The Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights

The brilliant Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights is displayed annually at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the ‘Streets of America’ area from Thanksgiving until the beginning of January. If you stroll down the street just as night is beginning to fall you will witness the truly magnificent sight of millions of lights twinkling and dancing on the buildings, above the buildings and across the street above your head. This magical scene is accompanied by seasonal music and ‘snowfalls’ which happen every fifteen minutes.

This fantastic display of lights all began in a very small way when, in 1986, Jennings Osborne, from Little Rock, Arkansas put up 1000 red Christmas lights on the outside of his house to make the Christmas wish of his youngest daughter, Breezy, come true. Each year after that he added a few more lights until the year came when he ran out of space on his house. To solve that problem he bought the two houses on either side of his own property and continued his displays on them. He also included sculptures with lights on them and a 75 feet tall Christmas tree. Eventually the displays became so huge (by this time there were about three million light bulbs involved) that people would travel from miles around to see them and the resulting noise and traffic jams that were caused led to the neighbours complaining. In October 1994 the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that Osborne’s light display was a public nuisance. He was legally barred from continuing with his displays, and when he ignored the order, he was found to be in contempt of court and fined $1, 500. He was also given a suspended ten day jail sentence and was ordered to pay $7, 000 in attorney’s fees.

In 1995 The Walt Disney Company heard of the problem made an agreement with Osborne to bring his lights to Walt Disney World with an option to keep them for at least five years. They are still there now, and in 2006 the spectacle was improved even further by choreographing the lights to ‘dance’ to music while the snow falls.

Here are some interesting facts about the light display: there are 5 million lights, 32 miles of cabling, 66 snow machines which get through 100 gallons of snow fluid each night, approximately 80% of the lights used in the show are from the original displays on the Osborne houses and for the sharp-eyed viewer there are 43 hidden Mickeys.

If you are at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the Holiday season then make sure you stay until after dark to enjoy the lights – you won’t be disappointed!