I am not a fan of the winter months. The cold air dries my skin. The slushy ground dampens my shoes. If it wasn’t for weed I would bellow the blues.

One literal bright spot about winter time is the holiday display lights people affix to their homes. Despite their questionable energy demands upon the power grid, it’s comforting to see illuminated decorations during the holidays. Some groups of people go all out and decorate large industrial buildings while others band together and create multi-house displays.

This past season my brother Kenny and I decided to take a Christmas lights tour in order to see the best displays Cleveland had to offer. December 15th, 2024 was the date we embarked upon this quest.

Kenny found a Christmas lights map on a Facebook page called Northeast Ohio Family Fun. He also researched information on ClevelandTraveler.com. He loaded up a pro wrestling theme song playlist on his car radio and off we went to our first stop, NELA Park, which is owned by General Electric Lighting. It’s the world’s first industrial park and was the location of many important discoveries in the field of lighting.

If you can’t park in one of the few front visitor spots there is really nowhere to park. Everything else was gated off. Across the street there is a GAS USA location which offers hot corned beef sandwiches. GAS USA should be the name of a weed strain.

We made it to East Cleveland and parked at NELA around 5:45 pm. It had already gotten dark outside. The weather was 42 degrees with some slight rain.

NELA Park featured a lot of pre-made displays with wooden cutouts. There were also some huge arrangements such as the 100 year anniversary candle atop the building. I appreciated the large variety of colors incorporated within the displays.

The setup was somewhat underwhelming but still worth visiting. There were no flashing lights, animation or music incorporated anywhere. Most of the displays were behind fences, so you couldn’t walk through the lighting configurations. You could only stroll in front of them. The Ho Ho Ho Santa-Hat Bungalow was the only interactive element to the display.

There was a small amount of other people at NELA Park looking at the lights. It wasn’t much of an active scene. I’m sure the rain didn’t help with that. NELA park was a good stop to make in regards to completing the holiday lights tour but I wouldn’t say it was a must-see attraction. Its overall rating was a 6 out of 10, above average but not a required pilgrimage.

On the way to the next stop I missed a few real good shots of huge downtown Cleveland buildings with cool lighting. I did manage to snap a few shots of Progressive Field. There are several dispensaries near the ballpark: The Landing, RISE, Shangri-La, Therapy, The Botanist, Nectar, Insa and Citizen by Klutch.

The second stop on the tour was Strongsville Town Square. Apparently this place called Pleasant Hills Church was on the holiday lights list. They had a small outdoor display, but inside they were supposed to have a full-on light show with interactive Christmas-themed rooms.

My brother and I entered the main worship hall and found an empty pew. The light show began just as we sat down. It turned out to be underwhelming with bad music and low-budget wizardry. I took some video but it is so boring that I didn’t bother to upload it and include it in the article.

I was expecting Christmas-themed rooms to walk through, not quite this. It wasn’t a big deal though. The people at the church were friendly. The second stop on the lights tour got a 2 out of 10 rating. It was a waste of time. You can’t win ’em all.

As I sat in the pew the song High in Church came to mind. Rest in Peace to Trevor Moore.

On the way to Strongsville Town Center I saw a house with Santa aliens in the front yard but sadly didn’t snap the shot in time. As we passed by I got a few shots of these holiday houses.

Next we went to Strongsville Town Center. There were several large displays, a big purple tree and a Grinch up in a high tower. It was an immersive walk through experience. I gave it a 7 out of 10. It lacked of audio and animation but I appreciated the large-scale effort and attention to detail.

The final stop on the 2024 holiday lights tour was Crown Point Parkway in Strongsville. This annual multi-home lighting arrangement has been featured on The Great Christmas Light Fight TV show. On the way there we drove past the highly-regarded restaurant known as Honeygrow. Sadly it was closed at the time.

Crown Point Parkway was holiday overkill. There were dozens of animated displays with synchronized music and flashing lights. During certain hours, live musicians perform and a man dressed as Santa hands out hot cocoa to people walking around the cul-de-sac. I gave Crown Point Parkway a 9 out of 10 for their daunting display of holiday detail.

There were more stops on the list but it was getting late and we were getting hungry. On the way home we had no choice but to stop for food. The only place open was Wal-Mart. In the snack section we saw an old classic, blue raspberry gummy sharks. When we got home we had a close encounter of the 26% kind with the UFOG strain from Old Pal!

It could just be me reminiscing with rose-colored glasses but it seems like a greater number of residents would light up their homes for Christmas in years past. Nonetheless, it’s entertaining to see the efforts people put forth with their holiday decorations. The only time I will truly be impressed is when I see green lights on a home for 420 or golden lights on a house for 710.

I am not a fan of the winter months. The cold air dries my skin. The slushy ground dampens my shoes. If it wasn’t for weed I would bellow the blues.

One literal bright spot about winter time is the holiday display lights people affix to their homes. Despite their questionable energy demands upon the power grid, it’s comforting to see illuminated decorations during the holidays. Some groups of people go all out and decorate large industrial buildings while others band together and create multi-house displays.

This past season my brother Kenny and I decided to take a Christmas lights tour in order to see the best displays Cleveland had to offer. December 15th, 2024 was the date we embarked upon this quest.

Kenny found a Christmas lights map on a Facebook page called Northeast Ohio Family Fun. He also researched information on ClevelandTraveler.com. He loaded up a pro wrestling theme song playlist on his car radio and off we went to our first stop, NELA Park, which is owned by General Electric Lighting. It’s the world’s first industrial park and was the location of many important discoveries in the field of lighting.

If you can’t park in one of the few front visitor spots there is really nowhere to park. Everything else was gated off. Across the street there is a GAS USA location which offers hot corned beef sandwiches. GAS USA should be the name of a weed strain.

We made it to East Cleveland and parked at NELA around 5:45 pm. It had already gotten dark outside. The weather was 42 degrees with some slight rain.

NELA Park featured a lot of pre-made displays with wooden cutouts. There were also some huge arrangements such as the 100 year anniversary candle atop the building. I appreciated the large variety of colors incorporated within the displays.

The setup was somewhat underwhelming but still worth visiting. There were no flashing lights, animation or music incorporated anywhere. Most of the displays were behind fences, so you couldn’t walk through the lighting configurations. You could only stroll in front of them. The Ho Ho Ho Santa-Hat Bungalow was the only interactive element to the display.

There was a small amount of other people at NELA Park looking at the lights. It wasn’t much of an active scene. I’m sure the rain didn’t help with that. NELA park was a good stop to make in regards to completing the holiday lights tour but I wouldn’t say it was a must-see attraction. Its overall rating was a 6 out of 10, above average but not a required pilgrimage.

On the way to the next stop I missed a few real good shots of huge downtown Cleveland buildings with cool lighting. I did manage to snap a few shots of Progressive Field.

The second stop on the tour was Strongsville Town Square. Apparently this place called Pleasant Hills Church was on the holiday lights list. They had a small outdoor display, but inside they were supposed to have a full-on light show with interactive Christmas-themed rooms.

My brother and I entered the main worship hall and found an empty pew. The light show began just as we sat down. It turned out to be underwhelming with bad music and low-budget wizardry. I took some video but it is so boring that I didn’t bother to upload it and include it in the article.

I was expecting Christmas-themed rooms to walk through, not quite this. It wasn’t a big deal though. The people at the church were friendly. The second stop on the lights tour got a 2 out of 10 rating. It was a waste of time. You can’t win ’em all.

As I sat in the pew the song High in Church came to mind. Rest in Peace to Trevor Moore.

On the way to Strongsville Town Center I saw a house with Santa aliens in the front yard but sadly didn’t snap the shot in time. As we passed by I got a few shots of these holiday houses.

Next we went to Strongsville Town Center. There were several large displays, a big purple tree and a Grinch up in a high tower. It was an immersive walk through experience. I gave it a 7 out of 10. It lacked of audio and animation but I appreciated the large-scale effort and attention to detail.

The final stop on the 2024 holiday lights tour was Crown Point Parkway in Strongsville. This annual multi-home lighting arrangement has been featured on The Great Christmas Light Fight TV show. On the way there we drove past the highly-regarded restaurant known as Honeygrow. Sadly it was closed at the time.

Crown Point Parkway was holiday overkill. There were dozens of animated displays with synchronized music and flashing lights. During certain hours, live musicians perform and a man dressed as Santa hands out hot cocoa to people walking around the cul-de-sac. I gave Crown Point Parkway a 9 out of 10 for their daunting display of holiday detail.

There were more stops on the list but it was getting late and we were getting hungry. On the way home we had no choice but to stop for food. The only place open was Wal-Mart. In the snack section we saw an old classic, blue raspberry gummy sharks. When we got home we had a close encounter of the 26% kind with the UFOG strain from Old Pal!

It could just be me reminiscing with rose-colored glasses but it seems like a greater number of residents would light up their homes for Christmas in years past. Nonetheless, it’s entertaining to see the efforts people put forth with their holiday decorations. The only time I will truly be impressed is when I see green lights on a home for 420 or golden lights on a house for 710.