Since this was the last season for The Osborne Family Lights, we were prepared for a big crowd. We arrived at Hollywood Studios well before the first show of the evening so there was time to enjoy a bit of “FROZEN”. I wasn’t sure what to expect but it turned out to be great fun.
Make fun of me if you want but I love the songs from the movie, even “Let it Go”…with the frozen fractals all around…How many little kids do you know who understand that line?
Anyway, I just love that song, Let it Go, Let it go, Can’t hold it back any more!
The Frozen Sing A Long was a great warm up for the Christmas light show. And it was time to head over there. The Osborne Family Light show at Disney originally started out in Arkansas.
Starting out as a small display on one house the display eventually grew to 3 million lights covering 3 lots.. At that point the neighbors began to file complaints and eventually law suits alleging traffic problems and safety issues.
The publicity from the court cases drew national attention which brought it to the attention of Walt Disney World who offered to put it on a “residential Street” in the back lot of Hollywood Studios.
Residential Street was visited using the backlot tour’s tram vehicles. When the light display was in place, however, the tram tours would stop before sunset, allowing guests to walk among the displays. Initially the display was purely the original lights from the Osborne estate, but in subsequent years the display was augmented to its current size of over five million lights. The display’s Disney caretakers have also added a number of hidden Mickeys into the lights. The 2007 edition of the display featured over 40 of the icons.
In 2004, the park began construction on a new arena for its upcoming Lights! Motors! Action! Extreme Stunt Show, set to open in 2005. Part of the construction included the demolition of Residential Street, thus necessitating another move of the display. The solution was to move it to another part of the park, the New York Street set (now known as the Streets of America). As part of the move, the Studios added an artificial snow effect to the display, made up of 33 snow machines that use 100 US gal (380 L) of fluid per evening.
There have been several other upgrades and changes over the years but now it was time to pull the plug. This was to be the last year for the Osborne Family Light Display. With that announcement, Disney guaranteed there would be crowds every night as fans arrived in droves to experience the lights one last time.
