Holiday of Lights at Bull Run

During the 1995 Christmas season, the Bull Run Regional Park in Fairfax Virginia became a winter wonderland with a 2.5 mile long display spectacular holiday lights. Sponsors said at the time that it was the largest display of its kind in Virginia. The display featured various wildlife figures, Frosty the Snowman at the North Pole, the elves' workshop, candyland, toyland, finishing with Santa Claus and his sled being pulled by a team of reindeer.

Animation brought many of the figures to life including a toy soldier shooting a cannon, elves filling Santa's sack, a rocking horse, a jack in the box. The item that inspired me was a squirrel climbing up a tree, jumping to another tree across the road and down that tree.

The Holiday of Lights displays used over 150,000 bulbs, and consumed over 750,000 watts of power. Each night several hundred lights burned out and required replacing by maintenance crews. The displays ran up an electric bill at the rate of $30.00 per hour.

Unfortunately, the display was not repeated during the 1996 Christmas season. During the 1997 season, another light festival was held at Bull Run Park, however, we felt the quality was not up to the standards of the 1995 show

Here are some photos from the 1995 Holiday of lights.

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