From The Vault: Opryland 1996 Christmas Brochure

When Opryland was operating, the park and adjacent hotel kicked things up a notch when it came to Christmas.  This week, let's take a look back at exactly what they had going on for the 1996 holiday season.

The Opryland Themepark last operated in 1997, so this brochure being from one year earlier means it came near the end of the park's life.  With no rumors of closing on the horizon, I'm sure the holidays during 1996 were a happy time at the park.

The brochure unfolds to first give this preview section, complete with a huge colorful Christmas tree.  The events for the season were known collectively as "A Country Christmas," which was fitting considering the theme of the park and hotel.

Your eyes do not deceive you, the tree is back.  After you unfold the scan above this one, the same image appears with slightly more detailed information.  Here we can read about all the offerings of the celebrations, including numerous goings-on at the theme park, the famous Grand Ole Opry, and the Opryland Hotel.

This is the section that was devoted to covering the events that took place inside the Opryland Themepark.  The "winter wonderland" that was the park during the season featured "A Charles Dickens Christmas," "An Appalachian Christmas," and even a show for Santa, "A Gift for Santa."

The park also presented "A Christmas Carol," a show that has long signified the holiday for many.  There was also the "nation's largest outdoor Nativity scene," if that's your type of thing.

The rest of the resort area had plenty going on as well, including a display of over 1.8 million Christmas lights outside the hotel.  That's a lot of lights!  Everything was decorated to the nines for the event, and not surprisingly there were plenty of musical shows at the resort as well.  If you were running behind on your holiday gifts you could get caught up at the Art, Antique, and Craft Fair that had over 100 vendors.

While the theme park no longer stands, the hotel is still kicking along, having seen quite a few changes in the past few years.  As we all heard Dolly herself was interested in a snow/water park just around from where Opryland was, but that fell through in the end.  For now, Nashville remains Theme/Water/Snow park-free.