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Best public holiday lights? Readers choose Bentleyville "Tour of Lights"

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Winning event is nation's largest free walk-through holiday event

Temperatures are dropping, snow is falling and the smell of turkey is in the air. The holidays are upon us. 10Best Local Experts and Editors have combed the nation for the 20 best, brightest and most beautiful holiday lights shows put on by neighborhoods, cities and parks, and our readers have voted for their favorites.

  • Bentleyville "Tour of Lights"
    Duluth, Minn.

    Bentlleyville "Tour of Lights," America’s largest free walk-through lights display, invites visitors to walk amid more than 5 million lights spread across a 20-acre park on the shores of Lake Superior. Guests can get their photo taken with Rudolph, visit with Santa and enjoy free cocoa, cookies, roasted marshmallows and popcorn.
    Photo courtesy of Visit Duluth

  • Christmas Town USA
    McAdenville, N.C.

    McAdenville is nicknamed Christmas Town USA for a good reason. Every winter, this small town in North Carolina transforms into a festive, twinkling wonderland, dotted with thousands of lights, dramatic displays and a spirited Main Street. Hundreds of thousands of visitors come to Christmas Town USA every December to drive through the 1.3-mile-long route through breathtaking holiday displays. McAdenville’s Christmas Town tradition dates way back to the ‘50s. 
    Photo courtesy of STEVE RANKIN / CHRISTMAS TOWN USA

  • Legendary Lights of Clifton Mill
    Clifton Mill

    The Legendary Lights of Clifton Mill in Clifton, Ohio lights up with over 3.5 million lights each holiday season. The historic mill, gorge, riverbanks, bridges and trees are covered in twinkling bulbs for the event, which includes a 100-foot "waterfall" of lights. The event also features an outdoor miniature Christmas village, Santa Claus Museum, a Toy Collection from holidays past and Santa's Workshop, where visitors can peek in on Mr. Claus as he checks his list and heads up the chimney to load his sleigh.
    Photo courtesy of Clifton Mill

  • Bright Nights at Forest Park
    Springfield, Mass.

    Bright Nights has been lighting up Forest Park in Springfield, Massachusetts since 1995, welcoming more than 5.4 million visitors along the way. In addition to enjoying the light displays, guests can decorate gingerbread houses, visit Santa’s cottage, listen to holiday carolers or take a tour by horse-drawn wagon or carriage.
    Photo courtesy of Bright Nights at Forest Park

  • Festival of Lights
    Riverside, Calif.

    The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa’s Festival of Lights returns to Riverside for its 27th year with 5 million lights, 400 animated figures, a life-size gingerbread house, the world’s largest mistletoe, visits from Santa Claus and Sugar Plum Fairy ballerinas, live entertainment, all welcomed with a grand Switch-On ceremony complete with a Super Bowl-grade firework show.
    Photo courtesy of Mission Inn Hotel & Spa

  • Nights of Lights
    St. Augustine, Fla.

    Historic Downtown St. Augustine gets decked in millions of tiny white lights during the holiday Nights of Lights celebration. The oldest city in the USA draws on the Spanish tradition of placing white candles in the window during the holidays, but takes it to new festive heights with more than 3 million points of light within the 144-square-block historic district during the free holiday event.
    Photo courtesy of FloridasHistoricCoast.com

  • Holiday Light Show
    Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

    The Holiday Lights Show, the nation's largest on-the-water lights display, illuminates Idaho's Coeur d'Alene Resort with more than 1.5 million bulbs from the end of November through early January. Aboard a Journey to the North Pole cruise on Lake Coeur d'Alene, guests are transported to Santa's North Pole Toy Workshop, home to one of the world's tallest Christmas trees.
    Photo courtesy of The Coeur d'Alene Resort

  • Austin Trail of Lights
    Austin

    This holiday season, the Austin Trail of Lights takes over Zilker Park for the 55th anniversary of the popular Hill Country event. More than two million bulbs divided into over 40 light displays will illuminate the 1.25-mile trail, culminating in the 155-foot Zilker Tree, the world's tallest man-made freestanding holiday tree. Nearly three dozen area food trucks join the event to sooth those post-trail hunger pangs.
    Photo courtesy of Austintrailoflights.org

  • Balboa Park December Nights
    San Diego

    For two nights each December, San Diego's Balboa Park (and its museums) open free of charge for December Nights. This seasonal celebration attractions more than 300,000 visitors who come to enjoy live music and dance, traditional food from around the world, visits with Santa and a puppet performance of "A Christmas Carol." 
    Photo courtesy of Balboa Park December Nights

  • The Lights of Christmas Festival
    Stanwood, Wash.

    The Lights of Christmas in Stanwood, Washington features more than a million lights spread across 15 acres at Warm Beach Camp, hot donuts, live carolers, children’s activities and holiday shopping. It’s the largest holiday lights display in the Pacific Northwest.
    Photo courtesy of The Lights of Christmas Festival

The top 10 winners in the category Best Public Holiday Lights Display are as follows:

  1. Bentleyville “Tour of Lights” - Duluth, Minn.
  2. Christmas Town USA - McAdenville, N.C.
  3. Legendary Lights of Clifton Mill - Clifton Mill
  4. Bright Nights at Forest Park - Springfield, Mass.
  5. Festival of Lights - Riverside, Calif.
  6. Nights of Lights - St. Augustine, Fla.
  7. Holiday Light Show - Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
  8. Austin Trail of Lights - Austin
  9. Balboa Park December Nights - San Diego
  10. The Lights of Christmas Festival - Stanwood, Wash.

A panel of experts partnered with 10Best editors to pick the initial 20 nominees, and the top 10 winners were determined by popular vote.

Congratulations to all these winning holiday events!

License the 10Best Readers' Choice Award Logo

 

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AlertThe Experts

Marla Cimini

Marla Cimini

Marla Cimini

Marla Cimini

Marla is a journalist with a passion for travel, music and culinary adventures (combining all three whenever possible)! An avid globetrotter, she has covered topics such as exotic Tahitian getaways; Santa Fe’s chocolate trail; Argentine wines; and Japan's Washoku cuisine. Marla is co-author of the book, A Century of Hospitality, a historical exploration of US hotels. Her articles have appeared in numerous publications worldwide. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter or see more of her work on her website.

Joanne DiBona

Joanne DiBona

Joanne DiBona

Joanne DiBona

You'll never see Joanne without a camera or two strapped around her neck as she travels around the world, together with her photographer husband Tony, to unearth new and exciting destinations to share with her readers. Her professional career includes a long tenure in communications with the San Diego Tourism Authority, where she gained expertise with both the camera and the descriptive word. When she’s not adding fresh images to her SCENIC PHOTOGRAPHY website, she's posting her current adventures on her popular TRAVEL BLOG . Joanne is a member of the esteemed Society of American Travel Writers (SATW).

Amber Gibson

Amber Gibson

Amber Gibson

Amber Gibson

Amber Gibson spends 350 nights a year in hotels searching for the latest and greatest in the travel industry. Her writing and photographs have appeared in print, online, and on the radio for outlets including Forbes, National Geographic Traveler, Departures, Four Seasons Magazine, Conde Nast Traveller, NPR, Saveur, Departures, Rhapsody, Hemispheres, American Way, Private Air, and Serious Eats. She graduated as valedictorian from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and received a fellowship to attend the 2017 Wine Writers Symposium at Meadowood Napa Valley. Champagne, dark chocolate and gelato are her biggest weaknesses.

Sharon Rigney

Sharon Rigney

Sharon Rigney

Sharon Rigney

Sharon is a native to the Philadelphia area, but loves to wander from its familiar borders. She has traveled to more than 30 countries, trekked five continents, ventured out with family, friends and on solo trips and tackled numerous adventures that were both in and well out of her comfort zone. When she's not traveling, you may find her out on her bicycle on the local roads and trails dreaming up her next adventure. Her other works can be found at Trekaroo.com, NJ Family and a variety of other online publications.

Jacky Runice

Jacky Runice

Jacky Runice

Jacky Runice

Born in Bucktown when bulletproof was a home safety choice and not a coffee order, Jacky Runice has been knocking around Chicago as a professional print, online and broadcast journalist and editor specializing in separating the riff from the raff in politics, culture, entertainment, food and pure unadulterated fun. In her best Chicagoese, Jacky asks, "Who has the time or money to blow on hotels, attractions, restaurants, exhibits, concerts and activities that blow?" 
  

Chelle Koster Walton

Chelle Koster Walton

Chelle Koster Walton

Chelle Koster Walton

Chelle Koster Walton – the Local Expert for Naples, Florida and the Caribbean – has been covering the destination for 30 years. Her top-selling Sarasota, Sanibel Island, and Naples guidebook (Countryman Press) is in its sixth edition. She was contributing editor for Caribbean Travel & Life for 12 years and has written guidebooks on the Bahamas. A veteran travel writer, Chelle has published thousands of articles for Miami Herald, USA TODAY, Latitudes; has written/contributed to a dozen guidebooks, and produces travel shows for the local PBS station.

Corinne Whiting

Corinne Whiting

Corinne Whiting

Corinne Whiting

Corinne hails from the other Washington, where she caught the travel bug early on. Corinne studied abroad in Strasbourg, France (undergrad) and in Edinburgh, Scotland (graduate school). She's backpacked around Australia, taught English in Argentina and explored (so far!) countries from Cambodia and Egypt to Turkey and China. Corinne served as associate editor at Where magazine for five years; as a freelancer, she now writes for publications like National Geographic Traveler and Amtrak's OnTrak. Here in the lovely Northwest, she's  attempting to debunk the rain myths, up her coffee and live music quotient and find her Zen near/on the water.

10Best Editors

10Best Editors

10Best Editors

10Best Editors

10Best.com provides users with original, unbiased and experiential travel coverage of top attractions, things to see and do, and restaurants for top destinations in the U.S. and around the world.

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