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Rockome Gardens opens for Yule light show, Christmas in the country

Central Illinois' Amish country might seem an unlikely place to find a massive holiday light display, given the community's abstention from using electricity, but one popular tourist attraction just outside Arcola hopes families looking for Christmas fun will make its twinkling park a destination this season.

More than 1 million lights populate the Country Christmas Light Show at Rockome Gardens, which opened this weekend and continues until Dec. 30.

Tyler Leasher, a Rockome Gardens employee, said it was Rockome's first time to do a holiday event despite the park being around for decades.

"It's something different for the area," he said. "You have your drive-through light shows that you drive through in five minutes and it's over. You can come out here, and you can spend two or three hours."

Train, sleigh and carriage rides throughout the park are available or people can stroll through the park enjoying the displays, stopping in the stores or at campfirelike warming stations.

In addition to the walk-through lights show, including a synchronized display set to Christmas music, the park also has holiday entertainers scheduled throughout the season and all of its gift shops and restaurants open with many given a Christmas twist, contributing to the festive atmosphere.

For example, the children's learning center has been converted to Santa's workshop.

"The whole place kind of reminds me of little Christmas villages that you might set on your tabletop," Leasher said. "It's kind of like you're walking through one of those as you walk through here."

Jan Dowell of Homewood and her family, including her parents Ellen and Clara Barr of Decatur, had a hard time deciding what their favorite part of the park was as they enjoyed coffee and cookies they had decorated in the park's candy shop.

Dowell said she was having fun visiting the park for the first time in many years as she showed her daughter, Megan, and son, Ryan, a tree house and rocking chair she played in when she was a child.

"It doesn't look so big anymore," she said jokingly.

Other visitors said the trip to the park helped them get into the Christmas spirit.

"It would be a little bit prettier maybe if there was a bit of snow on, but it's still pretty," said Debra Howe of Mode, who brought her granddaughters to the park.

For people who appreciate Rockome's traditional Amish wares and historical presentations, Leasher said the park would still have some Amish merchandise for sale in the gift shops and would have some woodcarving, coppersmithing and glassblowing demonstrations throughout the season.

Leasher said the Amish House in the center of the park also reflects how the home would look at Christmastime, but visitors shouldn't expect flashy holiday displays there.

"They actually do not decorate for the holidays," Leasher said.