Life in Paradise: The Winter Lights Festival

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Carolers at the Winter Lights Festival at Springs Preserve
Photo by Steve Fey

The Springs Preserve is owned by the Southern Nevada Water District. It is located at the location of the old Las Vegas Springs that made life here possible in the first place. I am now happy to report on another holiday tradition around Las Vegas: The Winter Lights Festival at the Springs Preserve. You may consider this a companion piece to my article about the Magical Forest from last year.

Half a million LED lights are used for the Winter Lights Festival. I believe that the intent of the festival is to lure both locals and visitors to the site so that they’ll want to come back during daylight to check the place out. If so, it has worked on at least two of us, as Tami and I have determined to visit during normal daylight hours to see just what they have at the preserve. One feature you’ll notice as you drive in is that the roofs on the parking structures, which shade your car from the sun, are also solar power generators. The Springs Preserve is literally “off the grid” in terms of power consumption, as the parking lot supplies all of their electricity. I wish I could say the same about my house, particularly in the middle of our Mojave summer.

View of the Strip from the Festival of Lights
Photo courtesy of the Springs Preserve

A big advantage of attending on Christmas Eve this year, which we did, was that Target, one of the sponsors of the Festival, paid for everyone to get in. Normally it cost $8 for adults and $4 for children to get in. Parking wasn’t bad, either, which was surprising. They had an overflow lot designated, but it wasn’t in use when we arrived at about 7:30. Once inside, one of the first things we noticed was the stage where a group of carolers was entertaining the crowd. While we listened to the music, we bought some cider and hot chocolate and enjoyed the view. Besides the lower courtyard area the view is excellent, giving a panorama of the entire Springs Preserve area (we could see the lights on the “sleigh” that was popular with the kids) and of the Strip. An elevator takes you down to the lower level where there were crafts for sale, activities for the kids, and of course the aforementioned sleigh ride. The sleigh look suspiciously like a wheeled wagon, but then it doesn’t snow much in Las Vegas.

A Seasonal Display in the Springs Preserve Gift Shop
Photo by Steve Fey

The exit is through the gift shop. The Springs Preserve is an educational institution, after all. The gift shop features a variety of gifts as well as a bookstore that even has a reading area. I saw quite a few people making last minute holiday gift purchases in the shop. Of course, for Christmas, the store had some special displays and decorations, as you can see in the photo. For some reason, I really liked those snowmen.

If you’re hungry, even during the Festival, you can stop at Wolfgang Puck’s Cafe on the top level. We’ve never eaten there, but it is Wolfgang Puck, so I can guess that it’s some tasty stuff. And the terrace of the cafe, which you can get to without going through the dining room, has the best view of any place at the Springs Preserve, at least at night. That view includes the Stratosphere Tower and some of the Strip Hotels in addition to most of the Springs Preserve itself.

Unfortunately this particular Festival does not extend its run up to New Years as do others. But every year they seem to add more lights and other attractions, so you could mark your calendar now to be sure you don’t miss the Winter Lights Festival of 2010, right here in the Valley at the Springs Preserve.

Rate this post: 1 Star