Tucson Arizona: Winterhaven Festival Of Lights Christmas 2021 (Virtual Walking Tour)

See the Winterhaven Festival Of Lights 2021 in Tucson Arizona. Take a virtual walking tour through the Winterhaven neighborhood as they celebrate Christmas with their 71st year of the Winterhaven Festival Of Lights. The Winterhaven Festival Of Lights is one of the best things to do in Tucson Arizona during the Christmas holiday. If you can not make it to Tucson AZ, you can get an idea of what this event is like through this virtual tour.
The Winterhaven Festival Of Lights brings over 200,000 people over its 15 day run from December 11th to December 26th.
For some history about the event:
In 1949 CB Richards created a cooperative water company and a modern residential development north of what was Tucson at the time. By 1957 all but 19 of the 257 original lots had been developed.

The Festival of Lights began in 1949. Mr. Richards was inspired to create the Festival after visiting a similar display in Beverly Hills, California in the 1930s. He purchased the first set of Christmas lights in 1949 and donated them to the neighborhood. He purchased the Aleppo pines from a local nursery that was going out of business. They were planted at regular intervals throughout the neighborhood and electrical connections were hooked up near each tree for the lights.

For the first few years of the festival Richards personally judged all the displays and the winner was awarded $100.00. After he moved to San Diego, Richards continued to visit Winterhaven for the Festival of Lights.

The Festival has been held continuously since 1949 except for one year during the 1970's energy crisis when the residents of Winterhaven voted to stay dark.