Veterans United’s Holiday Lights Show Returns to Columbia

Columbia’s Veterans United Home Loans is lighting up its headquarters driveway again this December, a year after saying the free show was done for good.

Bright Lights/Holiday Nights, the drive-thru light show at Veterans United’s campus, will run Dec. 10-20, with gates open 7-10:30 p.m. on weeknights and 5:30-10:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Admission stays what it’s always been: free.

Why the Show Almost Went Dark

Last year, Veterans United said 2025 would be the display’s final season, pointing to nearby business development and the traffic it was bringing to the area around 550 Veterans United Drive. For a lot of Columbia families, that was unwelcome news — the show had become a holiday-season habit since it started in 2020, back when drive-thru events were one of the few ways to gather safely during the pandemic.

Ian Franz, the company’s director of culture, said the original cancellation announcement landed hard with people who’d made the lights part of their own family traditions. “Neighbors and community partners,” he said, helped the company “find solutions to still pull it off” — enough that Veterans United decided to bring the show back this year after working through the logistics that had prompted the original decision.

What to Expect This Year

The company hasn’t said whether this is a one-year reprieve or a longer-term return, so families who want to see it this year shouldn’t wait for a future season. Plan for the same free, drive-through format as past years: a slow loop through the lit-up campus at 550 Veterans United Drive in Columbia, Dec. 10 through Dec. 20.

It’s the latest bit of Boone County goodwill from a company that’s had an active year in that department — a $50,000 Veterans United Foundation grant is funding the next five homes at the Boone Prairie affordable-housing project, and the foundation also put money behind a renovation of the Providence Walkway public housing complex this year. The lights show doesn’t carry a fundraising component of its own — it’s simply free to attend — but it’s one more sign of a local employer leaning into the community rather than away from it.

For a Rocheport-area family making the drive into Columbia this December, it’s a free stop worth building an evening around.