Blog Archive

Christmas in the Smokies Bluegrass Festival

“Bet that Pigeon River is colder than the sea.
Christmas in the Smokies that’s where I want to be”

Hey it’s Christmas, let’s have a Bluegrass Festival – of course! And the Smoky Mountain Convention Center in Pigeon Forge is the place to go for the 2014 Christmas in the Smokies Festival, Wednesday through Saturday, December 10-13, 2014. (more…)

2014 Christmas on Ice at Ober Gatlinburg

images courtesy of Ober Gatlinburg

images courtesy of Ober Gatlinburg

This weekend Ober Gatlinburg ski area celebrates Christmas with its annual Christmas on Ice show.

The event is FREE, and held at the ski area’s year-round Ice Skating Arena, centerpiece of the resort’s indoor shopping mall on the mountain.

Christmas on Ice features two evening shows, on Saturday at 6pm and Sunday at 5pm, December 6-7, 2014. Our local area skaters again put on a colorful and dynamic show set to Christmas music and themes. (more…)

Gatlinburg 2014 Christmas Parade (and Possible Guinness World Record)

images courtesy of Kevin Tierney video

images courtesy of Kevin Tierney video

Friday, December 5, 2014, marks the date of Gatlinburg’s 39th Annual Fantasy of Lights Christmas Parade. It will also be a Guinness World Record event, if 20,000 people wear a red nose!

The parade starts at 7:30 pm at Traffic Light 1A at the north end of Parkway. Some 80,000 people are expected to throng Parkway to watch the parade, and they’ll have to fight to get their red noses, because there’s only 20,000 of these to go around. (more…)

Thanksgiving 2014: Fireworks at the Titanic in Pigeon Forge

images courtesy of Titanic

images courtesy of Titanic

There’s a spectacular fireworks show this Thanksgiving evening in Pigeon Forge at the Titanic Museum. For the 3rd year running, the acclaimed attraction plans to give us the biggest fireworks show of the year anywhere on the Smoky Mountain Parkway. Even more, the big ship will provide a real, live SNOWFALL from snow making equipment mounted in the bow.

Scheduled for 7 pm on November 27, 2014, the free event draws several thousand people, but you can watch it perfectly from the large parking lot. It will be a very busy visitor day inside the museum, so if you’re thinking of taking a tour you should book ahead. (more…)

2014 Festival of Trees in Gatlinburg – Thanksgiving in the Smoky Mountains

images courtesy of Festival of Trees

images courtesy of Festival of Trees

The feast and celebration of Thanksgiving is upon us this week, bringing families together and opening the Christmas season. In Gatlinburg, the annual Festival of Trees for 2014 is an event to select for customized gifts and cards, family fun, and a heartwarming start to the time of giving and receiving.

Festival of Trees is a kid-friendly opportunity to wander through a world of sparkling Christmas trees, each ornamented with unique gifts and craft works, to create and send customized holiday cards, and to take family pictures with Santa. (more…)

2014 Thanksgiving and Christmas Craft Shows in Gatlinburg

images courtesy of Gatlinburg Arts & Crafts Community

images courtesy of Arts & Crafts Community

Just in time for holidays, family celebrations, and the gift-giving season, the Gatlinburg arts and crafts community brings out its finest products in two great shows held back to back, at the tail end of November and in early December.

As winter follows fall in the Smoky Mountains, one thing we might miss – besides the leaves turning color of course – is the abundance of arts and crafts that always appears in Gatlinburg during the harvest festival time of fall, following a productive summer of labor. (more…)

Ober Gatlinburg Snow Tubing 2014

image courtesy of Ober Gatlinburg

images courtesy of Ober Gatlinburg

Nothing says winter like snow, and Ober Gatlinburg in the Smoky Mountains has plenty of it. The slopes will open in December, but the 2014 fun season starts on November 21 with a Rail Jam on Friday night, celebrating the newly groomed snow in the Tubing Park. Then on Saturday – Snow Tubing begins and it’s winter!

The “Back in Blue” Rail Jam is a chance for skiers and boarders to try their moves on the rails – because facing in the same direction is boring, right? Competitors in two age groups of 14 and under and 15 and over will compete for a piece of the $1,000 prize money, along with lots of merchandise being given away. (more…)

Winterfest Winter Magic 2014 in the Smoky Mountains

Gatlinburg Christmas lights

Gatlinburg Christmas lights

Every year in the Smoky Mountains, the famous colors of Fall foliage give way to the magical time of winter. The pumpkins of harvest festival and Halloween are put away against the cold and the beginning snows. And sometime in November, we have to admit it’s winter.

But in the three neighboring towns of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville, winter comes in with a flourish. The three towns collaborate to schedule their festival openings over 3 days, and turn the night time into a blaze of millions of Christmas lights. (more…)

Meigs Falls: A Drive-Up Waterfall

Meigs Falls - image courtesy GSMNP

image courtesy of GSMNP

One of the great delights for visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the abundance of beautiful waterfalls. Usually it takes at least a mild hike to see them, but Meigs Falls is a waterfall you can see from the road.

Meigs Falls lies along a great scenic drive in its own right, Little River Road between Gatlinburg and Townsend. Many people know this road as their way to Cades Cove, but they may well have missed the falls, which is tucked away across the river and hard to spot. (more…)