Lights of Joy: a Magical Christmas experience

Shipshewana’s Lights of Joy is a mile and a half of twinkling Christmas lights located in Shipshewana, IN. There are 2 million LED lights in the display. Tune your radio to the station they recommend (or any Christmas music you enjoy- their station doesn’t coordinate with what you are seeing) and soak up the Christmas spirit.

Sounds wonderful, right? It can be- if you read this and heed the advice I give you!

Cost to enter Lights of Joy

The cost to enter Lights of Joy is $20 per car. If you want to be economical, load up a bus (there was one behind us) and really get your money’s worth, haha! Honestly though, the lights are really beautiful, and $20 doesn’t seem too bad for an evening’s entertainment for a family. You can purchase a ticket in advance on their website, and just show the emailed receipt to the ticket seller once you get there, or you can just pay when you get there. There is no advantage to purchasing in advance.

Getting there

This picture is of us when we first joined the line on US 20. That’s right- only in Indiana would a line of cars be able to form on a major US highway. If you are going to Lights of Joy and you are lining up on US 20, my advice is turn around and come a different night. You are going to wait about 3 hours from this point. There are some different ways you can go that might shorten this wait time, but I didn’t test this theory so I can’t say for sure. But, it looked like if you come from the south on SR 5, or from the east on US 20, you might shorten your wait. Not by any major amount of time though, I would estimate you would still be in line for at least 2 and 1/2 hours. Another path that you could take would be to come in from the east on W 200 N, but again- this theory has not been tested.

When to Visit Lights of Joy

The biggest takeaway here is not to come on a Friday or Saturday night after Thanksgiving. In fairness, the Lights of Joy Facebook page does state that Friday and Saturday nights are peak times and that for an optimal experience you should try to visit on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Sunday. On these days, the hours are 6-9pm. On Friday and Saturday nights the hours are 6-10pm. As long as you are in line before closing time, you will still be admitted. So, fear not! If you are still outside the grounds in line at 10pm (as we were), you will still get to see the magical Christmas lights. The Lights of Joy attraction opens on November 6th, and continues through January 2nd. I believe if you would go prior to Thanksgiving, or after Christmas, the wait would be much more appealing as well. When we attended on December 12, the gentleman that was taking tickets said that they would probably have around 2500 cars visit that night!

The photo above was taken from the road while waiting in line. When we reached this point, we thought- “We are there! Hallelujah!” From here, it was probably another hour or so. It did look look like it was going to be a pretty cool experience. And don’t get me wrong, it definitely was! It just was not worth waiting 3 hours for, unless there would have been a trip to Maui at the end.

Helpful tips for Visiting Lights of Joy

If you must go on a Friday or Saturday night during the peak season, here is some advice. 1. Take some water or drinks. (but don’t drink too much- see point 2). 2. Go to the bathroom before you join the line. There are port-a-potties once you enter the grounds of the flea market/fair grounds, but that is a good 2 and 1/2 hours of waiting before you reach that point, and you will have to hop out of your car while still moving in the line, so try to have 2 drivers. 3. Make sure you have enough gas. 4. Take some cash to purchase a yummy Ben’s pretzel! Ben’s pretzels probably saved me from being murdered by my husband and child for suggesting that we come to the Lights of Joy and waiting 3 hours, so thanks to Ben’s. It really revived our Christmas spirit just in the nick of time.

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Once we entered the Lights of Joy, it truly was a very cool thing to do during the Christmas season. Our Christmas spirit returned as soon as we entered the experience, and we truly enjoyed it. Visiting the Lights of Joy will make your holiday season a bit more magical. I would 100% recommend visiting here, just not during peak times. I would 100% not recommend going on a Friday or Saturday night from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you and yours this holiday season!

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