Rochelle Stopped By The Holiday Road

‘Tis the season to be jolly, so don’t let Covid get you down. You can still celebrate in a safe manner at the spacious King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas for Holiday Road, a family-friendly holiday drive-thru experience. They certainly did deck the trail with more than just bells and holly.

Before we go into the details, we want to remind people that we are still within the thralls of a pandemic, and recommend people check out our article on ”If You Should Go Out” Here. In keeping with our promise within that article though, let’s talk about Is It Safe with regards to this event.

Staff will have plenty of space to socially distance from one another as their production is outside, and with 50 acres of land to work on. Additionally, staff will be keeping a safe distance from guests when Check-In the attendees by scanning their mobile device or printed tickets. Staff will be wearing masks during their work times and will be subject to periodic testing, daily health screening, and daily temperature checks. Additionally, guests are required to stay in their vehicles at all times, and bathrooms and food will not be available to attendees. As we’ve said before, as long as you are only riding with those you live with, this is a very safe and secure way to celebrate and enjoy the holiday. Now back to talking about the event’s features!

The lines may be long, but don’t let that deter you from what you will see on the main trail. The lights are stunning and brilliantly placed. We wondered how many professionals were hired, and how many man-hours it took to complete. Trees twinkle from tip to toe, and the decorations appear to be thoughtfully crafted one-of-a-kind pieces, made specifically for this event, not store-bought replicas. Their soundtrack consists of classic holiday music you already know and love, and perfectly aligns with the extremely varied holiday themes. Themes like a quaint old Christmas Main Street of yesteryear, an elf town, Santa’s workshop, the North Pole, the Nutcracker, the Nativity, a Griswold Family Christmas, and a Gingerbread Village. There’s even a little Hannukah display. What’s so impressive was their ability to cover almost every inch of the trail with something to gawk at. It even inspired us to create some new attractions in our own front yard this year!

While the main event itself is pretty spectacular, there are a few things to be desired. Be forewarned that this event had the longest lines we’d seen for these drive-thru experiences. We luckily had a press pass so we used the express lane to get us to the front, very reminiscent of Disneyland’s fast pass. Expect to wait about 35 minutes once you pull into the lot. Then the experience itself is about 25-35 minutes. Remember to turn off your headlights. The drive is like other drive-thru experiences where it’s generally a 5 mph bumper-to-bumper pace, but at least it keeps moving. We stopped to take photos at one point but were told to pull forward, though there was a two-car length distance between us and the car in front of us. The workers themselves seemed disinterested and not as friendly or as personable as a lot of other drive-thrus. Perhaps because it was cold outside, but still, at an event like this you expect each employee to bring the holiday cheer, right? Maybe that would warm them up a bit. They were basically just hired as traffic control, waving their flashlights and directing you forward. That said, the lack of human engagement made this just miss the mark for a really spectacular event. Yes, we are trapped inside our vehicles, we’re trapped inside all the time because of Covid, but we still yearn for the social interaction, no matter how brief or far away. We saw what looked to be carolers walking by but we didn’t hear any singing. That would have been a perfect addition to the Christmas village at the start. And the Nutcracker setup could have benefited from a small ballet performance outside to give it that extra oompf. Perhaps they could have also hired a real Santa at some point since you see a few stationary Santa lawn ornaments. Something to make it a little more interesting, though there really is a lot to see and appreciate.

A few tips. The first is a very important one: there is no bathroom to use on-site so be sure to relieve yourself beforehand. I saw many men get out of their car and do their business on the side of the road. Yes, I’m a bit envious that they can pull that off so easily. Also, bring your snacks and water since they don’t sell anything there.

Catch Holiday Road for a limited time December 4th through January 10th. 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm. Info and tickets Here!

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