LELAND, NC (WWAY) — Founder’s Park turned into a magical wonderland over the weekend.
Saturday’s grand illumination event kicked off Leland’s holiday season.
Mayor Brenda Bozeman and Santa helped flip the switch to light up the brightly colored Christmas tree located in the center of the park.
Kids and adults took rides on the Leland Express train among the thousands of LED lights – got food from local food trucks and of course made a stop to see Santa.
Tavone Sanders took a ride over the bridge from Wilmington to the light show with her family.
“This is my first year and it’s really nice, I enjoyed it,” said Sanders. “The lights are really nice, some places you go and you pay and it is less than this, so is a really nice free event.”
Leland in Lights is a month-long festive event at Founders Park and is open to the public any time after dusk for anyone who wants to experience Leland’s winter wonderland.
According to Community Enrichment Director Wyatt Richardson, the Town of Leland is working on growing the light display.
“It’s something we’ve been doing since 2018, we’ve worked to expand our light display,” he said. “You’ll see a more dynamic effect, the height of the candy cane forest behind me and many other features has been expanded upon, we’ve gone significantly higher this year, to spread the footprint out quite a bit too.”
Those who want to take a stroll through candy cane trees or have a picnic under the twinkling lights still have time.
The last day to experience the lights is on January 1.
More information can be found here.
