Light It Up

5 best Austin neighborhoods for spectacular holiday light displays

Mozart's Coffee Roasters Lake Travis Christmas holidays lights display

Here are the five best neighborhoods for holiday light displays.

Mozart's Coffee Roasters/Facebook

It's the season to be delighted, and you're in the right place: Austin has been named one of the top 25 cities to see holiday lights. Real estate website Redfin released the list, which features the five best neighborhoods in Austin for sensational light displays, as determined by local real estate agents.

While some of these suburbs have professional displays, Redfin gives props to the dedicated families and communities that put in their own time to create spectacular holiday attractions.

Cedar Park has two must-see neighborhoods. The folks at Anna Court have put together a 175,000-light display, while Chinati Court residents are in their 15th year of a winter tradition. Likewise, Georgetown has several local families that take holiday cheer to the next level, including the Harlien Family Christmas, the Spindler Family Christmas, and the Shady Oak Christmas Display.

Round Rock has a great mix of events. The Frozen Medley Christmas Light Show on Rockgate Drive synchronizes its display to hits from the popular Disney movie, while Elfvis & The Kringles on Tourmaline Trail has a musical display based on cute holiday characters. There's also a drive-thru Rock 'n' Lights tour for those who don't feel like braving the weather ($15 per vehicle).

Tarrytown is included for Mozart's Coffee Roasters' spectacular light display, a Lake Austin tradition best complemented by a cup of hot coffee. And no list would be complete without a mention of Hyde Park's 37th Street. The longstanding attraction in North Campus is a quirky, walkable holiday adventure.

Check out the Redfin roundup for more information on each neighborhood's collection of stunning light displays.

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More Foraging

Free 'food forest' in East Austin expands with thousands of new plants

Angelina Alanis at Festival Beach Food Forest

Photo courtesy of KVUE

Angelina Alanis gives a tour of the garden, which is open to anyone.

In East Austin, there is an edible forest garden called Festival Beach Food Forest where anyone can walk around and harvest free produce, nuts, medicinal plant leaves and herbs. And over the summer, it grew to several times its size.

The forest has fig trees, peach trees, grapevines, asparagus and more that's not in season right now. You can grab passionfruit and plants like yaupon holly, with leaves that can make a caffeinated tea, rosemary and lemon balm.

"[Lemon balm] is part of the mint family," said Angelina Alanis, communication and partnership coordinator for Festival Beach Food Forest. "It has a lemony taste but it's good for a nervous stomach. I'm prone to anxiety so I always grab a hunk."

The food forest is located right next to Interstate 35 and Lady Bird Lake on 29 Waller St., near a part of town that's known for being a food desert, lacking grocery stores.

"There's as much as a 20-year life expectancy difference between parts of East and West Austin, and a lot of that comes down to food access, health care access and also access to nature."

Alanis said for the past nine years, the volunteer-based grassroots project been helping with the issue and just recently expanded in the summer from two-thirds of an acre of city parkland to over 3.5 acres.

"We're going to have hundreds of new trees," said Alanis. "We've already planted 150 new trees in the area and then thousands of plants on the ground."

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They also plan to add a community kitchen and a pavilion to do things like cooking classes or informational sessions.

Read the full story at KVUE.com.

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