Pigeon Forge, TN: Christmas at the Smoky Mountain Opry

We spent a few days of Christmas down in Tennessee again this year so that we could spend time with Eric's family. Although there isn't much snow, it's a beautiful area to go to in the winter! Here's the view from the back deck at Eric's mom's house:

She lives outside Pigeon Forge (so not quite where we spent Christmas last year, which was up in the mountains), and it usually takes about 20-30 minutes to get into the heart of town, depending on the traffic. We had a pretty low-key time (we were only in town for a few days), but one night we went to see an evening showing of Christmas at the Smoky Mountain Opry.

The outside of the Opry building is hard to miss in the winter. It might be the brightest thing in the entire town (which is saying something, if you've ever driven in Pigeon Forge at night). I think it's awesome. The entire area surrounding the building was decorated with plenty of lights. (We went to the 8pm showing. There is a new Hard Rock Cafe next door which we ate at for dinner -- made it easy to just park once and be settled for the evening, since there is just an insane amount of traffic in PF!)

Inside, there are concessions and souvenirs for sale, all of which you can bring inside to munch on during the show. The theater is comfortable, with soft auditorium seats, and it seemed like most of the audience was able to see the whole show. We were seated on the far left (stage right) and could see almost everything except for a tiny sliver of action on the far side of stage right (I think we missed seeing only two people singing). We were in row CC, seats 15-18, for reference for the pictures.

The show itself was great. The singing, dancing, and band were all top notch. There were also figure skaters and acrobats who did the coolest things in the whole show. And the costumes! Nobody wore the same costume twice, they were all gorgeous, and they changed costumes after every number (sometimes they changed costumes four times in one song! magic!).

The show also had a comedy bit running throughout, with Slim Chance (the elf) performing tricks and jokes between musical acts.

They performed both secular songs, like Let It Go (from Frozen) and a few instrumental songs from Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and very traditional Christmas music.

There are also live animals, flying humans, fire, snow, rain, some audience participation, and really fantastic lighting and sets. The show plus a 20 minute intermission lasted about 2 and a half hours.

Pictures were encouraged during the entire show, so here are a bunch!

(Let It Go with the addition of the Grinch)

(Plenty of flying people -- these guys were in the band and were actually playing their instruments while up there)

(Live horse)

(These acrobats were my favorite part!)

(Slim Chance juggling those big bean bag chairs)

(The figure skaters were also really good)

(Audience members conducted to ring bells)

(Hard to tell, but the acrobats came back to do a magic scene where the girl changed costumes four times and the guy did once!)

(That is a live tiger)

 
(You could buy these candles to support the charity the Opry owners give to; $10 for 2 candles; they really pushed it hard and obviously a lot of people bought them)

(The big almost-finale scene had an angel flying in from the back of the auditorium)

(Live camels)

(Two more angels joined him from the rafters)

I would recommend going to see the show if you're around during Christmas, because it was really enjoyable and very well done. However, it's definitely expensive (which is made unfortunate because they also really push your donating to their various charity causes during the show) at $50/adult and $20/child. Find discounts if you can (you should be able to - ask at your hotel, go to the visitor's center, etc)!