I will say from what I’ve seen so far, Raleigh is way behind when it comes to Christmas decorations from what I’ve seen so far. I’ve seen Pullen Park decorated really nice for events, but it appears the Grinch has stolen all the decorations this year.
I did like the animated projection on the building downtown. I’m not sure what that was about (city or private), but overall it definitely added something nice downtown. I still need to walk the entire stretch to see what it looks like overall.
1st Photo: Pullen Park with no lights or anything (taken at 6:48PM during my bike commute home)
2nd Photo: Looking south near the YMCA
3rd Photo: Looking North at FNB tower.
4th: Photo: Projection on building
North Hills has some decorations, but overall I was not vastly impressed by it (See my photos/post here for photos).
Cary downtown definitely is a place to visit to see lights. If I had visitors this year at this time, I would say that downtown Cary would be one of the spots that I would take people (See my post/photos here).
I plan on looking at The Village to see how it is there. More than like I will link that post here when that happens.
I was at Crabtree yesterday to find parts for a holiday outfit. I may walk over again just to see if there were any other decorations inside. I actually wonder what it would be like if Crabtree was to dim their lights a little bit after dark. (You can see 2 photos from inside Crabtree here)
I have thought about how it would be nice to have a section of the greenway decorated or if there was a paid walking loop. The paid one would be something similar to those where people drive through the Christmas light loop places. The difference is that people would be walking instead. In a way, I feel this is how the Chinese Lantern Festival is. The Rink is something that does charge $6/person, but the photos I’ve seen do not seem promising.