The finalists are:
Dollywood's Smoky Mountain Christmas
Readers have raved about the Pigeon Forge, Tennessee theme park bathing itself in lights and holiday decor for this annual holiday festival. Dollywood's known for its musical productions, and Smoky Mountain Christmas continues that tradition, with specially-themed shows for the season. The cold mountain weather's a great fit for the season, too, and readers say they appreciate Dollywood's embrace of religious symbolism in its Christmas celebration, instead of secularizing the holiday, as some other theme parks do with their Christmas events.
Universal Studios Florida's Halloween Horror Nights
USF didn't create the first theme park Halloween event. (Knott's Berry Farm in California earned that honor.) But Universal Orlando's taken Halloween to a new level, building an unparalleled event in terms of scope, popularity and economic impact. With its aggressive online social networking, Halloween Horror Nights has become almost a 12-month experience for its fans, rather than a one-night deal in October. Sure, fans rave about the scares and the haunts. But it's the overwhelming social camaraderie that builds in a great Halloween event such as this, as people come together in laughter or screams in response to the park's scareactors, that makes this event so beloved by its many fans.
These events are here because they have built strong emotional connections with their fans - connections that these parks have maintained through social media and used to drive votes in this tournament. Your fellow readers have spoken. If you've not checked out these events, you should.
But, as they say, only one can be the champion. It's time to vote.
Polls are open for just 24 hours, closing at noon Eastern on Tuesday.
I'd like to thank everyone for participating in this year's tournament. And I'd like to invite our new visitors to click around and take a closer look at the Theme Park Insider website. As dedicated fans of your favorite theme park, you've got some great insider experience and tips that I'm sure other readers around here would love to hear about. So, please, feel welcome to jump in on the discussion forum, tips page or park review pages to leave your ratings and reviews of the attractions you've experienced. We're just fans helping fans here, and we'd love to have you join us, too.
Update - Polls closed: And congratulations to Dollywood for its victory in the final, as Smoky Mountain Christmas has won the 2011 Theme Park Insider Tournament title as the Best Theme Park Event in America.
Thanks, again, to everyone who participated in this year's tournament!
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Besides, Christmas is hands down a better holiday than Halloween. At least you get a day off out of it!
Celebrating the true meaning of Christmas means the event is limited to Christians. Celebrating the true meaning of Halloween can be done by all. HHN has a broader appeal and takes the cake, in my book.
Overall Dollywood just captures what the Christmas season is all about and that is why I voted for Smoky Mountain Christmas!
That's two years in a row that the little guy with the active social network soundly thumped the big guy who didn't want to get involved.
As of 2008:
American Christians: 78.4%
American Atheists: 1.6%
American Agnostics: 2.4%
(http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report-religious-landscape-study-full.pdf)
I'd say that's a pretty big divide, no?
Regardless, congrats to Dollywood. I'll have to check out that event sometime down the road.
I'd put the tally as follows:
True Christians: 1% (Jesus)
Everybody Else: 99%.
As for the voting, all are welcome. Dollywood got involved and mobilized their fans through Twitter and Facebook. Universal is too big for us now, so they chose to stay out of the fray. Why penalize Dollywood because of a lackluster effort by Universal?
Besides, we always get a few new folks on the site with each new tournament. I say, keep 'em coming!
(Judging on his joining date the tournament got him to become a member).
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