2019 Christmas Lights Tour Red Deer (Supplied)

By Alessia Proietti

Less is more

Red Deer’s Christmas Lights Tour returns with new routes focusing on “heavy hitter” houses

Dec 19, 2023 | 3:17 PM

The annual Christmas Lights Tour is back in Red Deer this year, with organizers saying participants can expect higher quality routes.

A.J. Elliott, co-organizer of the event, said for the first time, there will be just four routes across the city and one shortened route, instead of their usual eight. He says the new routes, while not as long, focus on the “heavy hitters” in the Christmas lights decorations game.

“When you drive by, you really need to see the power of the house, get that excitement going when you see each of the decorated houses,” he said.

The North, Southwest, East, and Central Routes are each about one hour in length, totalling four hours and 14 minutes, to cover roughly 100 kilometres across the city.

He says many homes come back to participate each year like the 25 on Ohio Close in the Oriole Park neighbourhood, decorated from yard to roof.

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The event was originally organized by Elliott’s father Jim in 1975 when he was a cab driver.

His son A.J. says it is nice to help out the community during the holiday season and see everyone excited for the tour.

While they currently offer paper and Google Maps versions, he says he hopes to one day see improvements in their mapping system to make them more self-guided and automated so guests can drive along live.

The organizers also mention in their maps other lights displays in Red Deer including the Ross Street Patio with its hanging decorations and small ice sculptures, trees decorated in the Waskasoo Park Trail System, and the Winter Lights Tour at Heritage Ranch which has 50,000 Christmas lights, hot chocolate and a horse drawn sleigh.

Other places to explore in central Alberta include the Sylvan Lake Twinkle Tour and the Lakeshore, the Town of Blackfalds Christmas Lights (Town Center), the Discovery Wildlife Park in Innisfail, Ponoka, the Lacombe Light up the Night Celebrations, and the Stettler Twinkle Tour.

“We hope this Christmas Light Tour inspires people to see what the lights represent, see the beauty all around them, to find community in other people, and to have an event to look forward to in tough times,” say the organizers.

Click here for the paper routes:

2023 Full Routes

2023 Shortened Route

Click here for the routes on Google Maps:

North Route

Southwest Route

East Route

Central Route

Shortened Route

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