Santa Claus arrives at Mooseheart Holiday Lights Show this weekend

Santa Claus will make his annual return to the Mooseheart Holiday Lights show Friday through Sunday, Dec. 9-11, for the first three of six nights in which he will sit for free photos in the Mooseheart field house.

The nights when Santa Claus is in the Field House have historically been some of the busiest nights of the Holiday Lights show. In addition to this weekend, Santa also visits Mooseheart Dec. 16-18. The price of admission to the Holiday Lights show includes the chance to see Santa, who sits for photos from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Photos are free, but visitors must bring their own cameras.

"Having Santa here should bring more enthusiasm," Mooseheart Executive Director Gary Urwiler said. "We're trying to make this a family or holiday tradition, and we want the field house to be a place to go where there's a nice menu of things going on. Parents can come, visit Santa with their kids, relax, let their kids do some crafts and go into one of the bounce houses."

Open since Nov. 25, this year's Holiday Lights show was featured on Chicago television station WBBM's Dec. 5 evening news. There has been a steady stream of vehicles coming through Mooseheart's main gate to tour the show's 1.8-mile lighted displays.

"We've had a really nice start with attendance to the show and we're looking forward to this progressing through the end on New Year's Eve," Urwiler said. "We're seeing a lot of first-timers coming through, which is awesome. We know a lot of people who have experienced it before will come again, so the show seems to be moving in a positive direction."

The Holiday Lights show at Mooseheart is open from 5 to 9 p.m. every night through New Year's Eve. The cost is $10 per car. One hundred percent of proceeds go to support Mooseheart.

Mooseheart is between North Aurora and Batavia, two miles north of I-88 on Route 31. For details, visit the news section at www.mooseheart.org.