While winter days on Canada's Prairies are short and sunny, and around Christmastime, the nights are almost as brightly lit, with millions of seasonal bulbs blazing. Nowhere is this more evident, perhaps, than in Winnipeg, MB, self-dubbed the “Christmas Capital of Canada” for its passion for night lights.
Downtown streets and the Manitoba Legislature are always lavishly lit up, but they're just the tip of a sparkling iceberg. The drive-through, 2.5-km (1.6-mi)-long Canad Inns Winter Wonderland at the city's Red River Exhibition Park sports more than a million lights and 29 themed areas; it's so bright that according to its organizers, pilots claim they can see it as far as 32 km (20 mi) from the city. Horse-drawn sleigh rides on weekends are free, as is family skating all week long.
The Festival of Trees & Lights, running from late November to mid-December to raise money for local charities, is staged in the Manitoba Hydro Gallery in the energy-efficient Hydro headquarters on Portage Ave., and includes a roster of live performances from dancers to choirs, plus special Christmas readings.
At the Electrical Museum, the seasonal “All That Glows: Then & Now” display covers holiday light bulbs and styles from as far back as the 1880s. One suburb in particular goes lights-crazy—Linden Woods, where hundreds of cars crawl along the streets to ogle Candy Cane Lane (Foxmeadow Drive) and Polar Bear Lane (Hennessey Drive), as well as dozens of other glowing, stand-out house decorations. One family in the Tuxedo area (by the city's Assiniboine Forest) runs a delightful miniature-train excursion nightly for two weeks during the holiday season. The 1/8th-scale train's six-minute route carries passengers through the family’s Christmas-lights display, spread over seven acres of forest. Last year, visitors walking in from Roblin Blvd. used a 300-m (984-ft) lit pathway, or detoured along a 600-m (1,969-ft) path and wound up at a Gingerbread Village.
Saskatchewan is no slouch lights-wise, either. Regina locals brave the cold in early December to kick off the season with the lighting of City Hall and the Legislature Building, and then enjoy the 70th Rotary Christmas Carol Festival with over 80 local choral groups.
Saskatoon boasts one of Canada's longest-running drive-through displays, the Enchanted Forest Holiday Light Tour, staged at the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park every evening from Nov. 19, 2010 to Jan. 9, 2011. Some 60,000 visitors drop by to admire more than 900 images, displays and huge trees, including whimsical hens coming home to roost in the Eiffel Tower (“Three French Hens”), a gigantic Eddie the Elf, and strutting peacocks. Horse-drawn wagon rides for up to 16 people can be booked, and tour buses are welcome at a nominal charge per head.
With all this to light up the nights, it's no wonder Prairie folks don't much mind shorter days; the nights are even prettier than bright sunshine on sparkling snow.
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