Get our free mobile app

If you're looking to get in the holiday spirit, only one Christmas display in Minnesota was ranked one of the best in the country. And it's now open for the season!

The Bentleyville Tour of Lights is officially entering its 19th year in 2022 and is one of the biggest holiday light displays and festivals in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. It opened for the 2022 season last weekend.  Though it started nearly 20 years ago with a holiday display at Nathan Bentley's home in Esko, these days the festival is located at Bayfront Festival Park in Duluth (a little over 3 hours northeast of Rochester.)

As its website says, Bentleyville isn't just one of the largest walk-through holiday light displays here in Minnesota, it's one of the premier holiday events in the country. It won USA Today's Best Holiday Displays poll in 2019 and was noted in 2021 by Esquire magazine, which just put the city of Duluth at #3 on its list of the 27 Best Christmas Towns in America.

Esquire said that Minnesota's fourth-largest city (behind Rah-Rah-Rochester) offers "Hallmark Christmas movie-worthy magic" with its holiday displays, including Bentleyville as well, as well as other events like a scenic train journey along the North Shore of Lake Superior, as well as a bustling Christmas village set up in front of the historic Glensheen mansion.

If you're heading up to check it out this season, the Bentleyville Tour of Lights will again be in its usual walk-through format (after offering a drive-through version in 2020 due to the pandemic) and will be open evenings from 5 to 9 pm November 19th through December 26th, and from 5 to 10 pm Saturday and Sundays.

The festival itself is a non-profit organization and it collects food and toys are each night which supports the Salvation Army for the communities of Duluth, Cloquet, Hibbing, Grand Rapids, Virginia, and International Falls in Minnesota, plus Superior, Wisconsin.

Admission is free,  though parking in any of the three lots near Bayfront Festival Park costs $10. And if you don't want to make the drive to Duluth, keep scrolling to check out another amazing holiday display (featuring one million lights) that's a little closer to home here in southeast Minnesota.

Listen to Curt St. John in the Morning
weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. on Quick Country 96.5

Sam's Christmas Village Features 8-Million Lights!

If you are looking for something fun, festive, and safe to do you should take your family to Sam’s Christmas Village! 

More From KQCL Power 96