The Inn At Christmas Place

By Kathleen Walls, Travel Writer https://Americanroads.net

There’s a magic place where it’s Christmas all year long. It’s the Inn at Christmas Place in Pigeon Forge. The Inn at Christmas Place opened June 15, 2007. Its owners, the Biggs family, began in Pigeon Forge with The Incredible Christmas Place, a group of Christmas stores across the street that sells every conceivable Christmas ornament. So many people shopping there loved Christmas and kept saying they wish there was a Christmas-type place to spend the night. The Biggs decided it might be a good idea to build a Christmas hotel.

The Inn has 145 guestrooms, all decorated with illuminated Christmas trees, wreaths, reindeer sculptures and red velvet bedding. In my room, there were small “Silent Night” embossed decorative pillows on each of the queen beds. The curtains were a red background with a snowflake pattern. My TV was set to an image of a flickering campfire. Just above the TV, a beautifully lit Christmas tree was controlled by a floor switch.

Even my bathroom had a tiny Christmas tree. A wreath hung on the wall and a bright poinsettia painting graced another wall.

You know you’re in Christmas country when you pull up in front of the hotel. Even in the daytime, you notice the life-sized manger scene, the giant Christmas tree near the door, the pillars alongside the door are made to look like giant wrapped gifts, colorful ornaments and wreaths arch around the door, the etched wreaths in the glass entrance doors, and the bows on all the balconies. At night it transforms into a merry wonderland. The bows reveal lighted ribbons arching across each of the balconies. The thirty-plus trees come alive with about half a million lights of varying colors and flowing in designs. Lighted reindeer frolic on the spaces under the trees.

The outdoor decorations and lights are up from the first week of November through the end of February. It’s their Winterfest, and they have a kickoff event every year to get in the holiday spirit. It coincides with Pigeon Forge’s Winterfest, where the city is lit with about five million lights. We did a mile walk, and the lights were fantastic. There are flowing lights, sections where you walk for blocks under a changing archway of lights, and multitudes of light figures for both Christmas and just winter.

Step inside and you’re facing a multi-floored stone fireplace with a Glockenspiel clock that is, of course, decorated for Christmas. “Glockenspiel” is German for “play

of bells” and this one plays Christmas carols and strikes the time hourly with its bells from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm. The clock is made with European Beech from the Black Forest in Germany and has handcast bronze bells made by the Verdin Company in Ohio. The reception desk is decorated like a Dicken’s era story. There’s a lady in a long red and green dress, a gentleman with a top hat holds a fiddle while two young carolers are front and center. There’s a winter mural behind the figures and lots of beautifully wrapped packages on the shelf.

The clerk told me each floor was decorated differently, so after I finished gasping at the beauty of my room, I went exploring. Remember this is mountain country, so I entered on the second floor and my room was on that floor. Downstairs on the first floor, there’s a lobby by the fireplace where the “Singing Santa” entertains the guests. He plays guitar and sings Christmas carols. The breakfast area is downstairs too. Complimentary breakfast is served from 7 to 10 a.m. Choices include omelets, scrambled eggs, assorted breakfast meats, biscuits & gravy, grits and breakfast potatoes, bagels and toast, breakfast pastries and assorted desserts, doughnuts, selection of fresh fruits, hot and cold cereals, yogurt, fruit juices, and flavored fresh hot coffee choices. They have coffee all the time in the lobby and hot cider in the evening. Unfortunately, there were no tea bags and hot water, but you do have tea bags in the rooms.

The downstairs area is lavishly decorated. Each floor did have its own Santa. Two of my favorites are Santa in a three wheeled red motorcycle loaded with presents and a Christmas tree. Santa is wearing goggles and a black leather vest and gloves over his red suit.

Another favorite is a simple Santa wearing shorts, sandals, and sunglasses. He’s surrounded by decorated palm trees and playing a guitar. I’m not sure if that was the intention, but I think of him as “Jimmy Buffett Santa” a fitting tribute to a great musician we lost recently.

The outdoor pool with its 95 ft. figure-8 water slide was closed when I visited, but the inside pool is open year-round 24 hours a day. It has a large hot tub. Each of the windows has Saint Nick in them and there is a selfie figure of three mini-Santas where you can stand behind and take a selfie as a Santa.

If you’ve just won the lottery or have money to spend, you can book the Santa Suite. Besides the plus luxuries and amenities in a regular room, you have an in-room two-person whirlpool, a gas fireplace with a fully decorated mantel and two Christmas trees, one in the living room area and one in your bedroom. Plus, you have a life-sized Santa waiting to greet you inside your room and a smaller one in the bathroom.

Besides enjoying Christmas every day, the inn is just about 11 miles from the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, the most visited national park in the country, and less than five miles from Dollywood.