The ONE Disney World Holiday Tradition Fans Miss the Most

It’s no secret that Disney fans love nostalgia. For decades now, longtime fans have lamented the loss of longtime favorites… even as they’ve called for Disney World to change and evolve.

I’m in no way immune to this, as there are many favorite attractions from my 30+ years of visiting Walt Disney World that I would love to experience one more time. Recently, we took to our Facebook page to gauge what rides, shows, attractions, or whole eras our readers would like to experience once again.

Our question, “If you could hop in a time machine and visit any Disney World era, which one are you going back to?” received a large response. Many readers brought up the “classic” era of EPCOT, the original concept of MGM Studios, or simply when things were “cheaper.”

However, buried amidst the nostalgia for The Great Movie Ride or Horizons, there are multiple calls for a Disney World Holiday classic: The Osborne Family Festival of Lights at Hollywood Studios.

The saga of the Osborne Lights actually began far away from Walt Disney World. In 1986, Arkansas residents Jennings and Mitzi Osborne first began decorating their house with a massive Christmas light display at the request of their then-6-year-old daughter Alison “Breezy” Osborne. Over the next decade, the display became larger and more ornate, attracting both tourists and legal challenges. Eventually, a court order put an end to the display. That’s where Disney came in.

In the mid-1990s, Disney contacted the family about bringing their lights to Disney World, and the Osborne’s lights first came to Hollywood Studios (then Disney-MGM Studios) in 1995. During their first decade at the park, the lights were displayed on the park’s Residential Street (a collection of facades of television homes that was part of the Backlot Tour).

When the Residential Streets area was closed and demolished in the early 2000s to make room for the Lights! Motors! Action! Extreme Stunt Show, the seasonal Osborne display, was moved to the Streets of America portion of the park. That remained their home each December for about a decade, a period which saw the display grow to include more and more technologically advanced lights, as well as fake snow.

In 2015, Disney announced that the area would be closing to make way for the construction of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Unlike what happened when Residential Street closed, the Osborne Lights would not be moving on to a different area of the park. Instead, the Osborne Lights at Disney were no more, with Disney donating at least parts of the display to charity.

Despite being gone for about a decade, many of our readers mentioned them as something they’d like to go back in time and visit. This is likely due to the fact that the lights become a beloved Holiday tradition for many guests during their two decades at Disney. As reader Gayle explained, “We went every holiday season for about 15 years. The last one was very sad!”

There’s a lot that our readers miss about bygone eras of Disney World, including the Osborne Lights. If you’re interested in sharing your thoughts on this, or any other Disney or travel-related topic, follow us on the AllEars Facebook to join in on the next conversation!

Disney World Got Rid of the Osborne Lights Over 8 Years Ago and There’s Still a MAJOR Problem Because of It

Do you miss the Osborne Lights? Let us know in the comments below.

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