Kentucky Horse Park's Southern Lights holiday driving tour is over four miles of Christmas light displays and a Holiday Festival park that together, after 22 years, has become a southern Christmas tradition.
We all have a neighborhood or two we like to drive through during the holidays to see their stunning light displays. Well, what if, instead of a few houses, you could drive for literal miles viewing scene after scene of delightful, sparkling Christmas displays, followed by a holiday theme park with a range of activities, gifts, and attractions?
Sound good? That's Kentucky Horse Park's Southern Lights and Holiday Festival!
Kentucky Horse Park is already world-renowned for its International Museum of the Horse and the American Saddlebred Museum. The Southern Lights driving tour and Holiday Festival park have only served to rival the Kentucky Horse Park's summer traffic, bringing more than 125,000 individuals in more than 30,000 vehicles to the area, annually.
And no wonder! Who wouldn't enjoy miles of intricate and beautiful glowing Christmas light displays depicting such traditional and popular scenes as The Twelve Days of Christmas, Santa's Reindeer, the Twin Spires of Churchill Downs, and countless other holiday, equine, and pop culture-themed, twinkling decorations?
Then there's the Holiday Festival attractions. Directly after finishing driving through Kentucky Horse Park's Southern Lights, pull in and explore on foot the many attractions of the Holiday Festival: the Kentucky Horse Park Gift Shop, craft vendors, seasonal music entertainment, an exotic petting zoo, pony rides, camel rides, a Mini Train Express, model trains and dollhouses, and for the kiddies: photos with Santa!
You wont leave hungry, either. The Bit & Bridle restaurant will be on hand serving holiday fare, along with other vendors, such as Papa John’s Pizza, Original Kettle Corn, High Horizons Coffee, and Bluegrass Concessions with a wide selection of delicious offerings.
The Southern Lights driving route is open nightly, 5:30pm to 10pm. The Holiday Festival park has the same hours but will be closed November 26th and December 24th through the 31st. The cost per passenger car (up to 7 passengers) is $15 Monday through Thursday, $25 Friday through Sunday. Extended vans, RVs, and limousines (up to 15 passengers) are $35, minibuses (up to 25 passengers) are $60, school buses are $75, and motorcoaches are $125. All proceeds from Southern Lights support the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation.