Holiday Lights At McCormick Railroad Park

I wasn't sure what to expect when we went to Holiday Lights at McCormick Railroad Park, except that the parking lot wasn't very big so I wanted to be there early!  Our decision to go was somewhat last minute, as I tried to decide between that and something at Desert Ridge.  I have to say, though, that this will be a tradition my family continues every Christmas.  It was that fun.

We showed up, got a great parking spot, went to buy or train tickets, and having overheard someone say to someone else that they should get in line right then for the train rides beginning at 6PM, we followed suit.

We got in line pretty early, but we still had to wait for the fourth train before we boarded.  I turned around to look at the line behind us...

So, we boarded the train and we were off.  The ride lasts about 20 minutes.  The first 5-7 minutes go through the main part of the park, which, by the way, is a super fun place for kids of all ages to play.  The last 2/3 of the ride is where all of the light displays are.  All I can say is wow.  Whomever put that together did a really good job.  My kids were absolutely delighted!

They even had fake snow coming down off the end of one of the tunnels.  Words are simply inadequate to express how happy that made my kids!  (Those small white dots right by my daughter's hands are the snowflakes).

After we got off the train, we went to the museum train to visit Santa.  There was about a 30 minute wait and it did get hot in the train with so many people.

Following our visit with Santa, we let my littlest do some meet-and-greets with the costumed characters the park had walking amongst the crowd, take some photos in the cut-outs, and enjoy a carousel ride.

We concluded our visit in the model train museum.  My eldest would've happily stayed in there for hours if I'd let him.  He was completely captivated by all of the details in the model trains.  One of the big tracks was under construction.  One of the guys, who was working on what would eventually be a mountain, said that he was there 5-6 days a week and they expected that track and scenery to be done in about two years.

This truly was a wonderful family evening.  Next year, we will go on a day that my husband has off so we can enjoy it as a whole family.  On our way out, we looked and noticed that the line for the train had stretched all the way to the parking lot...