Rocky Mount, N.C.—North Carolina Wesleyan College’s Fourth Annual Lighting of Wesleyan will be bigger and brighter than ever before when the college “lights up” on Tuesday, December 1, at 5 p.m.

This year’s attractions will include more than 200 lighted Christmas displays that in past years have decorated the home of Pace and Ben Winstead on Wimberly Drive in Rocky Mount. The Winsteads have moved their “Wimberly Wonderland” to Wesleyan’s campus for the 2009 Christmas season because of a family health issue, and their collection will be displayed every evening between 5 – 10 p.m. from December 1 through January 3.

Other attractions at the December 1 lighting event begin at 4 p.m. with shopping provided by area businesses inside the Dunn Center and on the College Common. Between 5 – 7 p.m. there will be free hayrides, a nativity scene with live animals, a candlelight concert and communion in Leon Russell Chapel. At 7 p.m. the Wesleyan Players will present a play, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” in Minges Auditorium of the Dunn Center.

Streets along the Wesleyan campus will be aglow with more than 2,000 luminaries, in addition to the lighted displays.
All of the events and activities are free to the public as Wesleyan’s gift to the community.

The college also will continue the Winsteads’ tradition of collecting monetary and toy donations to benefit the Stony Creek Fire-Rescue’s Christmas Project. Visitors may place their new, unwrapped toys under Wesleyan’s Christmas Tree in the Garner Lobby of the Dunn Center for the Performing Arts or put them in the collection box on the curb in front of the Dunn Center.

NC Wesleyan is located on Hwy. 301 North in Rocky Mount.