Busch Gardens dresses up for the holiday season

One month the place is teeming with monsters. A few weeks later, Busch Gardens Williamsburg is all a-twinkle as it debuts "Christmas Town: A Busch Gardens Celebration."

Park officials had been researching a holiday event for several years, said park spokesman Chris Smith.

Plans are being made to open again next December, but officials aren't saying whether this is a move toward year-round fun. Howl-O-Scream, a way to keep the park's heart beating in October and November, has been around for 10 years. The newest holiday-themed attraction runs from Nov. 27 to Dec. 27, excluding Christmas Day.

Who knows, maybe someday Valentinesville and Easterburg might keep the park busy until its regular spring opening.

We recently took Christmas Town for a test drive with two moms, an 8-month-old, a teen and a tween. What we found was a scaled-down experience from the summertime Busch Gardens, with a scaled-down admission price, but with all of the attention to detail the park has become known for.

The majority of the regular-season rides and attractions lie dormant - Griffon is the only coaster coasting - but there are several holiday-themed shows, and the park captures the spirit of Christmas.

Atmosphere

The first thing you'll notice is the holiday music - it's constant, earnestly festive and it changes by country. And the lights, the lights - more than 1 million of them twinkle all around the park.

Every door, and most every window, it seems, sports a wreath strung with glitter and gleaming baubles. France is bathed in blue with icicles dripping from most every cottage's eve. Ireland has a greenish glow. Germany looks like Christmas itself.

Shops across its Europe landscape have been dressed in garland and sparkles and some have decorated trees of their own inside. Park personnel wear red jackets, plaid vests and elf caps. Even the prizes for the arcade games - stuffed penguins and snowmen - follow the wintry theme.

The centerpiece of it all is the soaring Christmas tree, four stories tall, in the heart of the Oktoberfest area. Named "O Tannenbaum," it teams with glitter and giant ornaments. Don't leave the park before sundown, because when it's illuminated, it's impressive. Light shows take place every half hour.

The most fun part of the decor is the snow. Yes, it's the kind that melts. It floats down in France and Rheinfeld, which has been renamed the North Pole for this event. True, it's only a few flurries (with no chance of schools closing), but for locals it's a bit of a thrill.

Landscaping

Gone are the rainbow-colored annual beds and hanging baskets stuffed with flowers and foliage. Instead, pathways are lined with 600 perfectly shaped, fresh-cut Christmas trees, some in pots and some right in the ground, many strung with twinkling lights. Here and there are beds of pansies.

A sprinkling of snow motifs - softly lit Christmas tree shapes and banks all covered with white fabric - advance the winter theme. In New France, don't miss the delightful reindeer topiaries.

Crowd control

We arrived at the park at opening time on the first Sunday of the Christmas Town fest, a mild, partly sunny day that we just knew would be crowded.

With a tween and a teen in tow, we headed straight for the Griffon roller coaster. The girls got right on, with only a few minutes' wait for the front seats. Then they got right back on again.

From there, they headed straight to the Curse of DarKastle ride. The park itself opens at 3 p.m., but New France, the North Pole and Germany open at

3:30, and Oktoberfest at 4. That caused us to have a bit of an annoying wait, but when we arrived at DarKastle, again, no lines.

Nor were there lines for shows, although we did see a 20-person queue at the Abbey Stone Theatre, where the opening for the choral program "Rejoice" was still an hour away.

Park officials said crowds have been "great," but they stand ready to open Italy (sans roller coasters) if necessary.

Rides

Nearly a dozen rides are open throughout the park (excluding Italy, which will only open to ease park congestion if needed).

The Alpen Express train toots its way around the park. There's enough to tire out the little ones. The Kinder Karussel, the carousel at the "North Pole," where Santa sits, is the absolute heart of the park for the munchkin set. Also open for the little ones are Wirbelwindchen, a twirling swing ride; Der Katapult, a spinning circle ride; and Der Autobahn Jr., kiddie bumper cars.

Rides for older thrill seekers include bumper cars, a twirling swing ride, Curse of DarKastle and Corkscrew Hill, a 3-D, Irish-themed simulator ride.

Griffon is the only one of the park's adult-sized, regular-season roller coasters open for Christmas Town. This made our tween and teen grumble, "That's stupid," each time they passed the dormant Alpengeist, dripping with fake snow as it always is.

Smith, the park spokesman, said officials are looking at opening additional rides in 2010 and beyond.

Food

There's plenty of regular and holiday-themed food to choose from. Street carts sell regular hot chocolate ($2.59), peppermint fudge hot chocolate ($2.79) and wassail ($2.59), while Grogan's Pub in Ireland offered an adult version called After Dinner Mint for $6.99. The Das Festhaus Christmas menu includes New England clam chowder with sourdough bread ($6.99) and a Christmas dinner featuring roasted turkey ($11.89).

Shows and other entertainment

There's variety here, if not a ton of choices. For children, there's a "Sesame Street Christmas." Over in the Abbey Stone Theatre is "Rejoice," a short Gregorian choral and orchestral program that our older guests enjoyed but that left our teen and tween rolling their eyes. "Deck the Halls" is a lively musical production of holiday songs that takes place in the center of Das Festhaus. "O Tannenbaum" is a bombastic medley of piped-in carols as the 45-foot-tall LED Christmas tree in front of Das Festhaus turns colors. We passed a few bands of live carolers as well.

Having never seen a live penguin, we also stood in line to see "Ice Palace: A Penguin Paradise." The queue paused as guests petted a large, white rabbit and then snaked its way past educational posters about penguins until we got to the actual penguins, two small birds behind a glass wall settled into a fake snow bank. It didn't deliver the delight we expected based on the "paradise" billing.

Santa

The mother of the 8-month-old deemed this the best Santa she'd ever seen. Since there is only one Santa in Christmas Town, this is the Santa everyone will see. When he's not busy balancing children on his lap, he's telling stories to children and their families at Castle O'Sullivan in Ireland. Pictures with Santa start at $19.99.