Courtesy Atlanta Motor Speedway
Last year Atlanta Motor Speedway joined a growing holiday tradition at racetracks across the country with its inaugural Gift of Lights. With more than a million LED lights, this drive-through display was one of Georgia’s most successful holiday events in 2011. As a result, Atlanta Motor Speedway’s Gift of Lights returns on Nov. 18 and continues through Jan. 6.
Even though the Gift of Lights requires you to drive through its mile-and-a-half of festive scenes (at a time when a gallon of gas typically costs more than $3), it’s actually one of the most eco-friendly holiday displays around thanks to its energy-saving LED lights. The journey begins with a welcoming Christmas tree display as you enter the grandstands. But it’s not all about Christmas as the Gift of Lights’ initial stretch features blue menorahs, dreidels and other traditional Hanukkah icons. From there, things take a whimsical turn as fairy tales and nursery rhymes such as Cinderella, The Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe and Humpty Dumpty get lively illuminated treatments.
Photo by Brad Harrison, Atlanta Motor Speedway
After you pass the smiling green dragon (wearing a celebratory Santa hat, of course), you go through an under-the-sea-themed section that features fish, crustaceans, waterfalls and other aquatic life. Then you finally get to a wintery North Pole-like area where penguins and other arctic creatures have fun with elves, candy canes and other Christmasy creations. But it seems that Santa is also a NASCAR fan as brightly-lit race cars (driven by Santa and his reindeer) line an outdoor stretch not normally accessible on race days. Gift of Lights concludes with a visual display of eight maids a-milking, five golden rings and all the other gifts from “The Twelve Days of Christmas” before you drive through a colorful tunnel that takes you to the exit.
The entire display is set to holiday music and NASCAR drivers recounting their favorite Christmas memories on your car radio. New for 2012, you can also get your photo taken with Santa Chris in the Speedway Gift Shop for no additional charge. When I talked to Mr. Cringle, he recounted some of his larger-than-life memories yesteryear’s wrestling greats like Ox Baker and Andre the Giant. And I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better early Christmas gift than talking to Santa about wrestling!
Warning: Gifts if Lights at Atlanta Motor Speedway only allows you to drive thru their display ONCE for the standard admission, even on slow nights. They try to sell you a “season pass” if you want to go thru twice. Many other displays like Fantasy in Lights at Callaway Gardens allow you to drive thru as often as you like for a single admission. So does Life University in Marietta, and their display is better and only costs $5, The display at AMS is not well done – many exhibits are hard to make out or illegible – and they are greedy.
I didn’t realize other places allowed you to drive through more than once, or that Atlanta Motor Speedway does not allow multiple visits with one admission. Thanks for the info, and thanks for reading Wrestling with Pop Culture!
I know for a fact that they do let you upgrade for a season pass if you drive back to the gate. We have been 15 times this year and love the show. They seem to be really nice and i also know that over half of hte money goes to different non profits. The company that puts the displays do not get a huge profit. they are more about doing this for the familys. Jim i would get your facts Straight before talking poorly.