Holiday Lamplight Tours

We have always wanted to check out this one night a year Holiday event at the Pioneer Village in the Kern County Museum. Finally got the chance to go this year! They had a lot of the buildings open for viewing and tours. With docents and volunteers dressed in costumes from the 1800's era walking around, singing Christmas carols and giving tours of several buildings, this event aims to give you a holiday experience from the past. They have decorated the some of the houses & buildings with Christmas trees, a few Christmas lights, lamplights/candle lights and holiday decor. The horse drawn carriage that would pass by every so often while you are walking the "streets" in the village adds to the feel of experiencing holidays back in the day. We love history and learning about the past so this was right up our alley. Great family event. We will definitely go back next year!Only issue we observed was the short time frame this event is open. The Pioneer Village can hold a lot of people to attend this event but with this holiday event open only from 4pm-8pm, there was not enough time to go in all the buildings for the tours with long waits in line (we waited in line for almost 2 hours to see the Howell House). They have to come up with something to make it more enjoyable for everyone. And for people like us who would like to see everything have enough time to go around. They can limit tickets, run it longer, have multiple nights open or have more volunteers giving out the tours to make wait times shorter. Since our kids decided not to ride the carriage, we were able to see more. And we picked and chose which buildings & houses we wanted to tour and see. So until they work out this issue, I suggest you plan your evening when you go.

This year was a disgrace. Total money grab. Years past were a magical experience. Not 2024. So little effort, was put into this. The village was largely dark and not festive at all. The "hayride" was a pickup truck pulling a trailer. In the past they had horses pulling wagons. The Christmas music was provided by a high school band, bless their heart they tried their best but again in the past they had professional musicians providing the music. They were supposed to have carolers but that didn't seem to happen. At least we didn't see or hear them. There was one bounce house that was far too small for the size of the event. I've had larger bounce houses in my backyard for a birthday party. Almost no trapping of Christmas to be seen, no tree, no lights, no nativity. There was a Santa who they had tucked away in an off area. It seemed most people had no idea he was in there. The gentleman they had for Santa was excellent. The church exhibit was closed when in the past you could go in, sit and listen to the church organ. I could go on, but again this year's Lamplight Tours was incredibly disappointing compared to past years offerings. The model A cars were cool and the train was neat for the kids. The engineers very kind.