Dec 8, 2010

Christmas Lights at Charlotte Motor Speedway


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New this year, Charlotte Motor Speedway offers a 2.5 mile drive through Christmas light show. Open nightly through Jan. 2, 2011, this is reported to feature one million lights. The cost is $20 per vehicle and when I went at Thanksgiving, there was no wait, we drove happily along at our own pace. The above photo, poor as it may be, shows the portion of the light show that is synchronized to Christmas music you can hear on your radio. It is claimed the largest synchronized lights-to-music display in the world.
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The Speedway offers much more than lights. At the halfway mark of your drive, you can pull over, park and walk into the Little Town of Bethlehem, a replica of Bethlehem including a live nativity scene and demonstrations on candle making, blacksmithing and basket weaving. I loved this, it was beautifully done.
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While pulled over, in addition to the Bethlehem village, you can go inside another building and enjoy a variety of decorated trees. My favorite, to the right, was the Starbucks tree. My niece's favorite, below, was the Chick-Fil-A tree. There was even a Lay's potato chip tree which my dad tried to steal from.
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You can also purchase some snacks here, let the kids do some crafts at Santa's Workshop, walk through the Petting Zoo and even let the kids ride a couple carnival rides. You can catch a horse drawn carriage ride in the parking area.
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We had a fantastic, reasonably priced evening. However. I think the lights at Tanglewood were better if I remember correctly. The Speedway is so expansive that a million lights comes across as.... well.... sparse.
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The light display is open 6 - 10 pm through Jan. 2. You can get tickets at the gate or at VisitCarolinaChristmas.com. Check out that link for more information and much better photos.
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I'm glad we went. It was a lot of family fun and togetherness early in the season. It didn't cost much and didn't require a long drive. You should go, I think you'll like it. Below are a few more photos from our evening.

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