McADENVILLE — McAdenville, known as Christmas Town, USA, has one of the largest Christmas light displays anywhere.
The tradition started in 1956 of lighting a few trees in the small textile town with the support of Pharr Yarns and has continued with this year being the 56th year. The mill picks up the electric bill for the lights. Starting in August, volunteers start checking the strings of red, white, and green lights and put the strings onto 375 trees in the town. Some trees have 500 lights and the tallest 90 foot trees have 5,000. Some 450,000 lights add Christmas brightness to the town of 619 residents. In addition to the trees, there is a 75-foot tall water fountain of red, green, blue and amber light in the center of the lake that is surrounded by lighted trees reflecting in the water. Nearly every home along the 2 mile route is lavishly decorated.
This year, Yahoo Travel selected Christmas Town, USA as one of the top 10 places in the United States to visit for Christmas lights. Most who visit, drive their cars slowly, bumper to bumper, through the 2 mile route through town. There are a few places to pull over and park so that you can walk part of the tour. The business district is well decorated and the restaurant offers food and a resting place. The “drive through” will take an hour or more and the wait on I-85 to get into the town can be a slow line. McAdenville is 57 miles from Salisbury south on I-85 just inside Gaston County. The lights are turned on each day from now until Dec. 26 from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m.