Attention everyone who loves the holidays: you will love Rohnert Park’s own holiday attraction, Weaver’s Winter Wonderland!
For over twenty years, Scott Weaver has turned his house into a must-see Christmas spectacular every December. If you haven’t seen it yet, you need to soon because this is the last year that Weaver will be putting together his display. After covering his house in a monumental Christmas display every December since 1994, Weaver has decided that 2016 will be the last Christmas of Weaver’s Winter Wonderland, though he will be sharing his decorations with friends so that they can carry on the tradition (but it won’t be the same).
As someone who grew up in Rohnert Park, I have been to Weaver’s Winter Wonderland several times, and I love seeing it each year. Not only do I love all of the decorations, but I love that someone has enough Christmas spirit and love for the community to turn his home into the town’s unofficial Christmas headquarters every year.
For everyone who didn’t grow up in Rohnert Park, you still might have heard of Weaver’s Winter Wonderland, since it was featured on the show “The Great Christmas Light Fight” in 2014. Weaver won the competition and a $50,000 prize.
Lights, cut-outs of characters from Christmas specials, Disney movies, and cartoons, a sleigh, and model trains fill the Weaver’s front lawn, roof, garage, and driveway. Every year Weaver adds something new to the collection of decorations, even though each year it looks like there can’t possibly be any room for anything else.
Setting up all of the decorations takes Weaver all of November, then taking all of the decorations down takes over January. The amount of time that the display takes is the primary reason that Weaver cites for stopping after this Christmas.
The lights are turned on from 5:30 to 9:00 each night in December. I recommend going as early as possible, in the month and in the evening, as it tends to get crowded later. The more people that are there, the worse your pictures turn out and the more pictures you accidentally end up in. This year I went on the 2nd at about 6:00 and there were very few people there yet, and my pictures turned out great, in my humble opinion.
Weaver himself is known to interact with visitors to his display, handing out candy canes and answering questions about his decorations, so if you do have the opportunity to go, make sure to say thank you for creating this Christmas masterpiece!