Millions of Lights, Sparkling Nights Create Holiday Magic in 2002 at Walt Disney World Resort
(c) The Walt Disney Company
Millions of Lights, Sparkling Nights Create Holiday Magic in 2002 at Walt Disney World Resort
What began as a family tradition in the mid-1980s in Little Rock, Ark., has blossomed into a new holiday tradition for many guests to the Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World Resort.
“I often meet people who say they don’t miss a year of seeing our lights at the Disney-MGM Studios,” says Jennings Osborne, the Arkansas businessman behind the theme park’s annual Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights. “My family and I consider ourselves fortunate to be able to help make people happy. The magic is still there.”
Osborne’s display features five million holiday lights that turn the entire studio backlot into a winter wonderland. Guests to the theme park may stroll through the sparkling scenery, soaking in the beauty of the multi-colored bulbs and intricate ornaments.
It’s all part of a sleighful of holiday activities across the Florida Vacation Kingdom.
(c) The Walt Disney Company
Beginning in July, Disney’s technical “elves” will begin testing, replacing and stringing Osborne’s light displays on the theme park’s backlot area -- preparing the urban and residential facades with elaborate aerial creations like spinning carousels, giant globes, “chasing” lights and sparkling holiday trees.
The Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights was born at the Osborne home in Little Rock, Ark., in 1986. That year, Jennings Osborne strung a modest 1,000 red lights as a holiday gift to his 6-year-old daughter, Breezy. She had asked her father to make their house sparkle with holiday lights.
Thus, a new tradition was born.
“I added more lights each year,” says Osborne. “And I just kept adding. I’m always chasing a dream.”
In fact, Osborne’s dream kept growing until 1993, when he strung more than three million lights. His 22,000-square-foot home, bathed in bulbs, was the site of curious sightseers and long lines of traffic -- crowds too large for those who lived in the neighborhood. Calling his display a nuisance, Osborne’s neighbors took legal action -- all the way to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
Shortly after the court battle, Osborne packed his bulbs and took them to Walt Disney World Resort, where theme park guests -- surrounded on all sides by bright bulbs -- actually walk into his multi-colored display.
Now in its 8th year at the theme park, Osborne’s dream has kept growing. Thanks to a little Disney magic, the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights even enjoys its very own Florida “snowfall.” And guests are able to view the lights through special holographic glasses provided to them.
Included in park admission to the Disney-MGM Studios, the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights will be presented nightly Nov. 29, 2002-Jan. 5, 2003, as one of the many family-fun holiday activities planned for the Walt Disney World Resort in 2002.
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--Posted July 5, 2002
Source: Walt Disney World