Dancing under Osborne Family lights at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Disney's Hollywood Studios started in Arkansas as a single home's annual display. It moved to Walt Disney World in 1995. (Photo by Kristin Ford/Orlando Sentinel)

Over the weekend, we joined friends for dinner at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and a walk through The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights, a tradition between the two families for years now. Our kids are close in age, so it works out well — as well as doing anything with five kids eight years and younger does, that is.

It was quite crowded streaming onto the Streets of America, which made the parent in me a little nervous because I know that C and L want to run, jump and dance (as they should) when they get under the lights. They get caught up in playing with their friends and forget they could become separated from the adults. But as we inched our way down the street, we stopped at various points so the kids could play and we could talk and admire the millions of lights.

Of course, everyone was stopping to snap photos, too. Getting shots good enough for the scrapbook is not difficult, even with a simple point-and-shoot camera. But if you want to capture the incredible detail of the display, here are some photography tips from our friends at AllEars. net.

About every 10 minutes, the lights dim and then come to life, synchronized to holiday music. And “snow flurries” fall from the sky, which always excites our Florida kids who have never lived through the Indiana winters of my childhood.

If you have the opportunity to see The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights, I highly recommend it. Expect crowds, but know that they won’t prevent you from seeing everything. In fact, Hollywood Studios was scheduled to close at 8 p.m. the night we went and people still were enjoying the lights after 8:30.

The dancing lights are included in general admission to the park, and the display runs through Jan. 4.