Every once in awhile I find something interesting going on in my hometown of Springfield, IL – whether it be a local event, local flavor or a local view. Each week I’ll bringing a piece of my life to the online world in a series called Let’s Get Local. I encourage anyone and everyone to join in and share a little bit of their own local flair to introduce us to people and places we may never visit.
During the Christmas holiday season, one of our favorite things do as a family is drive by outdoor light displays. While we enjoy the festive decorations from homeowners, it’s the professional displays that really light things up.
For a little weekend road trip, we packed up the car and drove 90 minutes north to East Peoria, IL to see the Festival of Lights Folepi’s Winter Wonderland. This light show is a 2 mile drive through what I would only guess is well over a million little bulbs all creatively displayed in works of art.
Event Information
Location: VFW Post 2078 Park off Springfield Road, East Peoria
(Entrance address: 123 Par 3 Lane, East Peoria)
Our Trip through the Winter Wonderland
Oddly enough, after being on display for nearly 25 years, this was our first trip as a family to the event. While it is heavily advertised, we just never found the time. But I’m sure glad we did this year!
To say it was amazing just doesn’t do it justice. Driving through from the comfort and warmth of your car certainly made it a more pleasant experience. As we slowly went down the path I couldn’t help but notice the immense amount of time and craftsmanship that went into creating these lit up works of art. Just through the gate we were greeted by a full-size, 3D fire truck. Further down the road there were ducks, cars, Santa’s…even the Bat Mobile! The best part of all of it was seeing the look on my 2 year old’s face though.
I’ll let our little short video of our trip through the park speak for itself though. If you live in Central Illinois, this is definitely worth the drive!
About Cat Davis
Wow pretty, my daughter would have LOVED to drive through that!
So cool! Those cars and trucks were amazing! We’re going this weekend and the kids are really looking forward to it.
Cat,
We went through a drive-through Christmas display last night at Chickasaw State Park (TN). It was cool to ride in the comfort of our car, but of course we rolled the windows down to get great pictures as well as talk to the volunteers along the drive. The displays were a combination of electric lights as well as more than 3000 hand-lit luminaries (I can’t even imagine how long that took) that lit the path we drove. It was so much fun to see the park we frequently often lit up in such a decorative manner.
Next year, I think I’ll ride w/my head and camera outside the moon roof to be sure to get better pictures. I just hope to not get knocked in the head by a low hanging or stray branch.
River and I enjoyed watching your video. Now, to go figure out how to get that song out of my head
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Very nice!
Happy Holidays
Wow-Those are some seriously amazing Christmas attractions! We have something along the lines here in Rockford, but NOTHING compared to that.
Oh it looks so neat! I would love to go!
Very pretty. My hubby’s family is from that area.