Billings Christmas Lights Annual Tour

I have always loved Christmas lights. And around Christmas time, my folks would make sure to go by the best displays when we were on the way home from school or doing some shopping. Back in those days, newspapers hadn't started making maps of the houses with the best displays as they do now and with social media, you can find out where the best ones are.

This is a tradition that I've continued with my daughter. In fact, she's already asking me when we're going to take a night and go check out this year's displays. I can't believe how much money some folks have in their Christmas displays. Of course, these days you can buy inflatables, projectors, candy canes that light up, dancing Santas, and more. So you can have quite a bit of money invested pretty quickly.

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One of the neatest places that I've ever seen done up so Christmasy is Leavenworth, Washington. It's a little touristy, Bavarian village in central Washington. They claim to have "half a million" Christmas lights up on buildings all over town. They do gift wrapping, free ornament shopping, caroling, and you can even get your picture taken with some Christmas characters.

When I was there about twenty years ago, the weather was pretty warm. As we were buying some freshly roasted chestnuts, a parade of motorcycles came cruising by. They all had Santa hats and lights all over their bikes. It was pretty cool.

I'm looking forward to seeing this year's best displays around Billings.