Previewing the San Angelo Christmas Tour of Lights in a Limo

Last night, we test-drove the Christmas light tour route with Randall Coleman in his stretch limousine. Coleman owns San Angelo Limousine and provides hundreds of San Angeloans a unique perspective of the Christmas lights from a limo every year. This is his busiest time of the year, he said. The San Angelo Christmas Tour of Lights along the Concho River opens Friday, Dec. 5. The tour is now in its 20^th year,

Wednesday night, the lights were installed, but not illuminated. We started the preview of the route just north of the downtown Post Office, just off Abe Street, turning west onto West 1st Street.

W. 1st takes you down to the Concho riverbank, intersecting with Park Drive. You turn left (south) here. We are using the street names on Google Maps because many of you will be relying upon your iPhones or car navigation for pinpointing locations.

Park becomes River Drive and this is where the biggest portion of the lights action will begins.  Businesses supporting the light display have tasteful placards on the opposite side of River Road. On the side with the lights, each display is marked with a sign. For example, “4 Calling Birds.” This display was illuminated Wednesday night. It was the only display we saw lit in our route preview.

New additions to the 2014 tour are five new red and green poinsettia plants. This light display’s hillside position behind the Visitors Center “allows each poinsettia to be installed at an angle, enhancing their three-dimensionality and giving them a life-like appearance,” the tour organizers wrote on their website. This light display will debut Friday night.

The light tour turns us north at Irving Street. From there, the limo ride gets more interesting. We turn north on Irving and then east onto W. Concho. On the dark corner at the intersection of Concho and Chadbourne stands is shelled-out building promised to become the Angry Cactus. Traveling east and across Chadbourne, we enter “Block One” of the revitalized downtown. Miss Hattie’s and Eggemeyer’s General Store, along with the other stores and shops, are decorated in all of their traditional Christmas glory.

The tour turns south on South Oakes Street and concludes at the Paseo de Santa Angela near the intersection of Avenue D.

“That was the official light tour route,” Mr. Coleman said. “Do you want to see more?”

Sure, I said.

From there, we jet west across the Bryants and into Santa Rita. Coleman knows the history of the homes and the significance of the families who built them. As Coleman narrates the tour of San Angelo’s oldest neighborhood, you see many of the magnificent light displays already illuminated in Santa Rita. The unofficial portion of the tour ends near Santa Rita Park and the Santa Rita Shadowboxes.

The Concho Christmas San Angelo Tour of Lights begins Friday, Dec. 5, at 6 p.m. The lights are displayed until 10 p.m. every night until Dec. 31, New Year’s Eve. There is a suggested donation of $5 per car accepted at the start of the route at the downtown Post Office. Volunteers from REACT will direct the route.

While most will tour the lights in their own vehicle, taking a limo tour makes it a much more exciting experience. The stretch limos can seat seven to eight comfortably. Your guests are picked up by the limo and dropped off. Coleman said the cost is $125 for the first hour and $100 for each additional hour. He suggests scheduling two hours because of the traffic along the route. To schedule a limo for the Christmas Lights tour, call San Angelo Limousine at (325) 939-9355.