There’s a reason Nashville is called Music City; it’s always lively and full of activities, no matter the season! The Christmas season tends to be particularly more festive with lights, holiday house tours, and a stay at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel top the list of things to do in Nashville to celebrate the winter holidays this season.
Our Top 10 Picks
1. Nashville Christmas Lights Tour
This two and a half hour tour takes you around Nashville to see spectacular holiday lights displays and then on to Franklin, a southern suburb of Nashville, a historic town where the Civil War Battle of Franklin took place. You’ll stop at the Lotz House, which is filled with Civil War-era antiques and decorated for the season. Expect to see a mix of residential light displays and over-the-top animatronics.
2. See Special Christmas Lights and Holiday Displays
Experience some of the best holiday lights and festive displays that the Nashville area has to offer!
- Chad’s Winter Wonderland has a drive-through Santa house, featuring Santa himself taking Christmas wish lists, a drive-through Nativity scene, more than 350 pieces of Christmas scenery, a Christmas train, a dancing snowman, and many LES displays.
- Chistmas on the Cumberland has more than ONE MILLION Christmas lights on display at the city of Clarksville’s festival of lights at McGregor Park.
- The Dancing Lights of Christmas at Jellystone Park in Nashville will thrill the kids in your family, and maybe the adults, too.
- Another drive through dancing light show can be found at The James E. Ward Agricultural Center.
3. Take a Tour of Nashville’s Holiday Homes
If you’re in the Nashville area, you have plenty of options to tour historic homes during the holidays.
- You can tour the state’s executive mansion, which is the home of the governor, during Tennessee’s Home for the Holidays event.
- Check out the Hermitage Holiday Tour, which is a walk-through of President Andrew Jackson’s historic plantation house while it is decorated for the season. The Hermitage is in Davidson County, 10 miles east of Nashville.
- The History Home Yuletide Tours at the Nashville Zoo will give you a chance to see how the Victorians celebrated the holidays at the Grassmere Historic Home. The tours will be offered the first three weekends in December 2019.
4. Gaylord Opryland Hotel Country Christmas
Throughout the Christmas season, Gaylord Opryland Hotel hosts many holiday events and is all tricked out for the holidays with festive décor and more than three million twinkling lights that sparkle until midnight from November 8, 2019 through January 1, 2020. Get in the spirit of the season with hotel events including A Christmas Story on Ice, a holiday concert with Grammy-winner Trace Adkins, at the Tennessee Ballroom.
5. Holiday LIGHTS at Cheekwood
From November 23rd, 2019 to January 5, 2020, Holiday LIGHTS returns to Cheekwood mansion for the fourth year. More than a million twinkling lights decorate the opulent property twice a day. The event also includes real reindeer, s’mores pits, holiday carolers, Santa, gingerbread workshops and cash bars with wine, beer, and hot chocolate.
6. Reindeer Games: A Christmas Pop-Up Bar
For something a bit different, head to this Christmas-themed pop-up bar at HQ Beercade. Adults 21 and over will enjoy 3D Christmas tree displays, thousands or ornaments, 2,000 feet of twinkling lights, and a life-size Santa sleigh. Plus, there will be holiday cocktails, light bites, and free pinball!
7. Sail the Cumberland on the Music City Holiday Cruise
The General Jackson Showboat makes nightly cruises throughout the holiday season with a festive holiday dinner buffet and a full stage show featuring a dozen talented performers crooning Christmas classics. Baby, it’s cold outside, but it’s tasty warm inside the showboat as you cruise you way to downtown and back to Opry Mills.
8. See the Nashville Zoo in a whole new light at Zoolumination
The Nashville Zoo looks to the East to celebrate the holidays this year with Zoolumination, a display of 500 custom-made silk lanterns scattered across the zoo’s 60 acres, creating elaborate displays of animals, holiday-themed scenes, and even a 200-foot-long dragon. Visitors will also be entertained by Chinese acrobats, entertainers, cuisine, and hand-made crafts.
9. Watch Nashville’s Nutcracker at TPAC’s Jackson Hall
There’s always an appreciated audience at this run of the classic Tchaikovsky holiday ballet, mainly because the kids in the cast pack the crowd with relatives. Even if you don’t have a dog in the hunt, Nashville’s Nutcracker is always entertaining, with talented dancers, great music, and a few local jokes, and visual puns thrown in to keep things interesting. Don’t be surprised to see the Sugar Plum Fairy riding in a pedal tavern!
10. Celebrate a tender Tennessee Christmas with Vince and Amy
The husband and wife powerhouse team of country stars, Vince Gill and Amy Grant, are a beloved Nashville staple. Every year, they carve out part of December in their busy touring calendars to entertain their fellow Nashvillians with a multi-night residency at the Ryman. This year’s special guest is Rodney Crowell, so it will be absolutely magical!
It’s the most magical time of the year! Embrace the city you love to call home and experience the love and joy of the holiday season at one or many of these festive Nashville events. After celebrating out on the town, visit a local Lennar community and find your perfect Home for the Holidays, available now!
