{"id":23308,"date":"2025-11-19T18:33:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T00:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=23308"},"modified":"2025-11-19T18:45:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T00:45:44","slug":"wonderland-in-lights-opens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/local-news\/23308-wonderland-in-lights-opens\/","title":{"rendered":"Wonderland in Lights Opens"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><em>Visit Effingham<\/em> now presents another year of <strong>Wonderland in Lights<\/strong> at Community Park.\u00a0 Each year, Community Park is transformed into a drive-thru holiday light spectacle, filled with whimsical scenes, including a reindeer flight school, playful penguins, Santa and his reindeer taking flight, a Nativity scene, a Gingerbread house, a bucket truck driven by helpful elves, and more.<\/p>\n<p>Drivers going through the display can temporarily tune in to <strong>90.7 FM<\/strong> for continuous Christmas music, compliments of <em>Visit Effingham<\/em>, 97.9 XFM and KJ Country 102.3.<\/p>\n<p>Wonderland in Lights officially opens Thanksgiving night, November 27th but the switch has been flipped early this year.\u00a0 Continuing now through the official season, the drive-thru light display is open to the public for anyone who just can\u2019t wait to kick off their holiday festivities.\u00a0 The display runs through the New Year.\u00a0 Hours are from 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Community Park is located on East Temple Avenue in Effingham.<\/p>\n<p>Santa will be at his post every Saturday, from Thanksgiving through December 20th, to greet cars and hand out toys.<\/p>\n<p>There is no cost to enjoy this <em>Visit Effingham<\/em> experience, but donations are always appreciated, as they help for next year.<\/p>\n<p>Holiday cheer can also be extended at \u2018Light up the Lawn\u2019 \u2013 where the larger-than-life, 3-D holiday light displays glimmer and shimmer in Downtown Effingham.\u00a0 Hopefully these dazzling displays can be switched on next week.\u00a0 Drivers going by the Effingham County Courthouse Museum lawn can see the \u2018Royal Present,\u2019 the \u2018Heart of Christmas\u2019 walk-thru ornament, \u2018Santa\u2019s Sleigh and His Reindeer,\u2019 the walk-thru \u2018Gingerbread House,\u2019 the \u2018Teddy Bear,\u2019 the walk-thru \u2018Hot Cocoa Mug,\u2019 \u2018Santa and his favorite reindeer,\u2019 and, the star of the show, the 34-foot \u2018Christmas Tree.\u2019\u00a0 The public can also walk around to see the lights up close and pose with the \u2018Reindeer Family\u2019 and \u2018Polar Bear Family,\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>For more information, or to view their Calendar of Events, go to www.visiteffinghamil.com.<\/p>\n<p>If you are interested in helping <em>Visit Effingham<\/em> spread holiday cheer, call 217-342-5310.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Visit Effingham now presents another year of Wonderland in Lights at Community Park.\u00a0 Each year, Community Park is transformed into a drive-thru holiday light spectacle, filled with whimsical scenes, including [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":23312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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