Saturday, May 26, 2012 — Mostly Cloudy 18°C
City

Massive Trail of Lights in Downsview Park

Posted by Tim / December 1, 2008

5 Comments

Christmas Lights TorontoLast week Downsview Park got a jump on the crazy holiday lights season by unveiling a trail of more than 400,000 light bulbs. They're apparently energy-efficient LED lights so I guess we shouldn't all freak out at the energy consumption happening north of the 401. And the Trail of Lights is sponsored by Tourism Toronto which means this is one of the key things bringing in all those tourists from Chicago.

But, no need to rush. They'll be sparkling until the end of December so there's plenty of time to wander the park and check them all out, plus Canada's largest walk-through, illuminated Holiday Tree.

Photo by Sam

Discussion

5 Comments

Sort By Oldest First / Newest First

Subscribe

Andrew / December 13, 2008 at 08:15 pm
user-pic
Save your money folks. The lights are pretty enough but at $12 per person (includsing children over 2!) it is a complete rip-off. Downsview is a windswept desolate location. The so-called "Holiday Village" is a grotty (not grotto) embarassment - one cheesy jewellry booth, one bunch of black velvet religious pictures, the food "delicacy" is pizza-pizza. The warming station half-way round sells watery over-proiced hot chocolate. NOT recommended.
Reply
Karen / December 22, 2008 at 09:52 pm
user-pic
Absolutely not worth it! I normally really enjoy this kind of thing but the village was in warehouse and looked like it. Only vendor was pizza, pizza charging 4.00 for a slice. The lights are a bit disappointment. It is hard to believe this is Canada's biggest light display! Van Deusen gardens in B.C. is far larger and 100% nicer! Lights at downsview were too far spread out. Almost no trees were decorated so the whole thing just seemed incredibly artificial in a barren wasteland. Warming station 1/2 way along the walk was closed at 8:00pm so there wasn't even hot chocolate to console us. Don't waste your money.
Reply
Antonio Siracusa / December 23, 2008 at 03:28 pm
user-pic
Thanks for the post. I'm going to see the Trail of Lights with my family on Christmas Eve. Looking forward to it!
Reply
Antonio Siracusa replying to a comment from Antonio Siracusa / December 23, 2008 at 03:39 pm
user-pic
Just read everyones comments above... sad that it doesn't seem to be going over so well with people. I think I'll still check it out though.
Reply
Nick Smith / December 25, 2008 at 10:34 pm
user-pic
We went on Christmas Eve expecting the worst due to these negative comments that we read.
It actually turned out to be pretty good. It had snowed so it didn't look like a desolite windswept waste land, the hot chocolate wasn't watered down and we had just finished eating a big meal so over priced pizza wasn't an issue.
We walked it twice, digested our food, killed a few hours, didn't feel like we had to worry about getting mugged and the kids ran amock and passed out in the car (a bonus under any circustances).
All in all it wasn't bad. It wasn't terrific but I wouldn't say it was bad.
Reply

Add a Comment
Other Cities: Vancouver – Montreal