Holiday Events at America's Top Theme Parks, 2026-27

All three SeaWorld parks hold a Christmas event included with admission. SeaWorld Orlando has light displays, holiday shows, ice skating, Santa and Rudolph meet-and-greets and a nightly fireworks finale, plus observances for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Three Kings Day. SeaWorld San Antonio bills its display as the largest Christmas light display in Texas, brings back the Nativity show "O Wondrous Night" and adds a beluga and dolphin presentation; its Christmas Market sells Texas-themed gifts. SeaWorld San Diego adds Baby Shark's Christmas Adventure, a holiday parade and nightly snowfall. Each park counts down to the new year with fireworks.

Dollywood decorates the park with more than six million lights and dozens of tall Christmas trees, and each area gets its own color scheme, such as red and green in Santa's Village and blue and white in Glacier Ridge. New this year are a nightly show of light, music and snow in Wildwood Grove built around the Wildwood Tree, and the Peppermint Valley area in Country Fair. Indoor shows include "Christmas in the Smokies" and "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," and outdoor performances include "Appalachian Christmas." A tasting pass covers seasonal dishes. On Thanksgiving Day, both Dollywood resorts serve holiday buffets.

Silver Dollar City covers the park in more than 6.5 million lights. New for 2026 is the Stars, Lights & Christmas Nights Parade, an interactive night parade twice as long as the old one, in which children can hand letters to Santa's elves; it ends with a Nativity scene. Other highlights are a lighting ceremony for a real fir tree in the Plaza, an eight-story animated tree on Town Square, the Christmas in Midtown display with about 1.5 million lights and light tunnels, and a sing-along steam train. The park's resident craftsmen and some 60 shops sell handmade gifts.

This separately ticketed evening event runs on 25 nights at Magic Kingdom. It includes Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime Parade, Minnie's Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks Show, the castle stage show Mickey's Most Merriest Celebration, and "snowfall" on Main Street, U.S.A. Cookies and holiday drinks are included at set locations. Several rides get holiday versions, among them Space Mountain with holiday music and lighting, the Mad Tea Party and Tomorrowland Speedway, while rides such as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train also operate.

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay strings more than 70 miles of lights through the park for this event, which is included with admission. Shows include the new "Lights of Wonder" and "A Very Merry Cirque!" Santa's Workshop, Rudolph's Winter Wonderland with life-size storybook scenes, and the Holly Jolly Express train past the animals of the 65-acre veldt return, and a new Christmas Town Market sells seasonal gifts. A menorah is lit nightly Dec. 4 to 12, a Three Kings show runs Dec. 21 to Jan. 4, and New Year's Eve ends with fireworks. The regular rides and coasters operate.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg decorates its European-themed villages with more than ten million lights, which the park calls one of the largest light displays in North America. Shows include "Christmas Town Live! A Holiday Special," "Gloria!" and "Scrooged No More," and Santa greets visitors at his workshop in the North Pole area. The Christmas Town Express train plays holiday music, and Verbolten: Forbidden Turn runs during Christmas Town for the first time. Santa's Fireside Feast is a reserved all-you-care-to-eat meal with a Christmas story. Unlike the Tampa event, Christmas Town here requires an event ticket or qualifying membership.

Hersheypark opens select family rides and attractions under more than five million lights. HERSHEY'S TREEville, a grove of candy-themed trees with lights, lasers and fog, is larger this year, and the new Fire & Ice experience pairs icy lights with flames on select dates from Nov. 27. Twin Turnpike gets festive cars and Laff Trakk a holiday soundtrack. Other features include the Twinkling Thru Time show, the NOEL light show, Santa with his nine reindeer, and a holiday version of the Estate of Evil haunted house. The park is open on Thanksgiving Day. The Hershey Sweet Lights drive-through does not return in 2026.

Kennywood lights the park with more than three million lights, including about 250,000 on what the park calls Pennsylvania's tallest Christmas tree, and themed areas such as Candy Cane Lane and Gingerbread Junction. New for 2026 is "Finding Christmas: A Whimsical Journey on Ice," a show that combines ice skating, singing and BMX stunts. More than 20 rides run, weather permitting, among them the Jack Rabbit coaster. Visitors can meet Santa and Rudolph and his friends, mail letters to the North Pole, warm up at a bonfire, and see a large model train display that opens Nov. 20.

Both parks at the Disneyland Resort take part. At Disneyland Park, "A Christmas Fantasy Parade" and the "Believe... in Holiday Magic" fireworks return, Haunted Mansion Holiday and "it's a small world" Holiday reopen with seasonal overlays, and Sleeping Beauty Castle becomes a winter castle with a nightly lighting moment. Disney California Adventure hosts the Disney Festival of Holidays, with music and dance from several cultural traditions, six food marketplaces and Disney ¡Viva Navidad!, and shows "World of Color - Season of Light" at night. Downtown Disney adds nightly "snowfall" and an ornament hunt.

Holiday events run in all three parks at Universal Orlando and are included with park admission. Universal Studios Florida hosts Universal's Holiday Parade featuring Macy's, with giant balloons and floats. Universal Islands of Adventure brings back Grinchmas, including "The Grinchmas Who-liday Spectacular" stage show, and Hogsmeade shows "The Magic of Christmas at Hogwarts Castle" at night. Christmas in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter spans all three parks. At Epic Universe, SUPER NINTENDO WORLD and How to Train Your Dragon - Isle of Berk are decorated for the first time, and Isle of Berk marks the Viking holiday Snoggletog.

Knott's Berry Farm dresses the park in lights, garland and oversized snowflakes, with a nightly parkwide lighting moment. The Walter Knott Theater hosts a new ice show, "Snoopy's Christmas Follies," with Snoopy and the Peanuts gang, and "Home for the Holidays" is a musical revue with snow effects. In Ghost Town, the Christmas Crafts Village fills with local artisans selling gifts, with wood carving and glass blowing demonstrations. Santa greets families in Santa's Christmas Cabin, and children can decorate cupcakes at Mrs. Claus' Kitchen. For Thanksgiving, Knott's sells take-home turkey or ham dinners, and the park holds a New Year's Eve celebration.

Both U.S. LEGOLAND parks hold Christmas Bricktacular, included with admission. LEGOLAND Florida adds a drone show featuring LEGO Santa, its first rap battle show and a light trail with brick-building stations, set around a LEGO Christmas tree more than 30 feet tall. LEGOLAND California adds hands-on stops such as Gingerbread Station, an Elf Choir music rig and Reindeer Refuel, where kids build LEGO carrots, plus holiday touches at the Galacticoaster in the new LEGO Galaxy area and fireworks on select nights. On Dec. 31 both parks hold Kids' New Year's Eve, with an early countdown and fireworks.

Six Flags Great Adventure brings back a reimagined Holiday in the Park, the first phase of a multiyear redesign; the park was not on Six Flags' 2025 holiday lineup. Three new themed lands, Santa's Arctic North Pole with fire pits and s'mores, the candy-themed Sweet Street, and Coastal Christmas on a boardwalk, join an entrance area called Glittering Gateway with a 65-foot tree and a nightly tree-lighting show. More than 30 rides operate, including The Joker, Batman: The Ride, Superman: Ultimate Flight and The Flash: Vertical Velocity.

Six Flags Over Georgia also introduces a reimagined Holiday in the Park, with new themed lands such as Santa's Toy Town and Merry Magnolia Lane, as the start of a multiyear overhaul; like Great Adventure, it had no holiday event on Six Flags' 2025 list. A tree-lighting show starts each evening, and the new musical "Tinker's Toy Factory" follows Santa and the elves. Other entertainment includes carolers, jazz and vocal groups, a comic retelling of a holiday classic, and a cocoa lounge hosted by an elf. Visitors can take photos with Santa and ride kid-friendly and select thrill rides.

Six Flags Fiesta Texas fills its midways with light displays and live shows, led by an original musical version of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." Families can visit Santa, decorate cookies and make s'mores by an open fire, and select rides run, including the family ride METROPOLIS Transit Authority. After Christmas the event becomes Countdown to New Year's, with fireworks each night from Dec. 26 to 30 and a 360-degree fireworks show on New Year's Eve. From Jan. 1 to 4 the park stays open with lights and seasonal food before the season closes.

Universal Studios Hollywood includes its holiday events with admission. Grinchmas turns Universal Plaza into Who-ville around a 65-foot tree, with evening tree lightings, snowfall and visits with the Grinch and Max. In Hogsmeade, Christmas in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter brings decorations, the Frog Choir and a nightly projection show on Hogwarts Castle. Illumination's Merry Minions appears for the first time in Minion Land, and SUPER NINTENDO WORLD adds holiday decorations, including Mario and Luigi snowmen. Outside the gates, CityWalk sets up a 40-foot tree, with live music on select evenings.

EPCOT opens its holiday festival the day after Thanksgiving. Holiday Kitchens around the park serve dishes tied to holiday traditions from around the world, and a Holiday Cookie Stroll rewards five cookie purchases with a treat. Storytellers at World Showcase pavilions explain how different countries celebrate, and a Hanukkah storyteller appears between Morocco and France. The Candlelight Processional, with a celebrity narrator, a mass choir and an orchestra, runs nightly at America Gardens Theatre, and "JOYFUL! A Celebration of the Season" mixes gospel, jazz and R&B. A gingerbread Spaceship Earth and Santa visits round out the festival.

WinterFest returns on Black Friday at two former Cedar Fair parks now run by Six Flags. Kings Island has millions of lights, a nightly WinterFest Wonderland Parade, a tree lighting on International Street, skating on Snow Flake Lake for an extra fee, and rides such as Mystic Timbers. Carowinds adds new shows, including Carolers of the Carolinas and a radio-play comedy in Harmony Hall, alongside "Tinker's Toy Factory" and rides such as Snoopy's Racing Railway. Both parks finish with a New Year's Eve countdown. Kings Dominion and California's Great America are not on Six Flags' 2026 holiday list.