The USA’s Southern states are a melting pot of culture, tradition, and hospitality. Combining a community spirit with long-standing customs, the South celebrates the lively holiday season with various events that honour rich traditions. From Arkansas’s glowing town squares to New Orlean’s holiday tradition of Celebration in the Oaks, every light and lantern reflects a legacy of warmth, wonder, and community and more than a little bit of magic!
Arkansas’ Holiday Tradition of Lights The Lights of the Ozarks is a holiday tradition that returns to Fayetteville for the season starting November 21, the Friday before Thanksgiving, with an official lighting at 6:00 pm, known as Light Night, followed by a holiday parade on December 4. Like every year,
Lights of the Ozarks will illuminate the Historic Square each evening through January 1. Along with the stunning display of twinkle lights, visitors will enjoy a festive selection of seasonal activities, holiday music, winter treats, hot cocoa, and vendors on the Downtown Square each night. This warm community atmosphere attracts visitors from all over, making Lights of the Ozarks an iconic and one of the best photo-worthy holiday display in Arkansas.
Kentucky’s Underground Holiday Spectacle
Kentucky offers a unique holiday experience with Lights Under Louisville at Louisville Mega Cavern, which transforms a former limestone cavern beneath the city into the world’s only underground holiday light show. It returns on November 14 and runs through January 3. Enjoy a 30-minute ride through part of the 17 miles of underground passageways in your own vehicle or on the open-top Christmas Express, featuring over 900 lit characters and more than 4 million points of light for an unforgettable adventure.
Annual Theme Park Holiday Festival in Missouri
Experience the true joy of an Ozark Mountain Christmas by immersing yourself in over 6.5 million lights and hundreds of decorated trees during the award-winning theme park tradition and festival, An Old Time Christmas, from November 1 to January 4 at Silver Dollar City in Branson. The celebration, one of the nation’s top theme park holiday events, features a Christmas light parade, holiday shows, specialty shops, homestyle meals, and sweet treats. Your family will leave with treasured memories and new holiday traditions.
Small Town Holiday Cheer in Tennessee’s Oldest Town
There is no shortage of Christmas cheer in Tennessee’s oldest town, Jonesborough as every Saturday from Thanksgiving to Christmas, the town decks its halls for Christmas in Olde Jonesborough, a cultural event featuring a different theme each week, Santa visits for children and downtown shopping in local boutiques, lighting of the Christmas tree which includes carolling, a Christmas story told by a local storyteller and more. The Celebration of Trees, a progressive holiday dinner, the kid-friendly At Home with Santa, the award-winning annual Holiday Tour & Tea, and the nighttime Jonesborough Christmas Parade all offer a unique cultural holiday experience.
New Orleans’ Celebration in the Oaks
Started in the late 1980s, Celebration in the Oaks is an annual holiday tradition consistently ranked as one of the best things to do in New Orleans during the holidays. From Thanksgiving through the New Year, enjoy one of the most spectacular, family-friendly holiday light displays in New Orleans and the country as New Orleans City Park transforms into 25 acres of dazzling lights and breathtaking, festive displays. The Park, Botanical Garden, Storyland, and Carousel Gardens Amusement Park are all captured with hundreds of thousands of lights to create a winter wonderland.
Garden Lights, Holiday Nights in Atlanta
Garden Lights, Holiday Nights at the Atlanta Botanical Garden is one of city’s most favourite holiday traditions and events. The celebration completes 15 years (November 15, 2025, to January 11, 2026), and during this time, the garden will transform into a breathtaking sight featuring glowing sculptures, walk-through light tunnels, and the beloved Holiday Model Trains. The event will also feature new music and choreography for “Nature’s Wonders,” the world’s largest curtain of synchronised light and sound, for a dazzling experience for kids of all ages. The tree sculptures from this summer’s Enchanted Trees exhibit by Poetic Kinetics will create an Enchanted Avenue, glowing with vibrant colour and light.
Celebrating the Holidays among History and Architecture in Nashville
Once the family home of Mabel and Leslie Cheek, Cheekwood is an extraordinary 1930s estate, with its historic mansion and 55 acres of cultivated gardens and expansive vistas, which transforms into a one-mile twinkling trail featuring more than a million lights during the holiday season. A 28-foot Pixel Pine Tree welcomes you on a journey through Cheekwood transformed into a winter wonderland. Warm up with hot cocoa and seasonal libations, roast s’mores by a fire, and explore the Holiday Marketplace. Tour the Historic Mansion, festively decorated by former Chief White House Florist Laura Dowling from November 21 to January 4 to experience a dazzling blend of nature and holiday magic in Nashville.
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