Happy Holidays! I am so glad to have started out my holiday season by getting into the Christmas spirit at Dollywood’s Smokey Mountain Christmas! While you can check out my adventures on my YouTube channel (Terrifically Toni), I had received some requests to do a recap of my adventures at Dollywood here on my blog!
I spent two days at Dollywood: Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. I’ll be getting more into the details of Dollywood’s Christmas event a bit later, but right now, I’ll share the overview of my trip.
On Thanksgiving Day, we finished driving into Sevierville. We had spent the night about two hours away, and made two stops on the way down to look at two stores my dad wanted to go to. Once we made it into town, we checked in at our hotel, and drove straight over to Dollywood. We left Dollywood around 8:30 PM and made it to the Tanger Outlets around 9PM for some Black Friday shopping. My family and I went to Adidas, Kate Spade, Aerie, American Eagle, Francesca’s, and The Disney Store. After that, we stopped at Krispy Kreme for some donuts and went back to our hotel.
On Black Friday, we went to Chick-fil-a for breakfast, and then went shopping at Ulta, Home Depot, and Staples. We went to the Island to go to Paula Deen’s Family Kitchen for lunch. Because the traffic to get to Dollywood was so backed up, we took a drive around the National Park and stopped at the Gatlinburg visitor center to look around. After that, we headed over to Dollywood. We left around 7:30 to go back to the outlets to look around when it was less crowded. We had dinner at Chick-fil-a, and headed back to our hotel. On Saturday, we just went to Paula Deen’s for breakfast and headed home.
For me, Dollywood is so magical at Christmastime. There’s so many unique experiences you can do only at the holidays!
The best part of Smokey Mountain Christmas is probably the shows. The highlight here is Christmas in the Smokies, a 40 minute show in the Celebrity Theater. It features Christmas classics and songs original to the show, following the story of a family celebrating Christmas in the Smokey Mountains. It’s full of dancing, singing, and has a live orchestra. ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas is another theatrical style show, and is more of a comedy. It tells the story of a young girl whose brother and sister can’t come home for Christmas, with a parallel plot of Christmas mice looking for snickerdoodle cookies at Christmas. This one also features classic Christmas songs and a visit from Santa Claus. On a different note, the Appalachian Christmas show at the Back Porch Theater features a live acoustic performance of bluegrass style Christmas music with four incredibly talented performers. All of these shows are family friendly and sure to get you in the Christmas spirit!
This year, Dollywood implemented a new system to see its most popular shows (Christmas in the Smokies, Its a Wonderful Life, and ‘Twas the Night before Christmas). Now, all guests have to receive a voucher before seeing the show. The vouchers start being handed out 2 hours before the first show of the day, and each later show gives vouchers as soon as the show before it starts. It’s a new system, and if you want to see the shows, it is definitely something to be cautious of.
However, the lights are gorgeous, and definitely something you could only see at Dollywood. Every tree has lights to every edge, and all of the buildings on Show Street and near the Market Square are totally covered in different colors of lights. The area near the Pine Theater is decorated to resemble a 1950s Christmas.
This year, Dollywood expanded their light display with the addition of Glacier Ridge. The area consumes most of the back half of the park and features an assortment of blue, white, and purple lights, as well as the Christmas tree in the Wilderness Pass area that performs a light show a few times a night. The area is absolutely gorgeous and is perfect for taking pictures. It truly connects the lights of the front of the park with the back of the park.
Dollywood also has amazing treat selections at Christmastime. From delicious gingerbread men, to holiday decorated cupcakes, to peppermint chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches, the park offers a treat for every palette. Every treat looks adorable, smells delicious, and tastes amazing- the perfect way to get into the holiday spirit!
I definitely had a great time at Dollywood this Christmas (like I do every year!), and I’m so glad that I could share my adventure with you guys!
Enjoy all the holiday magic!
Toni
