Tim Smith
This year, since we are mobile, we were able to make it to several different towns and see their decorations. Over the month of December, we went to 7 different towns. Eight, really, but Waynesville had almost no decorations up so they don’t count. Ha! Morgan about froze to death though, so I promised her we’d go somewhere warm for Christmas next year.
The first weekend of December, we were staying in Waynesville, NC and just a few minutes down the road from there is the town of Dillsboro. The first two weekends of December, they have a festival they call Dillsboro Lights and Luminaries. Apparently, this is adapted from an old Scandinavian custom of lighting the way for the Christ child. They have 2500 or so candles in white paper bags and they line the streets with them. They’re real candles too which surprised me but I thought was super cool! All the shops in the downtown area are decorated as well as the surrounding houses. It was really pretty and fairly crowded. For a town with a population of only about 200, there were people everywhere! Click on the thumbnail if you’d like to see a photo gallery.
Next up was Helen, Georgia. Helen was the coolest little town I’ve seen in a long time. It looks like it was built in Germany, picked up, brought over, and plopped down in Georgia. All the buildings are built in that distinctive Bavarian style. There are a few German restaurants and all kinds of little shops all along Main Street. Just like most towns in Germany, just about everything in the town proper is decorated. The buildings, the trees along Main Street, everything. We really enjoyed our time here. It’s really unique. Not something you normally see in the Southeast. Here’s a gallery of pics we took there.
Next up was Cleveland, Georgia. Cleveland is a cute little town just down the road from Helen. We discovered from their Facebook page that they were having their Christmas Tree lighting in Freedom Park downtown and right after that their Christmas Parade. We were staying about 3 miles away, so we decided to go to both! The Tree Lighting was really cool. Lots of people gathered in the park and the mayor gave a little talk and did the countdown. We then wandered over to Main Street which was the parade route. Although, we weren’t positive that was the parade route. We just followed all the people from Freedom Park, hoping whoever was leading the pack knew where they were going. Small town Christmas parades are so cool. Have a look at the gallery of the tree lighting and parade:
Dahlonega, Georgia is another small town not far from Helen. We went to Dahlonega for their “Festival of Trees.” Their website made it look amazing. It was supposed to be a park full of trees that families from around town had decorated and there was supposed to be a fierce competition. This year, for whatever reason was kind of a dud. There were only 7 trees and one or two of them weren’t even lit up, so that was kind of disappointing. The square downtown though, was anything but disappointing. It was beautifully decorated. One of the little pubs had live music so we had dinner and listened to them. It was a husband and wife team and they were really good. Here are the pictures from Dahlonega:
The week before Christmas, we moved to Crossville, Tennessee. A small, small town a couple of hours west of Gatlinburg. The day we got there we looked on their Facebook page and noticed that their Christmas parade was starting in about an hour. We just jumped in the truck and headed to Main Street. The temperature was nice and comfortable when we left and we didn’t think to look to see how quickly it was going to cool off. I’m pretty sure Morgan froze about half to death watching the parade, but she was a trooper and hung in there. Small town parades are just awesome. Here are some pictures of the parade:
Christmas week was busy! We stayed in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, just off of Main Street, right in the middle of everything. It was only about a 5 mile drive to Gatlinburg too, which was nice. There was an area called “The Island” I believe that we wound up in the first evening. We actually were just going to Yee-Haw Brewing Company, but the area was super cool. There were rides, a Ferris wheel, and it was all decked out in Christmas lights. There was also a pool with a fountain that was choreographed with lights and music that they did every 30 minutes.
Later in the week, we went to Dollywood. Man, I’ll tell you, in Dollywood if they could hang a light on it they did. It was decked out in decorations like you wouldn’t believe. It wasn’t cheap to get in to, but it sure was fun. There was way more to do than just look at lights. Roller coasters and all kinds of other rides.
We went in to Gatlinburg a couple of times. It reminded us a lot of Helen, just not as “German.” Shops and restaurants all up and down the Main Street. Probably the coolest part, though was the sky lift and sky bridge. The area at the top of the sky lift was super cool. Fire pits and a gift shop with a pub in it. They had places where you could sit and see all of Gatlinburg down below. There was also the sky bridge. Supposedly the longest pedestrian cable bridge in North America. It’s about 200 yards long and goes across a pretty deep valley. And there’s a section in the very center that’s glass so you can see straight down. That part freaked Morgan out pretty good. That’s why I didn’t tell her about it before-hand. Hahaha! She made it across it, though! The bridge itself was pretty bouncy and swayed a lot when a lot of people started walking on it. I’m gonna put the galleries for Pigeon Forge, Dollywood, and Gatlinburg all right here:
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