By Shakeria Hawkins

November 13, 2020 - This Holiday season, the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine will be showcasing their biggest Christmas light display ever.

Thousands of Christmas lights will be switched on this week at the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. Director of Parks and Rec for the City of Beckley Leslie Baker says this year is the biggest lights display to date.

“We are almost complete with all our lights here at New River Park. We build upon them year after year and we have about 75-80 thousand lights, it’s hard to count,” Youth Museum of Southern West Virginia has extended their Curious George exhibit.  

All lights will be turned on this Saturday November 14th and will stay on until the new year. Saturday is also the first day the ice skating rink will be opened to the public.  

“We’ll turn the light on the day that we open the skating rink and they will stay on until January 2nd. We just encourage people to come down and drive through and enjoy the Christmas lights.”

Visitors can take pictures in front of the train, Gazebo and drive through the park free of charge.

“We have so many people who stop and look at the dinky train and it’s led up and it’s just as cute as it could be. It’s the time of  the year we wish it ran but it can’t, but so many children come and it’s a great photo opportunity.”  

Baker says every Christmas their lights collection gets bigger and better.

“Every year we add some, we take care of the old and we try to put them up very nicely so we could use them year after year.”

The Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine encourages everyone to visit to wear masks and practice social distancing.