In a year that has seen so many holiday events scaled back, Give Kids the World has found a way to create a brand new event this year that’s sure to bring back the Christmas spirit! For the first time ever, Give Kids the World is opening up their gates to the general public, and putting on an amazing display of 3 million Christmas lights! Here are the details:
- Where: Give Kids The World Village is located at 210 S. Bass Rd., Kissimmee, FL 34746
- When: Night of a Million Lights will run from 5:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. every night from November 13, 2020, through January 3, 2021
- Cost: $25-$40 for adults/$15-$20 for kids. BUY TICKETS
- Why: Give Kids The World Village closed to wish families in mid-March due to the global pandemic, delaying more than 4,000 wishes. Night of a Million Lights is designed to raise funds to ensure that the wishes of critically ill children can return bigger and better than ever before once the time is right to reopen.
BlogMickey.com was invited out to preview the event recently, here’s what we learned.
A Spectacle of Lights
We’ll start with the Disney World tie-in first. The Walt Disney World resort donated nearly 3 million lights for Night of a Million Lights, a donation on a spectacular scale.
To understand why Disney World might have nearly 3 million lights laying around in a warehouse, we should rewind a bit to the fall of 2015 and the announcement that 2015 would mark then end of the 20-year run for the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Disney’s Hollywood Studios to allow for the construction of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land.
As it turns out, the teams who would install the spectacular display would work on the Lights a year ahead of time. As it turns out, they also order the lights a year in advance. As you might imagine, with such an advanced lead time, Disney might have had a few million lights laying around in a warehouse for a season of Dancing Lights that never got the chance to materialize. We thought we noticed some similarities…
While the lights at Night of a Million Lights won’t “dance” this year to avoid crowding, a specialized team led by some very experienced furloughed Disney Cast Members is ensuring that the display is every bit as magical as the Give Kids the World Village is!
Magic in Volunteerism
We’ll take this time to point out that the Give Kids the World Village is putting on this display thanks in large part to a team of volunteers, and they’re looking for even more help as they come down the final stretch of installation! To learn more on how you can volunteer to hang some Christmas lights, check out their site.
Of course, there is a team of professionals as well to string the lights that are higher than anyone can reach.
What is Night of a Million Lights?
Night of a Million Lights is a walk-through tour of more than one million lights adorning the Village; 50 holiday wire frames; four photo spots; socially distanced Santa; three accessible attractions; three venues; and complimentary snacks at the Park of Dreams pool.
It’s the reason for the season…or at least the event. A self-guided walk-through tour of the Give Kids the World village and villas will put you in the holiday mood, with just about every surface covered in lights!
Corporate and private sponsors will have more than 40 villas decorated top to bottom with lights and even some wire-frame scenes and more! Here’s a sampling of the work in progress from our preview.
The village center is also covered in lights!
Our Thoughts
We’ll be back, without a doubt. Give Kids the World is not only a wonderful cause to support with the purchase of a ticket, but the plans they have beyond just what we were able to see in the preview sounds impressive. As is, it is going to be the premier holiday event in Central Florida this year, with the team going all out on what will likely be a one-and-done event as it can’t be produced when the villas are occupied by wish families.
We highly recommend the event and will provide more coverage of it when it opens to the public!