Crowdsourcing: Where are the best Christmas light dislays in Ottawa?

It’s finally December. I love December! The days may be short, but the nights are bright with Christmas lights. Oh how I love the Christmas lights! We’ve had the lights up on our porch for a couple of weeks now, and our neighbourhood is slowly starting to show off its Christmas colours.

I’d love to compile a list of the best places in the city for Christmas lights. Can you help? One of our favourite Christmas traditions is piling into the car, queuing up the Christmas playlist, making a stop for hot chocolate and finding the best streets for a night-time drive – or even better, a nighttime wander – to enjoy the Christmas lights. I think everyone in town has heard of the lights on Taffy Lane in Orleans – you might even be able to see the glow from Kanata! But what are some of the other streets that put Clark Griswold to shame?

I think this is the brightest house in our ‘hood. This is Bravar Drive in Manotick.

359:365 Crazy Christmas lights

Speaking of Christmas lights, here’s three more fun ideas.

One of the best ways to enjoy the Christmas lights in Ottawa will be the annual opening ceremonies of Christmas Lights Across Canada. The light show on Parliament Hill during the opening ceremonies is worth bundling up against the cold, and you can admire the twinkling of more than 300,000 LED lights strung around downtown Ottawa. The lighting ceremony is this Wednesday, December 3 starting at 7 pm. (That’s one advantage of it being dark by dinner time – you can get out and enjoy the lights and still be home before bedtime on a school night!)

We’ve often thought of driving down to Upper Canada Village to see the Christmas lights – but it’s awfully far for the kids. But you don’t have to drive out of Ottawa anymore to experience a village of lights! Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from November 29 through December 21 from 3 pm to 8 pm, the Cumberland Heritage Village Museums’s Vintage Village of Lights will pull out all the stops to make your visit magical with 30,000 Christmas lights, decorations everywhere, gigantic reindeer and sleigh and – of course! – a visit with Santa Claus in his work shop! (Regular museum admission applies.)

Alexandria is a little off our beaten path, but I’ve heard the Alexandria Festival of Lights is more than worth the drive. From 5 to 10 pm through December 31, businesses, schools and individuals create colourful displays, and events include wagon rides, pictures with Santa and a scavenger hunt, plus fireworks on New Year’s Eve. No admission fee!

Icy Christmas lights

Let’s make a fun list for sharing. Where can we go for the craziest Christmas displays in Ottawa?

Author: DaniGirl

Canadian. storyteller, photographer, mom to 3. Professional dilettante.

6 thoughts on “Crowdsourcing: Where are the best Christmas light dislays in Ottawa?”

  1. Christophe Ledent did a whole series last December on awesome Christmas lights across the city. You can search his blog for “Christmas” and see the series of posts (I think there are 25 of them).

    Here’s a direct link:

    http://ottawaphotography365.com/?s=christmas

    We used a few of his recommendations on our own “lights drive” last year!

  2. Check out the awesome Xmas lighta at 70 larose lane in Embrun ont. Randy Nordlund is the owner. Videos available on vimeo.

  3. Here’s the link to one video of my christmas display.

    https://vimeo.com/114144147

    Display runs Sunday to Thursday from 5pm to 10pm and Friday-Saturday from 5pm till 11pm.
    On the 24th and 25th the shoudl should run past midnight.

    Randy

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