We usually try to see Christmas lights every holiday season. Favorites include Atlanta Botanical Gardens and Fantasy in Lights at Callaway Gardens. This year, we tried out a new event – the Winter Lantern Festival.

Lantern festivals originated in China thousands of years ago. Over the past decades, the spectacular display of hand-crafted silk designs now illuminated by LED lights has spread to the United States. Atlanta welcomed the Global Winter Wonderland in 2013. Now you can catch the annual Atlanta BeltLine Parade and the newer Sandy Springs Lantern Parade.