Winterhaven Festival of Lights in Tucson, Arizona

For non-native Tucsonans, acclimating to Christmas in the Old Pueblo can be very strange indeed. Combine the warm desert temps with a lack of snow and scantily clad tree lot elves, and a traditional task like Christmas Tree shopping turns downright surreal. For some, it takes years to adjust. Twenty years ago, I, too, was a defiant Tucson newbie each December, so I know this to be true. Clearly delusional, I longed for freezing Rhode Island winters and my silly Eskimo parka. My pouting spanned two long years before I grasped - quite by accident - the concept of a "desert Christmas". If only I had noticed the spectacular - and priceless - Christmas event occurring just three miles from my home in a little neighborhood called Winterhaven, my transformation from Scrooge to Xmas Babe may have come sooner. As luck and fairytales will have it, I made a wrong turn one December evening and stumbled into Tucson's winter wonderland. I became instantly convinced - along with many others - that Christmas in the Desert needs not a chill in the air nor a flake of snow to be bigger than life.

For two weeks each December, Tucson welcomes thousands of visitors to the tree-lined streets of Winterhaven - a prestigious neighborhood where 300 homes and over 100 majestic pines are meticulously adorned for Christmas with dazzling displays of decorations and lights. An annual event since 1949, the Winterhaven Festival of Lights was the brainchild of the neighborhood's creator, land developer CB Richards. Inspired by a Beverly Hills light display he witnessed in the 1930's, Richards lined the streets of Winterhaven with hundreds of baby pines - each with its own nearby electrical outlet - and purchased the neighborhood's first set of lights in 1949. To this day, the preparation for Winterhaven's Festival is a community affair, beginning two weeks prior and combining the efforts of Tucson Electric Power crews and hundreds of participating homeowners.

The "show" begins at nightfall and lasts until 10:00pm. Neighborhood traffic - even for residents - stops at dusk, and traffic cops begin to monitor safe passage for pedestrians at Winterhaven's entrance. On two scheduled evenings per week, cars, cabs, and limos may drive slowly through the neighborhood. All other evenings are reserved for "walk-throughs", horse-drawn hayrides, and trolleys only. Winterhaven's main entrance reminds me of the archway into Disneyland. Slipping safely inside, it seems no harm can come. Adults willingly become children, and children happily remain children. Time seemingly stands still for the length of the winding walk through Winterhaven's streets. Most visitors will linger within the boundaries to postpone stepping outside. Everyone stops to marvel at each home's display. At one home, lifelike mechanical reindeer wait impatiently as busy elves whittle Christmas toys from blocks of wood. Animated heads move side to side to wink at the passing crowd. Simply delightful. Another home displays a detailed "miniature" mining town, alive with mechanical workers and activities at every corner. From behind the home, a moving locomotive appears, tooting its horn and blowing puffs of smoke as it circles on its tracks around the lighted town. Further down the street, across from the grassy median at Winterhaven's center, the largest tree in the neighborhood reaches for the sky. Each year, Tucson Electric Power raise extension ladders to adorn this majestic pine from top to bottom with lighted, 2-ft long, red and white candy canes. The grassy median, as the halfway point for Winterhaven walkers, becomes the meeting point for families and friends. As hot chocolate vendors hand out steaming cups, everyone looks to the sky, awestruck by the candy-caned pine tree. Most simply cannot resist stepping under the bottom canopy of branches to look straight up into the incredible masterpiece. Without fail, the mighty pine is the center of attention each year from the cheery median in Winterhaven's Desert Disneyland.

Since that first accidental trip into Winterhaven, I can honestly say I have never again looked back on those cold, white Rhode Island winters. I have enjoyed the Festival of Lights from horse drawn hayrides, festive trolleys, my car, on foot, in the pouring rain, before Christmas, after Christmas, New Years Eve, alone, and with friends. The Winterhaven Festival of Lights - now celebrating its 57th year - is also truly representative of the strength of the Tucson Community. A free event, the Festival continually raises thousands of dollars in food and donations for the Tucson Food Bank and other charitable causes throughout its two week run. This year, with the assistance of Tucson Electric Power, Winterhaven will also do its part to become "green", replacing 1200 strands of traditional lights with LED light strands and subsequently reducing the event's energy consumption by 98%. December 2007 promises to bring the brightest Festival of Lights and most spectacular Desert Christmas to date.

To learn more about the neighborhood of Winterhaven in Tucson, Arizona, please visit www.winterhavenfestival.org and www.mywinterhaven.net.