ORLANDO, Fla. — The holiday season is already shining across downtown Orlando, with lights now wrapped around the trees and walkways surrounding Lake Eola.

While the displays across the park are glowing for visitors, the city’s signature Christmas tree remains dark, waiting for its official lighting on Dec. 5.

What You Need To Know

Hundreds of trees are wrapped with holiday lights around Lake Eola

We Hang Christmas Lights prepped the display starting in September

New decor has been added to multiple downtown parks and buildings

The 72-foot Christmas tree lights up during the Dec. 5 ceremony

The company behind the transformation, We Hang Christmas Lights, said the preparation for this year’s display began months before anything was turned on.

“In the middle of September, we are wrapping all of the trees. It’s a total of roughly 350, 400 trees. We wrap everything, and then we come back in November and install all the decor. We try to take a big burden of the workload off right now while we have the time,” said Connor Brown, president of the company. 

Crews spent the fall pre-building and installing large decor pieces across the park. Brown said once everything is in place, the team runs power, tests the displays and prepares the park for thousands of visitors.

“We’re in the build phase, putting all of the decor up. Once we get everything placed, we’ll start running power to everything and testing everything. This process usually takes three to four days. We have around 20-25 people out here,” Brown said. 

This year’s installation covers more ground than ever. In addition to the lights around Lake Eola, the downtown area now includes new holiday decor in several nearby parks and buildings.

“The main focal point is obviously around Lake Eola. We have roughly seven semi-trailers with the decor,” Brown said. 

Even though the lights around the lake are already on, the Christmas tree won’t illuminate until opening night.

“Nothing is going to get powered until the day before Thanksgiving, and then everything will be on until Three Kings Day. The official tree lighting is on December 5th,” Brown said. 

After the tree lighting, nightly light shows will run through early January as part of the city’s “Downtown for the Holidays” celebration.