New Holiday Lights Festival location, same activities

Every year Gene Lahey Mall is decorated with white lights to celebrate the holiday season. This tradition has existed in the Omaha area for 20 years. This year the tradition changed by moving the festival to the Old Market area rather than the Gene Lahey Mall due to construction.  

The festival will last from November 25 to January 5 and include white lights in the trees and building in the Old Market area. This will be similar to the decorations that are usually in the Old Market area, however the businesses within the Old Market are adding a slight twist to the decorations. The businesses will be decorating their doors with light up snowflakes, reindeer and other holiday decorations. Kylie Vonnahme, the director of the Holiday Lights Festival said, “We wanted to keep the lights downtown and what better place to do so than in the historic Old Market.” 

There will be some changes to the traditional Holiday Lights Festival activities. This year there will not be a lighting ceremony due to restricted space. The traditional firework show on New Year’s Eve is also being moved to a new location near TD Ameritrade and the CHI Health Center.  

Many of the traditions of the festival will also be staying the same. The Con-Agra Ice Skating Rink, Holiday Lights and KETV Family Festival will all still be occurring with minimal changes due to the new location. The Old Market also provides new advantages by being in closer proximity to local businesses and creating more cohesiveness between the events in the festival.  

“The Old Market will have holiday activities and events throughout the season as part of Holidays in the Old Market. One event includes Small Business Saturday on November 30th, from noon to 4 p.m. The streets will be filled with carolers and the shops will feature special holiday finds. Activities during Small Business Saturday will take place on 12th Street and include characters from Disney’s Frozen, a petting zoo, magician, free rides from Ollie the Trolley and more,” Vonnahme said.  

After the construction of the Gene Lahey Mall is completed, the festival will be moved back to the Gene Lahey Mall. Many of the missing traditions such as the Lightning Ceremony will return once the festival is able to return to the Mall. It is projected that the Mall will be the location for this ceremony once again in 2022, at the end of the Gene Lahey Mall renovation.  

The festival also attempts to focus on the holiday spirit and giving back to the community. None of the community outreach from the Holiday Lights Festival will be changing this year.  

Vonnahme said, “An integral part of the Festival is the communitywide campaign to Shine the Light on Hunger. The campaign, supported by Conagra Brands Foundation, is a rallying call to leaders, businesses and families throughout the local community to raise food, funds and awareness to impact the issue of hunger in the Omaha metropolitan area. Conagra Brands Foundation set an ambitious goal of raising the equivalent of 1.75 million meals to support the hunger relief efforts led by Food Bank for the Heartland, a goal that can and will be achieved with the support of Omaha’s very generous community.”