A (Socially Distant) Charlotte Guide to Christmas

Take in the holiday cheer, but don’t gather too near

- ANDY SMITH

THE HOLIDAYS ARE DIFFERENT this year, but Charlotte’s still celebrating. Many of the city’s Christmastime staples have made adjustments, while others were already primed for lowcontact cheer. Here are eight ways to feel merry, at a distance, in December:

McAdenville Is Back … With Some Changes

MORE THAN 500,000 VISITORS flock each year to the massive Christmas display in this small Gaston County town just 18 miles west of Charlotte. This month, the nationally recognized McAdenville is once again covered with lights for the 65th year, but COVID-19 brings changes.

The nightly lighting schedule is truncated to 5:30 p.m.-10 p.m., Dec. 1-26. There will be no tree lighting ceremony or Yule Log Parade, and the Christmas Town 5K is now a virtual race, meaning participants can run the 3.1 miles either on McAdenville’s course or anywhere else they please sometime between Nov. 21-28.

But thankfully, the lights still shine. That’s because the sponsoring company Pharr and the town’s residents know the effect the display has on the region: Earlier this year, McAdenville briefly brought back the lights to spread cheer during the early days of the pandemic.

Visit ChristmasTownUSA.org for more details on this month’s festivities.

The Light Balls of Hillside Avenue in Myers Park