It’s the most wonderful time of the year to many, especially is you enjoy holiday lights and decorations!
If you visit Walt Disney World at Christmastime and don’t go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you miss one incredible sight! The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights transforms the Streets of America backlot into “the ultimate Americana Holiday lights display,” as Show Director John Phelan calls it.
Arkansas businessman and philanthropist Jennings Osborne began the tradition when he strung 1,000 lights on his Little Rock home as a Christmas gift to his daughter. The exhibit grew to include “a giant rotating globe with ‘Peace on Earth’ above it and a massive canopy of red lights that people could walk under,” setting off so much brilliance and clogging streets with so many visitors that in 1993 the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered him to pull the plug.
Two years later, wanting the joy of his exhibit to continue, Osborne offered his dazzling display to Disney where it has become part of a rich holiday tradition viewed by millions of Guests. As other Walt Disney World attractions place Park visitors right into the scenes, right in the movie set or the haunted hotel or the action stunts, the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights, animated displays, flying angels, and twirling carousels invite Park visitors right into this “Holiday Wonderland” to awe and cheer the spirit of the season.
Sadly, this is the 20th and final year the lights will twinkle at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. No announcements have been made regarding the future of the display, so it may be gone forever after January 1. If you can get to the park in the next couple weeks, don’t miss this amazing holiday celebration! (Btw, if you are an Annual Passholder, you may stop by Sid Cuenga’s–just inside the front gate to your left) after 5:30 on Mondays and Wednesdays to pick up special viewing glasses that turn the lights into spectacular snowflake designs!)
Today’s Takeaway:
It takes a crew of 25 technicians 15 weeks to install the millions of colorful lights (10 miles of twinkling rope lights!) and animated displays.
That’s A LOT of electricity, isn’t it? Today, we’re going to explore energy usage in our homes and see if there are ways we can reduce electricity waste.
This “Spare a Watt, Save a Lot” project comes directly from the Science Buddies website:
“In this science fair project, you will find out how much energy appliances in your household consume in one day…Once you have found out how much energy your household uses in a day, try making improvements to your power consumption.”
Terms:
* Fossil fuel
* Acid rain
* Greenhouse gas
* Energy
* Kilowatt-hour (kWh)
* Power consumption
* Thermostat
* Phantom load
* Power
* Nonrenewable energy source
* Renewable energy source
Questions:
* What is a fossil fuel?
* What are greenhouse gases and how are they formed? What effects do they have on the environment?
* What is the difference between energy and power?
Materials:
* An electricity usage monitor, like the P3 International P4400 Kill a WattTM Electricity Usage Monitor; these units can be purchased from www.amazon.com.
* Access to your home’s watt-hour meter
* Timer
* Lab notebook
* Graph paper
Click here to go directly to the 11-step Experimental Procedure with graphing instructions and illustrations.
SCHOOL SUBJECT: Physical Science
SKILL LEVEL: Middle Grades
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The post Celebrating Christmas at Disney’s Hollywood Studios originally appeared on Magical Mouse Schoolhouse. Think outside the textbook and expand your home classroom with Walt Disney entertainment! ©2012 Magical Mouse Schoolhouse