When the animated light show packed up it's million LED bulbs and incredible light tunnels last January, the Treasure Valley hoped that the show wasn't just one year, COVID inspired trend. 

This year, the animated Christmas lights extravaganza known as Christmas in Color will travel to nine different cities across the United States. This year's line-up spans from San Dimas, California to Kissimmee, Florida. Boise was lucky enough to receive one of those visits!

Christmas in Color is scheduled to start their shows at Expo Idaho on Friday, November 19. Once they begin, the shows will run nightly from 5:30-10 p.m. thru January 2, except for Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. During the drive-thru experience, families stay in their own vehicles as they drive through a display of oversized, animated candy canes, snowmen, light tunnels and more. The lights are synchronized to music that you can hear through your car radio.

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General admission tickets run $35 per carload. This year, Christmas in Color has also added their VIP Party Pack that includes light up necklaces, cheer sticks, diffraction classes (similar to the ones that have been available at the Idaho Botanical Garden's Winter Garden aGlow,) reindeer noses and more. A VIP pass is $60 and will also allow you to skip the general admission line. A portion of each ticket will benefit Make-A-Wish.

While a perfectly socially distant event like Christmas in Color may seem like a COVID inspired trend, the concept of the display itself has been around for years. The first Christmas in Color was put on in South Jordan, Utah and the brain child of Richard Holdman.

 

According to Deseret News, Holdman used to set up a spectacle of lights, music and choreography at his own home. The displays, like this one he did to Yule's party version of "Amazing Grace," would draw so many visitors that they would cause traffic back-ups in his neighborhood.

In addition to his own home display, Holdman started receiving requests to put together displays for businesses and as a result of working on those displays, pitched the idea of doing a drive-thru display for the community. The first official "Christmas in Color" display went live in Kearns, Utah in 2015.

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