City offers light shows, holiday traditions to spread month’s spirit
It’s Christmas in Columbia — time for bright lights, faux snow and dazzling displays of crafted holiday cheer. From traditional displays to giant slides through glistening arches of twinkle lights, the city offers a full calendar of holiday fun. Take a break from last-week assignments, and de-stress before finals with a trip to one of these cheer-fueled locales.
Lights Before Christmas
It’s, perhaps, the city’s most celebrated holiday tradition. The Riverbanks Zoo’s Lights Before Christmas is in its 25th year, decorating the Columbia zoo’s grounds with hundreds of thousands of twinkle lights. Palmetto trees are wrapped with red and green and blue strings while the grand evergreens light up like the largest, most impressive Christmas trees in town. The lights are designed as a walking tour — each part of the zoo creates animated images of the nearby animals, and each arch and awning drips with icicle lights. There’s also the Dazzling Music in Motion Lights Spectacular, which works Christmas music magic into the seasonal ‘scape. The Jingle Bell Bonfire sits in the center of the set-up, and a few of the indoor exhibits are open for animal visits. Santa’s in town, too! Lights Before Christmas runs through Dec. 30 from 6 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 after 5 p.m. at the gate.
“The Nutcracker”
It’s a staple of Columbia’s Christmas season: Columbia City Ballet’s performance of “The Nutcracker.” The classic ballet, which tells the Christmas tale of Clara and the Prince, is gorgeously choreographed and executed in Columbia’s classic showing. The show starts Saturday, with shows at 3 and 7:30 p.m. There will also be a 3 p.m. Sunday show, and performances Friday, Saturday and Sunday next weekend. In addition to the onstage magic, the Koger Center will host Nutcracker Tea before the afternoon shows. Enjoy tea, cakes and cookies in the center’s ballroom and meet Clara, the Nutcracker Prince and the Sugar Plum Fairy. The pre-show tea party is from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. before matinee performances for $20. Tickets for “The Nutcracker” start at $28 and can be purchased at capitoltickets.com. The Koger Center is at 1051 Greene St.
Holiday Lights at Saluda Shoals
The river dazzles with carefully-crafted displays of dancing trees and wet winter wonderlands. Saluda Shoals Park decorates a two-mile loop of its land with over 400 displays, including the Dazzling Dancing Forest, Wetland Wonderland Walking Trail and the Winter Wonder Ride. Drive through the twinkling lights of the main event, the Dazzling Dancing Forest — with the three dimensional Victorian Village, Old Man Winter and Twelve Days of Christmas — and watch the displays flicker to the beat of Christmas tunes. The Wetland Wonderland Walking Trail, for an additional $1, takes visitors on a hayride to the park’s boardwalk, and the Winter Wonder Ride sends you, on a tube, through 125 feet of lighted arches for just $2. Holiday Lights costs $10 a car and is open nightly from 6 to 10 p.m. at Saluda Shoals Park, 5605 Bush River Road.
Sweet Seasons in Forest Acres
Celebrate the official start to the holiday season at Richland Mall Thursday. Forest Acres will host its annual rooftop celebration, open to the public, with food from local vendors (between $1 and $3) and free desserts. The Carillon Carolers and Island Close By, a steel pan drum band, will perform and NASCAR hopeful Jordan Anderson will bring his racecar to the roof. There will be door prizes, face painting, balloon artists, a magician and free photos with Santa for children. Sweet Seasons runs from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and the tree lighting will be at 7 p.m. The event is free, except for food, beer and wine purchases, at 3400 Forest Dr.
Historic Holiday Homes
Today’s Christmas decor has transformed into giant, inflatable, front-yard snow globes, fluorescent galloping reindeer and the waving Frosty the Snowman. Twinkle lights are multi-colored and blinking, bright blue and shaped into messages and rather tacky designs. But how did families decorate during the 19th and early 20th centuries? The Historic Columbia Foundation is giving holiday house tours of the Robert Mills House, Hampton-Preston Mansion and Mann-Simons Cottage. All of the history-filled houses are decorated and each tour includes stories of Christmas tradition in Columbia. Tours run through Jan. 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are $6 for adults and $5 for students with ID.