Last updated on March 19th, 2025 at 02:27 pm
It’s a shame the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas are so full of shopping and events, because this is a terrific time to enjoy Florida’s natural beauty.
One way to squeeze in a weekend is to combine the outing with your holiday celebrations. These spots, such as Mount Dora and St. Augustine, are also excellent places to hike, kayak, bicycle and explore Florida historic sites. There are also outstanding light displays in several other locations that are appealing for getaways.
Yes, every community has decorations and parades, but these destinations go all out to have the best holiday lights in Florida in a charming non-commercial setting.
Make holidays plans: Florida Rambler’s Holiday Boat Parade Calendar
Mount Dora Christmas Lights Festival
Mount Dora is always having a weekend festival. (Here’s our guide to Mount Dora and its special events.) But the city’s Christmas lights festival lasts for a month and includes a wide variety of events.
Mount Dora decorates with three million lights. The lights are on Nov. 30, 2024 – Jan. 9, 2025.
Light Up Mount Dora kicks it off from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, at the downtown lakefront in Evans Park. The event starts at downtown Donnelly Park with dancers and traditional Christmas carols
The center of the Christmas lights is Donnelly Park, but there are lights throughout the town, including around the Christmas tree in Sunset Park. There’s a fun lights exhibit (with moving displays) around the marina and boating center.
During 2021, we visited Mount Dora on Thanksgiving weekend and the streets were busy with people admiring the lights and going to and from the many restaurants and bars downtown.
The park was full of families with kids, many of whom were licking ice cream cones from the popular nearby Scoops on 5th. (On the other hand, keep this in mind: Traffic was intense. There were waits for tables at restaurants and the town was packed.)
Mount Dora has a series of holidays events, many of which are still setting their dates for 2024:
- Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, Mount Dora Christmas Walk, an evening geared to Chirstmas shopping and dining. Shops are open until 9 p.m.
- Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024, 10 a.m. to noon: The 63rd Annual Mount Dora Christmas Parade.
- The Lighted Board Parade.
- Christmas snow in the downtown Donnelly Park.
- Free holiday concert by the Lake Concert Band and Director John Landers, at Mount Dora Music Hall, 520 N. Baker St., Mount Dora, FL 32757
Mount Dora keeps its lights shining through January.
More details about Christmas in Mount Dora
St. Augustine Nights of Lights
St. Augustine turns on the lights on Nov. 23, 2024 and they stay lit up all the way through January, 26, 2025. Like Mount Dora, the Oldest City estimates it has 3 million lights. (By city ordinance, all holiday lights in the historic and residential areas must be white.)
One of its most spectacular displays is lighting up the iconic and historic Bridge of Lions.
St. Augustine’s holiday decorations have been ranked among the 10 best holiday light displays by National Geographic, and they can enjoyed by land and sea – there are boat tours, horse and carriage rides, pedicabs, trolley tours, golf cart tours and more.
Old Town Trolley’s lights tour departs nightly beginning at 6 p.m. from the Visitor Information Center. You can find a variety of tours on land and water listed here.
Two favorite photo spots are the Bridge of Lions and the the Plaza de la Constitución, a central park in downtown St. Augustine, where there is a Christmas tree and live music on weekends.
Make holidays plans: Town of Christmas, Florida, is a nostalgic trip to Old Florida
Festival of Lights at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park
Mount Dora and St. Augustine are whole cities of decorations, but this state park decorates so extensively that thousands of people come to see the lights that outline the majestic oak trees and historic buildings in this park along the Suwanee River. The park museum, which looks like a mansion from “Gone With the Wind,” is decorated too.
The lights will twinkle from Dec. 6-24, 2024.
Tickets are $4 per person. Children under 3 are free. You do not pay an additional entrance fee to the park.
- You can view the lights from dusk until 9 p.m. Last ticket is sold at 8:30 p.m.
- Every night except Dec. 24 will be a “Holiday Magic Night” with complementary hot cocoa, popcorn and marshmallow roasting by a bonfire. The evening of Dec. 24 is a “Silent Night” with just viewing of the lights but no other activities.
More resources for Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park:
- Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park
- Book a campsite at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park
- Book a room near Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park
Make holidays plans: All aboard the Sugar Express for a sweet treat: Santa Claus!
More places in Florida with major Christmas light displays or extensive festivals
They call it the Christmas Mansion in December; at other times of year, it is better known as the Stetson Mansion in DeLand. From Nov. 1, 2024, to Jan. 20, 2025, you can tour the 1886 Gilded Age mansion when it is decked for the holidays. Vistors take guided or unguided tour of 10 rooms with elaborate designer decorations and over 50 nativities from around the world. Visitors enter in staggerd groups. Details on tickets and tours.
Amelia Island’s Dickens on Centre festival, Dec. 12-15, 2024. It will have lots of twinkling lights and downtown Fernandina Beach will be transformed along a Victorian theme. The four day festival’s main attraction is a free Christmas Market including stages with entertainers, vendor booths decked with holiday gifts and music.
The weekend begins with the Dec. 12 Dickens Illuminated Procession. This strolling parade begins at Fernandina Harbor Marina on Front Street, featuring lights and music. It’s free to participate in the procession, so you can bring a battery-operated lantern or candle and join in.
49th Annual Historic Holiday Nights Celebration at Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, Nov. 29 – Dec. 23, 2024 and Dec. 26, 2024 to Jan. 5, 2025. The traditional event has added new light displays on the grounds of historic estate. The event includes refreshments for purchase and Santa, carolers, and music on select nights. Tickets are $20 adults, $10 teens and and $2 for children ages 6-12. Children ages 5 and under are admitted free with paid adult. General admission is sold on an unlimited basis nightly so you do not need to purchase in advance.
Night Garden at Fairchild Tropical Gardens, Coral Gables, opens Nov. 15, 2024, and continues through early January. The event turns the beautiful 23-acre botanical garden into an illuminated fairyland with technicolor flowers and sculptures. Activities include rainbow-colored pathways, a talking wise old tree and a Fairy Quest. Visits usually take around 60 to 90 minutes.
Pensacola Winterfest, Nov. 6, 15, 22–24, 29–30; Dec. 1, 6–8, 13, 15, 20–24, 2024. Pensacola’s historic downtown streets are lit up with more than half a million white lights, There’s a Winterfest Elf Parade, daily live performances, holiday trolley tours, cascades of “snow,” and Santa and a cast of holiday characters.
Ocala holiday lights, Nov. 23 – Dec. 19. Ocala has a beautifully lit downtown main square, whose lights go on Nov. 23, with a Light Up Ocala event and continue through the holiday season. Another major holiday light displays in the Ocala area is the Winter Wonderland at World Equestrian Center.
Selby Gardens in downtown Sarasota brings more than two million lights to the gardens and walkways in its Lights in Bloom display Dec. 6 to Jan 1, 2025. It has been ranked one of the best light displays at a botanical garden in the US.
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You might be looking for holiday boat parades, which we’ve list here: https://www.floridarambler.com/florida-festivals/holiday-boat-parades/
I’m afraid we don’t have information on where to get the best views for each one, which I know can be a challenge.