Review: Fantasy of Lights(Entertainment)

Reviewed: Fantasy of Lights
Street: Vasona Park · City: Los Gatos, CA ·

Description: Your neighborhood will have better Xmas lights displays! Unless you don't mind waiting 3 hours....
Review Title: Don't wait 3 hours for Xmas lights
My Rating: Thumbs Down
My Opinion: We were all hyped up for the annual Los Gatos Fantasy of Lights this year...boy were we foolish! We bundled up the kiddies, got our hot cocoa at Starbucks, and headed over to Los Gatos/Vasona Park.

This year, the line was outrageous! We waited 3 hours to get in! Not worth it! Normally, I'd turn around and leave, but we promised the kids so we had to stay.

Ridiculous! First, it isn't clear where the entrance is. So we went one way and then ended up having to go all around the park to get in. If it was clear where the entrance was, one could take side streets and cut wait time in half.

Second, the displays were no better than when we went 5 years ago. So they added a few dinosaurs? The best display was at the end as you leave. All of the others are lacking. The only other "cool" part was going through the tunnel of lights, which is all but 7 or 8 rows of lights. And the displays are ruined with ugly sponsor ads posted right next to them.

Although the kids enjoyed it, I will never visit again. I recommend going online and looking up private residences that are known for large Xmas light displays. You can often find entire neighborhoods lit up with much better displays and very little wait time. And not have to PAY for 3 hours of taking in exhaust from the cars in front of you. Very disappointing.

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Fantasy of Lights has fallen really far behind the past couple of years. I don't know why it continues to draw large crowds with long waits. About 10 years ago when I first started doing my Xmas Lights bus tour of the South Bay, the Fantasy of Lights was one of our key attractions. I continued making it part of the tour until one year the long line forced us to reroute the bus away and the following year we dropped it for good after seeing more long lines even amid reports of mediocrity.

It's still a different experience. The sheer size of the lighted displays makes it very different from everything else and I'd recommend it as a change of pace if it weren't for the massive lines.

BTW, anyone looking for an alternative, there's a great website with listings of houses with light displays in Northern California:
http://www.lightsofthevalley.com/

Being a big fan of both Vasona and Christmas Lights displays, you would think that the Fantasy of Lights would be right up my alley. But after seeing those huge commercial signs attached to each display, I've always boycotted the event. They could have handed out a flyer at the entrance that included the sponsor's names. Or even have a Burma Shave-type row of sponsor row of signs at the beginning.

But including those oversized ugly sponsor ads next to each display, and that on top of paying for admission, is simply crass and void of the friendly spirit that the displays should portray. After reading comments such as this, maybe the F-O-L group or the sponsors will have the inclination to get this changed.

Btw, though maybe not as good as guide as some others already mentioned, I found a community-edited guide at the Mercury-News here.

This post has been edited by trumpman on Dec 31 2008, 12:41 AM