Murphy to Manteo: Finding new adventures, historic detours, and the soul of North Carolina on the state’s longest highway: U.S. Route 64. Read the series.

We’ve only just parked, but I’m already second-guessing this outing — the one I’d imagined for weeks as our first taste of holiday magic as a family. My husband was acting rather Scrooge-like as I directed him around the parking lot, our son has been crying in the back seat, and I’ve opened the car door to a blast of arctic air.

We’ve arrived at Koka Booth Amphitheatre in Cary — just a short drive from our house down the state’s longest highway — to attend the North Carolina Chinese Lantern Festival. More specifically, we’re in pursuit of that most classic holiday experience: seeing the wonder of shimmering Christmas lights through the eyes of our toddler.

Instead, said toddler is upset about how long it’s taken us to get him out of the car. Into his parka, into the stroller, into his mittens he goes. He glares at me, and distantly, I smell kettle corn as I tuck a fuzzy blanket around his kicking legs.

My teeth chatter as we wait to get through security, and James begins to wail. He’s been promised lights, not lines. “Go,” he hollers. “Go, go, go!”

“Never seen a cuter dictator,” Alex mutters to me, and I grin, even as my perfectly plotted plans for the evening start to seem more like fleeting visions of sugarplums.

Open for nearly two months of merriment, the festival in Cary illuminates Chinese culture with installations like a tunnel of floating lanterns. photograph by Liz Condo

But when we’re through the gate, and just as I’m about to grab James an emergency snack, we’re enveloped in a tunnel of hundreds of orange silk lanterns. Suddenly, the crowd falls away. The world glows amber. It’s hushed — just like after a snowfall — and that’s when I realize that James has stopped crying. His mouth is agape, tears still pooled in his eyes, as we slowly move through this glowing portal and emerge into another realm.

Realistically, I know that our feet (and wheels) are firmly planted in North Carolina — the towering loblolly pines that surround us remind me of this fact. And yet. On their trunks, gigantic multicolored dragonflies blink in a rainbow of colors. In the pine straw beneath, enormous lotus flowers open and close, surrounded by dozens of others blooming in shades of pink, orange, and yellow.

Glowing green frogs perch on lily pads, some of which tower over us. Two massive snakes — one green, one blue — peer out from between the flowers. In the distance, through the trees and dragonflies, we spot luminescent Chinese pagodas — and is that a field of pandas frolicking between stalks of bamboo?

I peer around the stroller at James, prepared for any reaction — there’s nothing classic about these Christmas lights, after all.

I peer around the stroller at James, prepared for any reaction — including terror. There’s nothing classic about these Christmas lights, after all. But he’s staring at a giant frog as it slowly blinks its big yellow eyes, opens its bright red mouth, and sticks its tongue out at us. James’s eyes are as wide as full moons, but he’s tapping the tips of his little mittens together: more. It’s sign language usually reserved to demand more spaghetti or more Christmas cookies.

He shifts his eyes to look at me: “More?” he asks. “More, more!”

Ah, yes. There’s the tiny dictator we love. Alex and I make eye contact, and as the stress of the parking lot dissolves like snowflakes, I unbuckle our little reindeer, who toddles into wonderland.

• • •

The North Carolina Chinese Lantern Festival — which runs from mid-November through mid-January and celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2025 — takes a team of artisans and designers many months to plan and build. Tianyu Arts & Culture begins by sketching out ideas at its home base in Zigong, China. The designs are different each year. In October, more than 25 artisans and performers arrive at the amphitheater to assemble thousands of lanterns and LED lights into 40-plus illuminated displays — a whole world of glowing, twinkling plants, animals, mythical creatures, and even buildings crafted from steel and silk.

The art of Chinese lantern-making has been passed down for more than 2,000 years. And while the Lantern Festival evolved to celebrate the Chinese New Year, the lanterns themselves have long served as symbols of peace and prosperity — a treasured holiday wish no matter where you’re from. Right now, we’re feeling pretty lucky that we’re from North Carolina, and that these wonders have come here, to our backyard.

• • •

As we stroll around the grounds, we enter uncharted corners of this strange new world. A grove of palms frames a roaring T. rex next to a prehistoric rock face with cascading waterfalls.

“More?” James asks, peeking out from behind Alex’s legs.

On the surface of the lake, a volcano glows purple and red, emitting smoke and “erupting” every few minutes.

“More,” he says, pointing, as if we can control the display.

We venture to the Great Barrier Reef, where floating jellyfish shimmer amid a vast neon forest of coral, seaweed, anemones, and more. Past butterflies and zodiac animals and cranes taking flight. Once again, we’ve found the entire world right here in North Carolina — and I’m seeing it as my son does. Not a place to rush through, but a place to stop and marvel.

For a fleeting moment, as we drink cocoa among twinkling lights, James relents to a cuddle. He won’t remember this night. Not the frogs or dinosaurs or pandas. But I will.

He grins, his eyes reflecting the lights above us like falling stars, and I never want to forget this moment. Then he wriggles free, slipping from our grasp. His feet are on the ground once again.

“More?” he asks, reaching up to clutch my fingers with his mittened hand, tugging me onward.

Yes, my love. So much more.

Koka Booth Amphitheatre
8003 Regency Parkway
Cary, NC 27518
(919) 462-2025
boothamphitheatre.com

More to Explore: Find our guide to holiday light displays across the state at ourstate.com/magical-places.