It’s a brand new holiday attraction here in Ottawa, and The Gift of Lights isn’t going unnoticed. The two kilometre long drive thru holiday light display opened last weekend, and the visitors have been showing up in droves.

Show Them the Money

The Gift of Lights is just west of the city, at the Wesley Clover Park Campground. I went with my family on a Sunday evening around 6:00pm. Thank goodness we brought cash, because some cars were being turned away for only have credit or debit. You can also buy a ticket ahead of time online. So we handed over our $22, and started the slow drive through the exhibit.

So Many Santas

We were greeted by hundreds of different light up Santas, reindeers, igloos, skating penguins, dancing bears and so on. The particular highlight was the section of the drive that included a light up Santa’s toy workshop, and a Santa riding on top of a dinosaur.

More Light Tunnels Please

The drive display took us around 30 minutes to complete. Ideally it would have taken 20 minutes, but we kept getting held up by traffic. The problem with that is that kids get tired of sitting and staring at the same thing for too long. Perhaps if we had come on a weekday, or a little earlier, say 5:00pm we wouldn’t have run into this problem. In all the marketing for this attraction I kept seeing a beautiful 100 foot long “light tunnel”. The light tunnel is pretty short, and it’s right at the exit. Not quite what I had expected. If I could give one piece of advice to the event organizers it would be… MORE LIGHT TUNNELS! They would be a hit, really.

A New Family Tradition

All in all, even with the traffic jam and lack of light tunnels, it was a great Christmas outing for the family. I recommend grabbing a hot chocolate ahead of time and cranking some Christmas tunes before heading in. It is certainly a good option on a cold evening when you don’t really feel like getting out of the car.

A Few Gift of Lights Details

The Gift of Lights runs to January 1, 7 days a week, 5pm-10pm. It looks like the busiest times are between 6:00pm-8:30pm on the weekends. Bring cash or book online ahead of time. All proceeds go towards the Ottawa Senators Foundation. For more info visit https://giftoflights.com/locations/ottawa-on/