With the Christmas season fully in motion, many people are looking for fun, festive, and free activities. Activities to provide people with a good time for free are rare, but they do exist, and one of the best festive activities is driving around to view Christmas light displays.

In my opinion, the most impressive of the Amarillo lights displays is the Amarillo Botanical Gardens. Admission into the gardens is free but donations are optional. Inside there is an expansive display of lights with almost every inch illuminated by a vibrant light. They have a tunnel with flashing lights, an indoor area dimly light with almost exclusively Christmas lights, a large Christmas tree, and a photographer to take couple or family pictures for you.

Just as impressive, Candy Cane Lane on Gainsborough drive features a block of houses, each one lit with elaborate light displays. After the end of this block the lights continue, but the number of houses participating slowly decreases. Blow-ups of Santas, Elves, and Christmas themed characters appear on almost every house, and just driving down the street can be a great way to spend 30 minutes. The street becomes very hectic on weekends, so visiting on a weeknight would be the easiest way to visit.

Basically, all neighborhoods have Christmas lights this time of year, but the City View neighborhood offers something special as they have a house with its own radio station that syncs with their Christmas lights. These lights are not often crowded around, especially if you visit them later at night, allowing you to park your car, tune your radio, and watch the lights for as long as you want.

To add extra flare to lights displays, glasses that turn the lights into another object can be purchased for a very small amount. When at the Amarillo Botanical Gardens, I purchased a pair of these glasses for $2 that made all of the lights appear to be colorful snowmen. This allowed for me to revisit all of the light displays that I had visited previously and have it be an almost entirely different experience.