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The Grand Strand lights up during the holiday season, and chances are, no matter where you are in the county, there’s a holiday light display worth checking out near you.

North Myrtle Beach – The Great Christmas Light Show

Perhaps the most elaborate and well-attended local event is the Great Christmas Light Show in North Myrtle Beach.

The drive-thru attraction is located at the North Myrtle Beach Park and Sports Complex off Robert Edge Parkway and features over 2 million lights, according to the city.

As visitors drive through the park, they will see light displays of varying subjects including gingerbread men jumping, elves loading up Santa’s sleigh with toys and grandma running away from a reindeer driving a lifted pickup truck. Also on display are famous movie characters like the Grinch, Kevin from Home Alone and a handful of famous animated Disney characters.

The display, in its ninth year, keeps growing. New this year are two sections, Tree Land and Cinema Land. Every night until Dec. 30 (except for Christmas Day), Santa’s Village is open where children can visit with Santa, see the Santa’s Rockin’ Christmas Tree show, roast S’mores, drink hot chocolate and more.

Admission to the Great Christmas Light Show is $25 for standard vehicles and gates are open from 5:30-9 p.m.

Myrtle Beach – Winter Wonderland at the Beach

The Myrtle Beach Boardwalk is decked out with holiday cheer for Winter Wonderland at the Beach.

Now until Jan. 4, lights are on display along the boardwalk in the heart of oceanfront Myrtle Beach. The free event has nightly entertainment at Plyler Park, with DJs spinning tunes Friday (5-9 p.m.) and Saturday (6:30-8 p.m.) and a Holiday Drone Show on Saturday, starting at 6 p.m. Carolers are performing from 2-5 p.m. on Sunday.

There will also be two live showings of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas on Sunday, one at 3:30 p.m. and one at 5:30 p.m.

Surfside Beach – Trolley of Christmas lights, residents going all out

Enjoy a tour of Surfside Beach to see all the festive decorations at the Trolley of Christmas Lights.

The free event held at Memorial Park will be held Friday, Dec. 20, from 5-8 p.m. and features three trolleys taking tours, a letters to Santa station, DJ entertainment playing holiday tuned, Bojangles set up selling food and giving out hot cocoa, face painting and appearances from Christmas characters.

Also in Surfside Beach, be sure to check out GiGi Martin’s Christmas Lighting Display, open to the public from 6-10 p.m. daily at 1215 Cedar Drive North until Jan. 1. Martin has a dropbox for Toys for Tots. Martin accepts letters and donations, which are doubled and sent to the Champion Autism Network. On Tuesdays, Santa Claus is at the display from 5:45-7:45 p.m.

The Weaver family also has an impressive display on Bay Tree Lane in the Deerfield Plantation subdivision. More than 40,000 lights are hung up on the residential home, even featuring scenes from Christmas Vacation, according to Ed Piotrowski with local TV station WPDE, which named the Weaver family the winners of the station’s holiday lights contest.

News partner WMBF News is continuing its Light up the Night holiday light contest. Here's where to learn more about holiday decorations in the Myrtle Beach area.

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Conway – Downtown’s lights display

The city of Conway doesn’t disappoint when it comes to holiday decorations, and the Christmas season is no exception. Lights are set up all around downtown with impressive displays, including lights draped over the water tower, an unmissable decoration as you cross the bridge into town from the beach.

Christmas Village at the Town Green (200 Laurel St.) will have Santa’s Village Market Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 6-9 p.m. with vendors selling last-minute gifts. The Shoo Fly train will also be offering rides at Santa’s Village and the Conway Christmas Carnival will be set up at 7 Elm St.

There’s also a drive-thru option with Conway’s Celebration of Lights on Ashpond Road for $2 per vehicle.

Loris – Bonnie Bay Blueberry Farm Christmas light display

Get into holiday cheer at Bonnie Bay Blueberry Farm (311 Bonnie Bay Rd.) near Loris with a half-mile walking trail decked out with Christmas lights, installed by Pure Holiday Lighting.

The farm has inflatable bounce houses, visits with Santa and firepits with hot chocolate and s’mores. Gates open at 4:45 nightly until Christmas and it’s $15 for general admission.

Visitors may go through the walking trail as many times as they like and stay until the farm closes, which changes based on attendance.

Anthony Ludovici-DeBrigida knew he wanted to open his own pizzeria. His family had run one, and he’d been in the business for years.

Ludovici-DeBrigida contacted a real estate professional to help him and his wife find a location in the Myrtle Beach area, and the realtor found a spot in downtown Conway. The location previously housed the Pickled Cucumber restaurant that opened in 2018. However, Ludovici-DeBrigida said the owners wanted to retire, and the restaurant closed in late June 2024.

At 1129 3rd Ave, the location is in the heart of downtown Conway, and Ludovici-DeBrigida opened Anto’s Pizza Romana & Italian Market in October 2024.

“I just kind of fell in love with the location,” he added.

Ludovici-DeBrigida wasn’t the only one who became infatuated with Conway. Several new restaurants of all varieties have opened in the area recently.

In addition to Anto’s opening in October 2024, the healthy foods restaurant Bowled also opened a second location in Conway. The self-serve beer restaurant Palmetto Taps began serving drinks in downtown Conway in August 2024. The owners of River City Cafe plan to start a new restaurant in Conway, and the Myrtle Beach-based wing place Kluck It announced plans to expand into Conway.

The prevalence of restaurants in Conway represents a change from how the area looked, particularly in the downtown area. Hillary Howard is the executive director of the Conway Downtown Alliance, which tries to generate economic activity in downtown areas. Howard said that when she started in 2009, downtown had 50 empty storefronts, and the downtown alliance had to create illusion-like activities to bring life to the area.

“We did a whole campaign where we put posters of residents in all the empty storefronts to at least try to bring some activation to those storefronts,” Howard said.

At the time, Conway was more focused on bringing in tourists, which Howard said didn’t serve the area. Locals can visit daily, whereas tourists usually visit for a couple of hours one day out of their vacation. Howard said that 2017 the strategy change was more focused on locals.

Howard said three things helped bring Conway residents downtown to eat. Hurricane Florence in 2018 spurred locals to hurt eateries impacted by the storm. Construction on the Main Street Bridge in 2019 deterred locals from traveling past the Intracoastal Waterway to eat and instead dine in Conway.

Then, during the coronavirus pandemic, restaurants transitioned to curbside pick-up, and Howell said these things helped spur Conway’s burgeoning reputation as a place to eat. Now, more than 20 restaurants in the downtown area draw in patrons.

“Coming out of the pandemic, the restaurants have just not slowed down at all,” She added.

Howell claimed that the number of people dining in Conway has nearly doubled since 2021. Part of this new profile also includes events. The City of Conway hosts events year-round, with peak season during the holidays.

The goal is to have people attend an event downtown, then walk around the city and eat in one of the restaurants. This is partially achieved by limiting the number of food trucks and similar vendors who would take competition away from area restaurants.

“A lot of folks don’t realize that our entire core downtown fits in the same footprint of a Walmart,” Howard added. “If you’re willing to park at Walmart, I walk to the back and get your milk; you’re not walking any further than you are in downtown.”

The restaurants also help local businesses by drawing people to dine and then perusing downtown shops. Russell Fowler co-owns The Haberdashery Gentlemen’s Clothiers, Her Dashery and Black Water Market in Conway.

Fowler is a Conway native who’s been in operation for 36 years and said the downtown’s rebranding as a dining destination for locals helped invigorate the area after shopping malls and other large retail outlets drew businesses and locals away.

He added that locals visit restaurants before walking to one of the storefronts afterward to shop.

“There’s a lot of synergy in Conway because even though there are a lot of different types of food, we’re all kind of on the same page as far as the clientele that we’re reaching out for,” Fowler added. “Four or five friends will come over here and spend the day in Conway, shopping, eating, and just enjoying the ambiance of the downtown. That’s just the type of person that we gear to.”

And more restaurants could open in Conway to draw more diners in. Howell said that the area could use a seafood restaurant. She added a small plate, and a bourbon restaurant and steakhouse might also be nearby.

Howell added that the area’s restaurant industry will continue to expand as long as Conway’s gets bigger.

“Right now, population, growth, I mean, it’s through the roof,” Howell said. “Until we see that plateau, we’re still going to see the introduction of restaurants that we all really would like.”

The Sun News

Ben Morse is the Retail and Leisure Reporter for The Sun News. Morse covers local business and Coastal Carolina University football and was awarded third place in the 2023 South Carolina Press Association News Contest for sports beat reporting and second place for sports video in the all-daily division. Morse previously worked for The Island Packet, covering local government. Morse graduated from American University in 2023 with a Bachelor’s Degree in journalism and economics and is originally from Prospect, Kentucky.

Horry County Council gave third and final approval for a zoning change which will allow 116 residential units on 47 acres off Cates Bay Highway near Conway.

The land, on Spring Beauty Drive, is currently zoned rural forest agriculture and will be rezoned to multi-residential one. Council approved a rezoning request on third reading for the parcel at the Tuesday, Nov. 12 council meeting.

Council met and approved the rezoning request, which was listed on the consent agenda, with no discussion despite the project being voted down 6-1 by the county’s planning commission.

Al Allen, council member representing District 11 where the project is planned, said he approved the project because the development agreement would improve stormwater drainage in the area and that staff recommended the project.

“Staff approved it. The planning commission disapproved it because our planning commission member was not there that night to represent it fully, and so all standards have been met,” Allen said. “It is going to actually improve and help the drainage in that area, which was the biggest concern.”

Unrelated to that particular project but related to growth in the county as a whole, resident Stefanie Chiapetta spoke on behalf of Horry County Residents for Responsible Building at the public comment portion of the council meeting. The organization has been collecting signatures (947 so far in person and online) for a petition asking for a pause in development in the county.

“Where once stood a family-friendly area replete with small town charm, we now face overdevelopment. Iconic landmarks, wetlands and wooded tracts that once painted the character of our county are being demolished and destroyed for more urban sprawl that the county cannot sustain,” Chiapetta said. “The construction boom in Horry County is straining our resources to the limit.”

The “sustainable development standard” requirements listed in the ordinance for the Cates Bay development include a 100% increase in the required active recreational space such as yards and sidewalks, and three “pocket parks” to be built on separate lots in the housing community to add green space. The project would be 2.47 dwelling units per acre, a rezoning review sheet describes. The minimum lot size is 10,000 square feet. The county’s comprehensive plan had a future land use designation of rural for that location, but council also approved a change of the land use designation to “rural communities” at Tuesday’s meeting.

At the planning commission meeting where the project was voted against, residents brought up concerns about flooding, density and traffic. Paved roads and roofs of homes increase the amount of “impervious surfaces” which exacerbates flooding issues. According to the rezoning review sheet, the project’s traffic impact is expected to cause 928 “projected daily trips.”

Schools are already full in the area, according to the rezoning review, with Whittemore Park Middle School at 107% capacity and Pee Dee Elementary School at 111% capacity.

The applicant for the rezoning is “Diamond Shores,” and the land has been owned by the same individual since 2006, land records show.

Other news

The surcharge fee that gambling vessels must pay per passenger was increased by Horry County Council. Big M Casino passengers will now pay a $15 per passenger surcharge starting in April 2025, which will increase to $18 in 2030. The current surcharge is $10 per passenger.

Horry County Council on Aging may soon have a new location. County Council approved on second reading an ordinance which would lease the site of the former Wampee Fire Station to the nonprofit. The lease terms are yet to be negotiated, and the ordinance is not fully approved until it goes through three readings, with the third reading scheduled for Dec. 10.

Tommy Cardinal is the managing editor of MyHorryNews. Reach him at 843-488-7244 or tommy.cardinal@myhorrynews.com. Follow him on X @BySTCardinal.