Time is of the Essence - Order now while supplies last!
Time is of the Essence - Order now while supplies last!
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Walk-Thru & Drive-Thru Experiences
When the display is the event, everything has to earn its place on the route. Holiday Designs™ has supplied commercial christmas light displays for walk-thru and drive-thru Christmas experiences run by cities, casinos, churches, farms, and independent event producers since 1994. Built to fill a route, justify a ticket price, and bring families back year after year.
Made in Gainesville, GA. In business since 1994. We answer the phone.
When you run a walk-thru or drive-thru Christmas event, the experience you create is the whole product. The ambiance, the energy, the moments guests carry home — all of it lives or dies in the displays you choose and how you put them together. Two people can buy the same displays and create two completely different experiences. The vision is yours. We’re here to give you the best possible tools to execute it.
And when you get it right, the returns compound season after season. Guests take photos. They post them. They bring their friends the next year. Your event builds its own word of mouth — which is the most powerful marketing a ticketed Christmas experience can have.
The events that grow year over year are the ones built by people who started with a clear vision, chose their displays intentionally, and added to the experience each season. The word of mouth builds. The event becomes something families put on their calendar in October.
We’ve supplied commercial christmas light displays to events run by cities, casinos, churches, and entrepreneurs who started with nothing but a field and a vision. We understand how these events work — and we’re here to help you build something that lasts.
The experience is yours to create. We help you build it with commercial christmas light displays that perform every single night of the season.
Here’s what a drive-thru Christmas experience looks like when it’s built right. Holiday Designs™ designed and supplied the drive-through arch system for the City of Riverdale, GA — scaled wide enough to accommodate full-size coach buses. A program we’ve supported for over 10 years.
The arch system is sized to accommodate full-size coach buses — which tells you everything about the scale and structural integrity of what we build. This is a program that has run season after season, growing each year.
Every piece on your route needs to hold its weight. Here’s what we supply for walk-thru and drive-thru Christmas experiences — and what each one does for your event.
🔆 Lighted Arches — Walk-Through & Drive-Through
The signature element of any walk-thru or drive-thru event. Arches create the tunnel effect that guests photograph, share, and talk about. Walk-through arches for pedestrian routes, drive-through arches sized for vehicles. The moment guests enter the tunnel is the moment the experience begins.
Animated scenes give guests a reason to slow down, stop, and engage — the opposite of driving past a static display. Waving figures, moving animals, animated scenes. These are the displays guests describe to their friends afterward. Built for nightly outdoor use across a full season without mid-season failures.
Nativity scenes, gingerbread houses, reindeer, snowmen, Victorian characters — the displays that fill the route between arches and anchor moments. A route needs variety and depth. Ground mount scenes provide both, and our catalog is deep enough to theme entire sections of your event around a single concept.
Panel trees and tower trees create anchor moments on the route — the centrepiece guests walk toward, gather around, and photograph. Available from 12 feet to 40+ feet. A signature tree at a key point on the route gives your event an identity and a natural gathering place.
Giant ornaments, character figures, and dimensional display pieces that stop guests in their tracks and generate the social media posts that drive ticket sales for next year. One great photo op on your route is worth more than any advertising spend.
✏️ Custom Fabrication
The one display on your route that exists nowhere else — a custom piece built around your event’s identity, your community, or a theme you want to own. We’ve built custom displays for events across the country. If you can describe what you’re going for, we can build it.
The events that grow year over year aren’t just well-stocked — they’re well-designed. Every display decision affects two things at once: what your guests feel as they move through the experience, and what they say about it afterward. Those two things together are what build a lasting event.
The Entry
An arch or signature display that signals something different has begun. For guests, it’s the first photo of the night — the moment they know it’s worth the trip. For you, it’s the moment that justifies the ticket price before they’ve seen anything else.
The Journey
Ground mount scenes and animated displays that fill the experience between anchor moments. For guests, something engaging at every turn — the experience feels full and considered from start to finish. For you, the difference between “that was incredible” and “it felt a little thin.”
The Moment
The centerpiece — a signature tree, a large-scale animated scene, or a custom display — that guests photograph and share. For guests, it’s the image they post. For you, it’s next year’s ticket sales — free advertising from people who already love your event.
Most of our clients don’t come to us with a finished plan. They come with a field, a rough idea of the layout, and a budget. We help them figure out what goes where — which products anchor the experience, which ones fill it out, and what sequence makes the most sense for a guest moving through it. That’s a conversation we’ve had many times. We’re good at it.
Most events don’t start fully built out. They start with a foundation — the right arches, a centerpiece tree, enough ground mount scenes to fill the experience — and they add to it every year. Year two is almost always better than year one. Year three is better than year two. We plan for that from the first conversation, so every purchase builds toward something instead of competing with what you already have.
We manufacture in our own facility. Your displays aren’t sitting in a container waiting on a shipping window — they’re built by our team on a production schedule we control. When your opening night is on the calendar and tickets are already sold, that’s not a small thing.
Our displays are built for continuous seasonal outdoor use: heavy-gauge steel frames, powder-coated finish, C7 LED bulbs that are individually replaceable. The show runs every night from opening through New Year’s, exactly as planned. When your guests arrive, everything is lit, everything is working, and the experience you designed is the experience they get.
The best event producers we work with treat us like a long-term partner, not a one-time vendor. They call us in January to talk about what worked and what they want to add. We remember their event. We know their inventory. We help them build something that gets better every season. That’s the relationship we’re looking for.
Walk-thru and drive-thru Christmas light events are run by a wide range of organizations. Here’s who we work with — and what each one typically needs from us.
🏛️ Cities & Municipalities
Free community light events in parks, fairgrounds, and public spaces. Often started by parks & rec departments looking to create a holiday destination. We accept purchase orders and work within municipal procurement timelines.
🎰 Casinos & Resorts
Ticketed premium experiences that extend the property’s seasonal appeal and drive on-property spend. These buyers want scale, quality, and displays that photograph well for marketing.
⛪ Churches & Non-Profits
Community light events as outreach and fundraising. These buyers need quality displays that work within tight budgets and are easy for volunteers to set up and take down each season.
💡 Independent Event Producers
Entrepreneurs building a ticketed Christmas light show from the ground up. These are often our most rewarding relationships — we help them think through the whole thing, from first purchase to year-three expansion plan.
That’s the most common starting point we hear. Tell us about your space — the route length, the layout, whether it’s walk-thru or drive-thru, and what your budget looks like. We’ll help you figure out what a strong first-year foundation looks like and what to add from there. We’ve had this conversation enough times to know what works and what doesn’t.
Nobody does. The events that last are the ones that started smart — the right foundation, not the most displays — and added intelligently each year. We’ll help you prioritize. The arch that creates the entry moment. The tree that anchors the centerpiece. The ground mount scenes that fill the route. That’s a stronger year one than trying to cover everything thinly.
Yes — this is exactly how most events grow. We can work with what you have and help you identify the gaps. Where does the route thin out? Where do guests lose interest? What’s the display that’s been missing? We’ll help you figure out the right additions rather than just selling you more of the same thing.
We know — that’s the only deadline that matters. We build our production schedule around your opening date. Standard catalog products ship in 4–6 weeks. Custom pieces take 6–8 weeks depending on the design phase. Contact us early — the earlier we start, the more options you have. If your timeline is already tight, tell us upfront and we’ll tell you honestly what’s possible.
It depends on your route length, whether it’s walk-thru or drive-thru, and how densely you want to fill it. A good starting point: a strong display element every 50–100 feet for a walk-thru, and something visually interesting every 100–200 feet for a drive-thru. Tell us your route length and layout and we’ll help you figure out what a strong first year looks like — and what to add from there.
Drive-through arches are sized and structured to accommodate vehicles — wider openings, robust frames that hold their shape under wind load when cars pass through. Walk-through arches are scaled for pedestrians and can be more intricate in design since they’re viewed up close. We carry both and can help you spec the right arch for your route type.
Start the conversation in January and place your order by August for a November opening. Standard catalog products average 4–6 weeks from order to shipment. Custom fabricated pieces average 6–8 weeks. Reach out early — the more lead time we have, the more options are available to you. If your timeline is already tight, tell us upfront and we’ll give you an honest picture of what’s achievable.
Yes — most of our ground mount displays and arches are designed to be installed by a small crew with basic hand tools. Clearly labeled hardware & components and straightforward mounting. We’re happy to walk your team through installation when your order ships. Installation services are also available in select locations if you need additional support.
Yes — we can help you think it through. Tell us about your space — the layout, the distances, the natural gathering spots — and we’ll help you figure out what goes where and what to prioritize with your budget. We’ve done this enough times to know what works well and what to avoid. It’s a conversation, not a formal design service, and it’s included when you work with us. Need more in-depth help? We also offer paid design services where one of our experienced designers will visit your site and build a detailed plan with you. Contact us to learn more →
Yes — purchase orders are accepted. New vendor setup packets returned same day or next. If you’re a municipality, church, or organization that requires PO-based purchasing, we make that process straightforward.
Tell us about your event — the route, the format, what you have now, and what you’re trying to build. We’ll help you figure out the right commercial christmas light displays for your space and your budget, and how to grow the experience year over year. No pressure, no overselling.
Or call us at 1-800-516-4270. We answer.
