What is Lone Star Lights? How do you describe it? Over 1.2 million lights, live music, dinner theatre, snow zone with real snow, sledding hill, vendor market, zip line, petting farm, Santa, Nativity—these bullet points fit easily on a brochure or website–yet, they fail to tell the full story. Even a catchy phrase like “Many marvels on a mission to make memories” doesn’t capture it all. Postcards sat down with Wes Armstrong, Director of Lone Star Lights, to gain insight as to the beginning and progression of the inspiration that became Lone Star Lights.
Winter months are, by default, a low activity period for camp centers. Carolina Creek wanted to develop a plan to use their property and resources during this time to help community and families to connect with each other and with Jesus. In their research, they located a camp in Washington which had a walkthrough holiday light experience.
In 2016, they developed a plan to create a similar experience at Carolina Creek. Thus began a two-year period of travel to conferences, other camps, Christmas events, theme parks, and botanical gardens—anywhere that created immersive Christmas environments—to learn what worked and what could have worked better.
This included examining technologies and suppliers as well. “We work with the same companies that supply lights for Disney World, said Lone Star Lights Director Wes Armstrong. We run on a very technical standard, including a control room where all our lighting, audio, and video systems are networked.”
In 2019, the board almost gave a “green light” to the project, but staff wasn’t quite ready yet. This turned out to be a blessing in that it allowed the initiative to avoid a pandemic shutdown immediately after startup. Thus began a waiting period with another year in development to refine the plan and the end product.
In January 2022, the official “green light” came. January through November was a sprint of ordering, receiving, and (in the words of Wes) “learning a lot of things we didn’t know that we didn’t know” in the first year of the attraction.
With the uniqueness of their creativity in orders and requests, Carolina Creek found they were also challenging the lighting and display vendors to think bigger as well. “They came into it thinking they were just filling an order for a camp center, and a camp center is not going to be doing these big or crazy things,” said Wes. “Our creative requirements were: it has to be immersive, and it has to be interactive. You can go see Christmas lights a lot of places. Lone Star Lights had to be highly interactive to be unique. This shines through in things like…the three venues in the park where we invite community performers…the custom talking reindeer… seeing Santa in his workshop…or building your own toy at Toymaker’s Workshop. We tried to create experiences that engage all the senses, not just your eyes in looking at lights.”
In its inaugural season of 2022, Lone Star Lights had just over 1 million lights and saw 16,000 attendees over 16 nights. Over 2,000 people participated in the dinner theatre experience with Houston-based A.D. Players, 270 tons of snow were trucked in, 38 animals were in the Petting Farm, and more than 1,200 prayer requests or praises were written and hung in the Prayer Arbor.
So, what’s new for the 2023 season? A lot! Of course, more lights. This year, there will be 1.2 million lights! A Chuckwagon Roundup experience will debut. This is a 45-minute family-oriented dinner experience featuring Coyote Joe with singing, dancing, live animals, and comedy in a highly interactive show with prizes (as well as cowboy stew, cornbread, and peach cobbler). The A.D. Players will return for the dinner theatre experience with a fun, new comedy, “A Christmas of Many Errors.” There will also be a new high adventure activity called Crate Stackin’.
Yes, Crate Stackin’–a competitive activity in which the participants stack plastic milk crates as high as they can, all the while climbing the stack to place the additional crates on top (with harness and belay assist for safety).
Also new will be Silver Bell Bakery, where guests can decorate their own sugar cookies. Santa and Rolly the talking reindeer will be in an all-new zone this year called Candy Cane Lane, where you will also find Holly Hall, a community performance stage. Young guests will enjoy The Storybook Place, an outdoor venue where characters will be reading classic Christmas stories. The Fractile Forest zone from last year has been reinvented with the addition of a light maze. And last, but certainly not least, the parking area has been expanded to more than twice the size as last year.
“Our primary motivation in producing Lone Star Lights is to create a family-centric, community-oriented event where people can make memories through the Christmas holidays,” said Wes. “We really have a heart of making it accessible to all. From a price point, we try to keep it as low as we possibly can. If there’s something we can do for free, we’re going to do that. I can’t tell you how many people were surprised last year when they had their photo with Santa, and it was free. People walked up with their wallets open and couldn’t believe it. The snow zone is included. The petting farm is included. The performance stages are included. We really try to make it something that’s affordable for the whole family to come.”
While Carolina Creek is a faith-based organization, you won’t see them forcing this message onto guests. “The way we accomplish our mission is not by preaching a Gospel message,” stated Wes. “Rather, the way our team and staff interact with and treat others should evidence our faith. Guests should walk away feeling like they experienced Jesus in a new way.”
And while there is a zone in the attraction called Reason for the Season, with a larger-than-life Nativity and the Prayer Arbor, these exist simply as an invitation—guests can lean into the experience at their comfort level—or not at all.
Speaking of invitations, you are invited to experience Lone Star Lights and create some special Christmas memories this year. The event runs from November 24 through December 22. Tell your family and friends, then bring them along! Visit lonestarlights.org for more information.
936.744.0134 | 5 Anticipation Drive, Huntsville, TX 77320
Carolina Creek was founded in 2002 by a group of men and women who called Houston home, but saw a need for a space for youth to be able to reconnect with Creation—to have a change of pace and setting that wasn’t inner-city.
The first camp center opened with 200 beds. The property now has three camp centers with 1,200 beds. Each center is self-sufficient, with its own lodging, dining hall, and activities—so three different camps can run simultaneously and never cross paths. Carolina Creek programs are designed for K-12. They write their own curriculum and can provide turnkey events. They also do daytrip events and multi-day retreats for corporate teambuilding, and have hosted groups from companies such as HEB, Chick-fil-A, and Walmart.
The mission of Carolina Creek is to help people know the love of Jesus by creating immersive environments and partnering with individuals and groups to provide an experience accessible to all.
carolinacreek.org936.261.8334
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PO Box 989, Riverside, TX 77367
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84 Wimberly Lane, Huntsville, TX 77320
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