Christmas In Celebration | Celebration, Florida
(c) Kathryn Spoor
The holiday season is a very magical time of the year, especially in Central Florida. Of course, the Orlando area is home to the most magical place on earth, which makes the spirit bright for thousands of guests from around the world each year. . . but that’s not all! Communities around Central Florida get in the holiday spirit too. From celebrations to snow. . . yes SNOW. . . there’s a lot of offerings during the holiday season that will get you in the spirit, including a well known celebration in a community not far from the Walt Disney World Resort; Celebration.
Odds are you’ve heard of Celebration, Florida before. Celebration is best known for being the community developed and built by The Walt Disney Company in the 90s. However, over the years, Celebration has gained notoriety for other reasons. One of those reasons is the annual holiday celebration leading up to Christmas.
(c) Kathryn Spoor
Now Snowing
While there are a few different offerings that happen during the holiday season in Celebration, the most iconic is like to be the festivities at Celebration Town Center. Known in 2022 as Now Snowing, this event takes place in the heart of Celebration at Celebration Town Center and includes free activities for residents and passers by alike.
Considered to be “Central Florida’s premiere ‘snowing’ event” according to the Celebration Event Calendar description of the event, this “throwback to the traditional family style holiday” is something like out of a holiday movie. The picturesque Celebration Town Center is closed to traffic in order to make way for a massive Christmas tree, “ice” rink and even an opportunity to meet Santa himself. There’s also horse drawn carriage rides, where you can tour around parts of Celebration in a Pumpkin Coach! Guests can also enjoy a large patch of “snow” and blizzard like conditions that happen periodically throughout the evening.
While fees apply to some of the activities, there is no admission fee to the event, making it the perfect way to spend an evening leading up to the holidays. Information about this event can be found on the Celebration Events Calendar HERE.
(c) Kathryn Spoor
The Lights On Jeater Bend
In terms of notoriety, coming in right behind [if not right up there with] the festivities happening in Celebration Town Center is a light display that has come to be known as The Lights On Jeater Bend.
Located in a neighborhood about 1.5 miles from Celebration Town Center, The Lights On Jeater Bend is an organized light display put on by the residents of the neighborhood each year. While I’d like to come up with a more creative way to describe the display, it’s best to simply say that it is over the top! Snow, pyrotechnics, lasers and other lights synchronized to music are said to bring the neighborhood to life.
Unfortunately, this tradition will come to an end in 2022. Organizers and residents made the announcement earlier in the season that this will be the final year for a number of reasons, including the amount of work it takes to put the show on each year.
(c) Kathryn Spoor
Not wanting to miss out on the final year of this tradition, we made a point to go see the lights after stopping over at Now Snowing in Celebration Town Center. While there were some homes at the start of Jeater Bend [the name of the street where this display takes place] there wasn’t quite the display that we’d imagine there would have been. This may have been due to a lack of interest from some residents or because our expectations were too high. Either way, we did stroll through the limited amount of lights and ended up wandering around the neighborhood, taking the long way through side streets to get back to our car.
While we had a lot of fun seeing the light displays that we happened upon while walking through the streets of Celebration, this didn’t seem to live up to the hype we’ve heard about it over the past years. After all, this display has been voted one of the best in the country, so our expectations were rather high. Nevertheless, it’s the final year of the display and so we’re glad that we got the chance to see it. While it won’t be organized in the same way in the future, we’d imagine that this might still be a fun neighborhood to walk around in the future to enjoy the beautiful homes and the decorations that are put up by the residents.
Like with anything else, the festivities in Celebration will change and evolve over the years. We’re seeing it happen this year and it’s likely to happen in the future. That said, I think that this is a great place to visit in order to kick start or wrap up the holiday season. It’s fun, affordable, festive and there is a little something for everyone!
Have you ever been to the festivities in Celebration Florida? Let us know what you thought in the comments below!