Dollywood Lights-In Depth
By Leif Palmer
Posted on November 22, 2021
If you plan to visit Dollywood this season, the Pigeon Forge theme park is fairly easy to locate-especially at night. That's because during it annual Smoky Mountain Christmas celebration, the park glows with more than 5 million holiday lights, displayed throughout its many themed sections. But what you may not notice at first glance is that a lot of thought and planning went into which colors went into which areas of the park.
Dollywood's Product and Planning Team put a lot of effort into making specific choices about the colors and locations of all the lights for this year's Smoky Mountain Christmas. Here's a quick preview of what you'll see in many of the park's themed areas during the holidays:
Showstreet
Look for traditional jewel tones outlining many of the buildings and dollhouses.
Jukebox Junction and Adventures In Imagination
You'll find a retro '50s vibe thanks to all the multicolor C9 bulbs and mid-century décor. A turquoise and red palette is utilized in Dolly's Closet to create a similarly vintage feel.
Rivertown Junction, Owens Farm and Craftsman's Valley
Candlelight is the name of the game here, and it's designed to remind guests of the true meaning of Christmas.
The Village
This area becomes Santa's Village for the holidays, and it's where you'll find Saint Nick. Fittingly, red and green are the operative colors here.
Country Fair
During Smoky Mountain Christmas, this section turns into Peppermint Valley, so you'll see lots of red and white striped trees.
Wilderness Pass and Timber Canyon
Icy blues and cool white turn these sections into Glacier Ridge, where Polar Bear meets his cousin Black Bear for a Christmas get-together.
Wildwood Grove
The blues and whites seen in Wilderness Pass and Timber Canyon are joined by pinks and purples.
In addition, Dollywood has more than doubled the number of live Christmas trees it's displaying throughout the park. Most of them average six to 12 feet in height, which is taller than in previous years. You'll find an impressive cluster of 40 trees in Rivertown Junction, just below the train tracks. They're lit in a similar design as those located on Showstreet but with a soft amber glow instead of jewel tones.
Also, Craftsman's Valley looks similar to Rivertown Junction, but the trees there are lit with crab clusters featuring 25 lights every six inches instead of the usual one bulb.
If you're parking in Gatlinburg during the holiday season, you can easily get to Dollywood without having to drive. Leave your vehicle in the lot, walk to the nearest Gatlinburg trolley and take it to the welcome center north of town. From there, you can transfer to a Pigeon Forge trolley taking you to Dollywood.
About Leif Palmer
Leif Palmer loves residing in Gatlinburg. He is an avid outdoorsman: rowing for exercise on the lake, trail hiking, and free climbing rocks in the mountains. He indulges his arty side by periodically beating up pieces of marble by sculpting. He is always frustrated by his inability to sink long putts, and hates his curly hair (but his wife loves it). Leif has been known to muster enough courage to change a diaper, and hopes his son will become a chip off the old block.