NC Chinese Lantern Festival

Clark Griswold’s light display of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation fame has nothing on Cary’s Chinese Lantern Festival, a fiery spectacle that’s back for the 2019 holidays with an entirely new set-up. Quite literally lighting up the night, the festival invites guests to walk through a shining mosaic of more than twenty never-before-seen displays, each composed of thousands of LED lights that support a different theme. To offer a respite from chilly nighttime temperatures there are various areas available to sit, warm up, and gaze at the glow, as well as a host of food and drink stands to fuel your journey (which should take anywhere from forty-five to seventy-five minutes, according to festival recommendations). The event stretches from a week pre-Thanksgiving to well past New Year’s, making it the perfect plan for a plethora of holiday celebrations.