter with each subsequent year, and Osborne was eventually ordered to take it down, since it was causing traffic jams in and around the neighborhood. Disney then became the new host of the enormous collection of lights. (There are more than 4 million lights in the Hollywood Studios display; some 80 percent of them come from the original Osborne collection.) This year’s display is a special one, because Jennings Osborne passed away in July.

The spectacular holiday display features festive music — unique interpretations of Christmas carols as well as original compositions — and falling “snow.” (I’m originally from Colorado, and it looked a lot like the real thing to me.) The lights “dance” every 10 minutes or so. My friend Erica, who’s currently participating in the Disney College Program and is also from Colorado, said that she stood and watched the lights for a full hour the first time she saw them.

The lights come on at dusk every night through Jan. 7, 2012. 

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