There are two ways to see the holiday lights around here, and only one of them works. The first is to pick a Saturday in mid-December, drive to the most famous street in the region, and spend forty minutes looking for parking. The second is to choose one display, go on a weeknight, and park two blocks away.
I have done both, in the same season, which is how I know.
What follows is the light neighborhoods, grouped by the kind of evening each one is, along with the ticketed shows and the free ones. The addresses are real. The schedules are not, because every one of these runs on a household’s decision to climb a ladder, so check the current season before you promise anyone anything.
THE FAB 40S AND CANDY CANE LANE ARE TWO DIFFERENT EVENINGS
The Fabulous Forties in East Sacramento is the one everybody names first, and it earns the reputation. The blocks between 40th and 49th Streets, J Street to Folsom Boulevard, fill up with illuminated trees, themed yards, inflatables and animated pieces. It is also the most crowded item on this list, so go just after dusk rather than at nine and walk it. The traffic on those blocks in December is its own event.
Candy Cane Lane is the calmer version, and the one I would send a family with small children to first. It is the pocket around 53rd and S Streets in Elmhurst, where residents string lit archways over the sidewalks, so you walk under the lights rather than past them. Themed front yards, hot cocoa and candy canes, with a fraction of the crowd.
WHAT THE SUBURBS DO THAT THE CITY GRID CANNOT
A cul-de-sac helps. In Roseville, Hillsford Court puts on a multi-home production with lights, music, video and animation, each house on a theme from a seasonal movie. People on foot get cookies and hot chocolate, and drivers tune the car radio to the low-power FM broadcast the display runs.
Rocklin has been at this longer than anyone on the Placer side. The residents of Pebble Creek Drive and Strand Road have been decorating for decades, with inflatables and characters from film and television.
In Folsom, Darvel Court is a multi-house display with themed exhibits and a centerpiece of tall redwoods hung with lights, plus a collection of decorated Volkswagens nobody expects. El Dorado Hills has Barnstead Place, a cul-de-sac timed to music through the evening. Cameron Park has Holly Hills Lane, a stop on the Cameron Park Santa Parade.
Orangevale’s Dovewood Court has been going for decades, with interactive displays and music, and the neighbors collect non-perishable food for area food banks. That is the best reason on this list to bring something.
THE DISPLAYS YOU HAVE TO LEAVE THE CITY GRID FOR
Woodland’s Lights on Wallace, at 876 Wallace Drive, is the most technically ambitious thing here: a megatree built from strings of light, singing trees, and a drone show, with a jukebox on the display’s website that lets you choose the song. It runs nightly from mid-December into early January.
In Davis, Wilcox Christmas Lights at 716 Marina Circle builds its own megatree and broadcasts on a live FM frequency so you can listen from the car. In Lincoln, Pete’s Christmas Walk-Through at 530 West Wise Road spreads more than two acres of illuminated pathways, and collects toys for an annual giveaway to families in need.
Further out, 2975 Five Mile Road in Placerville is the country version, tens of thousands of lights on a rustic road just off Highway 50, with a giant Santa and music synchronized to it. Closer in, North Natomas has Rockmont Lights on Java Court and Rockmont Circle, where more than 100 homes take part and donations are collected for local charities.
THE ORGANIZED SHOWS, WHICH YOU CAN PLAN AROUND
Some of the best light in the region is ticketed or scheduled, which makes it the easy half to plan around.
- Imaginarium at Cal Expo is the big production, with an ice rink, circus performers, family carnival rides and interactive exhibits on top of the light.
- The free show in Old Sacramento is a synchronized light and audio retelling of A Visit from St. Nicholas, with Jack Frost and Santa making appearances.
- The Woodland Wonderland of Lights at the fairgrounds is a drive-through, a two-mile route of lit tunnels and scenes viewed from inside your own car, which is the answer on a cold night.
- Wild Nights and Holiday Lights at the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary hangs lights through the sanctuary, brings in carolers, and runs the Folsom Valley Railway after dark, with proceeds going to the sanctuary.
Each of those runs for a window rather than the whole season, so check the dates before you build an evening around one.
THE COMPARISON I REACH FOR, AND WHERE IT STOPS WORKING
The closest ordinary thing I can think of is the tide. Every December the front yards of this region go from ordinary to elaborate, and then they go back, on the same streets, season after season.
That gets you to the right instinct about the scale of it, and then it hands you off to something that does not hold. A tide is on a schedule you can look up, it arrives everywhere at once, and it does not care whether anybody is watching. The lights are the opposite of all three. They go up because a particular household decided to climb a ladder, the streets run on completely different clocks, and every display here is aimed at an audience. It is generosity with a performance built into it, which is why the best ones look like somebody had the idea back in July.
WHAT I WOULD ACTUALLY DO WITH ONE EVENING
- One display an evening, not four. Most of these are a real drive apart, and the second stop is where tired children stop being charming.
- Go on a weeknight. Same lights, half the traffic.
- Walk the ones built for walking. Candy Cane Lane and the Fabulous Forties are better on foot.
- Bring what the display is collecting. Food for Dovewood Court, a toy for Lincoln. It is the cheapest part of the evening.
- Check before you promise. These are households, not attractions, and a display that has run for a decade can simply not run this year.
If you are learning this region because you are moving into it, the town by town version is in the neighborhood guides, and the Woodland and Davis pages cover what those places are like in the other eleven months. A street that is spectacular in December is just a street in March.
Question for you: which display in this region do you make a point of seeing every year, and which one would you tell somebody to skip?
Adapted from Neighborhoods in the Sacramento Area with the Best Holiday Light Displays, originally published by Windermere Signature Properties at windermerecalocal.com.
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