Pity the visitor who happens by some gross scheduling mishap to arrive at Ruby Falls a month early, expecting to tour the Christmas Underground attraction.
Instead of brightly lit ice caverns full of friendly elfs and sugar plum fairies, they’ll stumble into the Haunted Cavern, the Falls’ award-winning Halloween display filled with masked horrors, chainsaw-wielding madmen and enough twisting, shadowy passageways to haunt their dreams forever.
But through some kind of holiday magic – or a frenzied, monthlong decorating blitz on the part of a horde of workers – the Falls will open the doors tonight, Dec. 3, for the second iteration of Christmas Underground with nary a ghoul in sight.
“I wish I had video of the transformation process because it’s just unreal,” laughs Meagan Jolley, the public relations manager at Ruby Falls and Rock City. “It’s like going in two completely different places, from one that’s so scary to this one where there’s glitter everywhere and it’s just so happy.
“It’s completely different. It’s amazing.”