Koziar's Christmas Village is located about 90 minutes from Philadelphia, but it is a location that people from all over the country come to visit during the holiday season. They even have regularly scheduled bus tours coming in from Brooklyn on a daily basis.
As you're driving to the village, you'll find yourself staring at the majestic Christmas lights of this attraction. For over 60 years now, Koziar's Christmas Village has been entertaining visitors with their Christmas displays. Upon entering, you're given a very linear path to follow to ensure that you get to see everything. Certain portions are just fantastic displays of lights, while others show various famous Cartoon characters such as Winnie The Pooh, Garfield, et al. There are also portions that tell Christmas stories such as "The Night Before Christmas" and "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas".
Other attractions include model train sets that are running throughout the park, and small houses that have different Christmas displays on the inside for you to peek inside at. The main attraction for children though is sitting upon Santa's lap and (if you're not on the naughty list) letting him know what you want for Christmas.
I found that after walking through the village for a bit that it did start getting a bit repetitive and sort of lost that "awe" factor. However, for children, I believe they can be enthralled throughout the visit. If you're someone who is very into the Christmas season and decorations, this place is a must-visit attraction. If you're really not into the Christmas spirit though, you'll find yourself probably just saying "eh" and wanting some hot chocolate to heat you up.
Admission to the village is $8 for anyone 13 and up, $7 for seniors, $6 for children 6-12, and free for children 5 and under. They have hours running through the end of the year, so if you don't get there before December 31, you'll have to wait until next year to visit.
You should also be aware that due to the enormous popularity of Koziar's Christmas Village, traffic getting there can be a bit of a nightmare. We were able to find a short cut though to save us some time. Once you enter Heidelberg Road, go past the right turn of Christmas Village Road (where you see everyone else turning). Take the second right after this instead onto Hill View Road. Follow this road all the way (it will change names to Grand View Road) and it will pop you out right in front of your destination. Be aware that at one point the road seems to end and turn into only gravel, but trust me, it will continue and it will save you probably 20-30 minutes of traffic.
We went there last year. First of all, we felt like we were being herded like a bunch of cattle. You would get stuck in "traffic jams" and it was very difficult to see everything. If that wasn't bad enough, when we left to drive home toward Philadelphia (we came from Hershey after a weekend trip that was ending at Koziars), we must have passed 500 cars waiting on a 1 lane winding road. All we kept saying was how bad we felt for them because they had no idea how many cars were actually ahead of them. That was around 730pm. No way did all of them get into the village, unless they extended the hours!
ReplyDeleteChristmas Village will let everyone in and not turn you away if it is after hours. Also, best times to go are before Thanksgiving and even Thanksgiving night. I live a few miles away and love going!
ReplyDeleteAlso, don't go through the "shortcut" that the author has posted, the road closes a lot because it's not paved and no one lives along the gravel road so it never gets cleared in a timely manner.