Christmas Town U.S.A. Light Display

Just west of Charlotte, McAdenville becomes Christmas Town U.S.A. each December, a light display you can walk or drive through downtown. The lights began in 1956, when the McAdenville Men's Club and W. J. Pharr, then founder and president of Pharr, decorated trees around the community center in red, white, and green. A 1980 feature on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt brought national attention, later echoed on Good Morning America and in Southern Living. Bells play Christmas carols downtown. The season opens with a tree lighting at Dynamo 31, 102 Main Street, where a child flips the switch. The Yule Log Parade, begun in 1949, gathers at 100 Main Street beside the log on a vintage sled.

Our take: Park and walk if you want the shops and the Yule Log; drive through if you only need the red, white, and green lights.