Astra Lumina
Photograph: Time Out/Michael Juliano
Photograph: Time Out/Michael Juliano

November 2024 events calendar for Los Angeles

Plan your month with our November 2024 events calendar of the best activities, including concerts and free things to do

Gillian Glover
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There are plenty of things to do in our November events calendar before you need to start thawing that turkey—or, you know, just tapping a button to secure your fully cooked dinner order. Balance the upcoming holidays with equal parts generosity (try one of these volunteer opportunities) and gluttony (gorge on the best pies in Los Angeles). So bundle up for an early peek at Christmas lights or some festive screenings and take advantage of all there is to do in our November 2024 events calendar.

RECOMMENDED: Full events calendar for 2024

This November’s best events

  • Music
  • Pop
  • South Park

Did this year’s Coachella catapult Sabrina Carpenter into the spotlight? Or was the onetime Disney Channel personality already on the precipice of pop superstardom? Ponder that as you wait in the ticketing queue for the “Espresso” singer’s three shows at the Crypto.com Arena and the Forum, which so far are the only L.A.-area stops on the “Short N’ Sweet Tour.”

  • Things to do
  • Performances
  • Downtown

The LA Phil is staging 12 straight hours of performances in the main hall of the Walt Disney Concert Hall, around its interior spaces and out in its garden. You’ll find field recordings curated by composer Ellen Reid, intimate performances, a listening room, conversations and the (separately ticketed) debut of Doug Aitken’s Lightscape, a hypnotic film accompanied by live performances from the LA Phil New Music Group and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

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  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • La Cañada

Each year, the botanical garden’s nighttime experience masterfully mixes hands-on art installations with atmospheric, luminescent forests, all against a background of uplit trees and shimmery sound effects. This year’s event, which runs from November 17 through January 5, adds in garden’s new model railroad, which will be all lit of for the season.

  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Miracle Mile

The art and science of Southern California collide in this free family-friendly festival. Held on the lawns at La Brea Tar Pits, the event is produced by the renowned Edinburgh Science Festival and presented by the Getty in conjunction with its PST ART initiative. Curious and creative kids ages 4–14 can have fun with hands-on workshops (think building with adobe, making their own stop-motion animation and uncovering fossils), stage shows, live music and Street Science performances throughout the park. (Note: Some activities will take place nearby at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, LACMA and Craft Contemporary.) After hours on Saturday evening, L.A. band Quetzal and La Familia Gutiérrez will play a free concert (7–8:30pm). 

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  • Music
  • Rap, hip-hop and R&B
  • Echo Park

With its tongue exercise of a title, the Tyler, the Creator–curated hip-hop fest returns to Dodger Stadium for two days of live tunes, carnival rides, games, food trucks and more. The lineup for the 10th edition of the carnival includes Playboi Carti, Daniel Caesar, Mustard & Friends, Kaytranada, the Marías, Omar Apollo and André 3000. Tyler, the Creator, meanwhile, will be performing tracks from his new album, CHROMAKOPIA, live for the first time. 

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  • Things to do
  • Late openings
  • Griffith Park

Explore the Autry into the evening at the Griffith Park museum’s Thursday-night series that spotlights the city’s emerging and established artists, musicians, poets, writers. Programming ranges from a sound bath to alfresco music to a meet-and-greet with the world’s first Indigenous droid.

  • Shopping
  • Markets and fairs
  • Chinatown

Any crafter worth their weight in cashmere yarn knows that Renegade Craft Fair is the fair all other fairs aspire to. Held in urban epicenters around the country, Renegade is a locally focused marketplace showcasing work from hundreds of the best contemporary indie craft artists. Aside from the wares, Renegade offers all sorts of homemade DIY fun and festivities: think classes and demos, free photo booths and tons of tasty food trucks. Renegade hosts an epic spring fair, along with a supplemental holiday fair in wintertime that helps you check everyone off your gift list—including yourself.

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  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Downtown

See what’s cutting-edge in the city’s vibrant performing arts scene at REDCAT’s 21st annual festival, where it turns its theater into a creative artistic laboratory for Los Angeles artists à la its namesake institution, CalArts. Each of the three weekends boasts unique, daring and distinctive performances of new original works for the stagefrom dance, theater and music to multimedia performance art. If you can’t make it to the fest in person, the performances will also be livestreamed.

  • Music
  • Rock and indie
  • Hollywood

Many band “disbandments” are followed by a triumphant return just a few years later, but still, it was a surprise when the dance-punk outfit came back so soon after its grand finale in 2014. That said, we’re sure glad James Murphy & Co. have stuck around since then—and that you can catch the seminal indie crew during a fall residency at the Shrine and Palladium.

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  • Dance
  • Ballet
  • Montecito Heights

If you loved Greta Gerwig’s Little Women (or even, gasp, Louisa May Alcott’s original), head to the Heritage Square Museum and step into the lives of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy in this immersive ballet—the wintry final installment of a seasonal trilogy developed by Emma Andres, the resident choreographer for Pasadena Civic Ballet. If you can’t make the weekend of site-specific performances in Victorian houses, you can catch the full-length ballet December 7 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre.

  • Shopping
  • Design and interiors
  • Santa Monica

The return of the WestEdge Design Fair presents some of the best modern furniture and home accessories direct to interior-design lovers. The three-day event will feature over 150 established and up-and-coming brands that will showcase their designs in lighting, kitchen, bath, outdoor furnishing and other home products. Shop the various designs—as well as a pop-up selling artisanal gifts—and attend a series of special events, panels and demonstrations covering topics like holiday entertaining tips. On Thursday, an opening-night party will let guests sip on cocktails and nibble on hors d’oeuvres while enjoying early access to the fair and supporting the Hollywood Food Coalition.

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  • Things to do
  • Classes and workshops
  • South Park

Home studio Two Faced Ceramics is setting up poolside at DTLA’s Hotel Figueroa for this series of classes. Each $75 class includes all of the equipment and materials you need, plus mimosas and a hotel tote bag. The made-for-beginners classes cover a different theme each time; past classes have included a beer stein, sun plate and berry bowl.

  • Puppet shows
  • Highland Park

The beloved Bob Baker Marionette Theater’s year-end production, Holiday on Strings, is back onstage at the puppet troupe’s new-ish Highland Park location. The hour-long show, which follows the Wizard of Fantasy and his sidekick, Demetrius Nova Twinklestar III, on a tour of the holiday galaxies, covers every festive angle: It’ll transport audiences to Santa’s workshop, the world of Charles Dickens and a Hanukkah celebration. For a sensory-friendly version, book tickets to the 10:30am show on Saturday, December 14.

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  • Things to do
  • Griffith Park

The L.A. Zoo is staying open after dark most nights through January during this delightful take on its light-up holiday tradition. Once again, the event’s “Animals Aglow” edition will go all in on oversized animal-shaped lanterns, and—based on last year’s edition—the result is a colorful, charming trail that celebrates the zoo’s natural inhabitants. You can stomp on a color-changing hopscotch path, relax on illuminated swings, dance inside a shell of kaleidoscopic mirrors and bounce on some glowing seesaws.

 

  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Downtown Historic Core

Can’t resist a fresh plate of oysters? Neither can owner of the Oyster Gourmet and shellfish master Christophe Happillon, who’s curating a mouth-watering tasting at the DTLA Oyster Festival, back this month after a five-year hiatus. Slurp your way through briny, fresh varieties sourced from coast to coast, meet the farmers, score plenty of oysters, try special oyster-themed dishes from market vendors, and sip on French wine from 11am to 6pm each day.

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  • Things to do
  • Beverly Hills

The City of Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive Committee host this free community event to kick off the city’s holiday season. Watch as the famed shopping street comes alive with twinkling lights, then stroll amid the glow and enjoy live music and entertainment, street performers, festive decor, beer and wine gardens, food trucks and an appearance by Santa Claus. A fireworks show will complete the festivities. 

  • Shopping
  • Markets and fairs
  • Downtown Arts District

Be transported to a European Christmas market by way of ROW DTLA this holiday season at this alfresco addition to the city’s gift-shopping landscape. The ticketed shopping experience promises handmade goods by local artisans, festive food and drink (think soft pretzels, crispy schnitzel and hot cocoa), photo ops and wholesome holiday activities like listening to carolers and decorating cookies.

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  • Things to do
  • Rancho Palos Verdes/Rolling Hills Estates

There’s nothing Christmassy nor even wintry about this hour-long Palos Verdes trail, yet its nine stellar installations are the most cosmically mesmerizing of the budding after-dark botanical garden shows that’ve come to blanket L.A. toward the end of the year.

Astra Lumina, which debuted in 2022, returns to South Coast Botanic Garden with the same array of celestial-inspired displays. Last year’s edition was basically identical to its debut. But if you loved your first trip to Astra Lumina or haven’t been at all, we still think this is a worthwhile (albeit expensive) event—perhaps better suited for a date night than a large-family affair.

While some other year-end light shows seem less focused on moment-to-moment encounters and more on the photogenic snaps you’ll walk away with, Astra Lumina feels truly experiential. You’ll venture through scenes that interpret the arrival and departure of stars in an earthly garden: archways pulsate with light and mist, perforated lanterns spell out a stargazing journey, shooting stars chase up and down a cylindrical frame, shimmery bulbs blanket a forest floor and tranquil lanterns float among the trees. There’s plenty of wonderfully atmospheric fog along much of the trail, including in a shower of lasers so thick that you’ll swear you can touch them. (It’s also worth mentioning how lovely it is to experience a celebration of the night sky from one of the few locations in L.A. where it’s actually dark enough to see plenty of stars.)

Astra Lumina comes from Canadian entertainment company Moment Factory and replaced GLOW, which ran at South Coast in 2020 and 2021. There are more than a dozen other “Lumina Enchanted Night Walk” events that Moment Factory has produced around the globe, and that pedigree brings a clear level of polish: the lighting and sound design are absolutely beautiful, the loose celestial story is uplifting and the installations are well paced (the duration markers at each are much appreciated, as are the QR codes that lend a little background story to what you’re looking at). It’s rarely flashy and often understated—maybe just slightly too inert in a few installations, if we’re splitting hairs—which makes it stand out among other light shows. If you want an overwhelming barrage of lights and kitsch holiday tunes, know that you won’t find those here; but you will be able to soak up a truly special experience.

The show runs most nights through mid-December 2024 (if it’s like previous years, expect that to get extended), and you’ll need a timed ticket to visit. You could zip through the whole thing in less than 45 minutes, but you’re welcome to—and absolutely should—spend as much time as you’d like once inside. Base ticket prices ($32 to $43 depending on the night and time) actually fall toward the somewhat more reasonable end of these quite-expensive sorts of shows, but the parking fees are pretty disappointing: It’s $22 to park on-site, with the alternative of a paid shuttle from an off-site lot about two miles away on peak evenings—otherwise there’s essentially zero street parking within a reasonable walk of the very dark area surrounding the garden. Also, just a heads up that it took us about 20 minutes just to park on opening night last year, but hopefully these traffic woes get sorted out this year.

  • Things to do
  • Ice skating
  • Downtown Financial District

L.A. doesn’t typically seem like much of a winter wonderland, until, that is, you create an ice skating rink right in the midst of Downtown skyscrapers. Come glide around and pretend there’s snow on the ground at Pershing Square’s outdoor holiday skating rink. Skate rentals are included in admission, though lockers and skating aids costs a few dollars extra.

RECOMMENDED: The best places to go ice skating in Los Angeles

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  • Shopping
  • Markets and fairs
  • Hermosa Beach

Like a holiday edition of Fiesta Hermosa, this weekend-long event transforms the coastal city’s downtown with an open house among existing retailers, plus an artisanal pop-up marketplace (Pier Avenue between Valley Drive and Monterey Boulevard), as well as a carnival—complete with Ferris wheel—at Pier Plaza. Also on the schedule: a tree lighting ceremony and community concert on Sunday, and fun family activities including the culmination of a citywide Elf on a Shelf Scavenger Hunt. 

  • Things to do
  • South Park

Drift into the Convention Center for the 10-day L.A. Auto Show with cars that would even make Bond drool. If you’re a car nerd, get behind the wheel to test drive one of the cherry rides (including an outdoor EV track), while celebrities meet and greet at the manufacturer exhibits. With world and North American debuts from a slate of manufacturers, rev up for the machines of the future.

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  • Music
  • Pop
  • Inglewood

Pop culture icon Cyndi Lauper is embarking on her first major tour in a decade—but also one that’s being billed as her farewell. The ’80s songstress and Kinky Boots composer is sure to bring timeless hits like “Girl Just Want to Have Fun” and “Time After Time” to the Intuit Dome.

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  • Things to do
  • Conventions
  • Hollywood

See Q&As, sneak peeks and table reads during this celeb-filled pop culture fest from New York Magazine’s Vulture. This year’s fest heads to Nya Studios in Hollywood with a to-be-announced lineup of talent (last year’s event included Weird Al, Billy Porter, Henry Winkler, Cord Jefferson, Matt Rogers and more).

  • Dance
  • Jazz
  • Downtown

Glorya Kaufman Presents Dance at the Music Center is kicking off its 2024–2025 season by making Music Center history. Groundbreaking Brooklyn-based dance company Urban Bush Women, known for amplifying the stories of Black women, is celebrating its 40th anniversary by becoming the first-ever professional dance theatre company to perform in the Mark Taper Forum. The troupe will grace the stage with the West Coast premiere of SCAT!… The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar, a jazz-club-set love story set amid the Great Migration.

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  • Music
  • Dance and electronic
  • Hollywood

A world of glam electro-pop anthems and and glittering costumes hits the Hollywood Bowl when the disco-inspired duo Empire of the Sun comes to town. Local duo Neil Frances opens with bouncy, psychedelic electronic pop beats.

  • Shopping
  • Markets and fairs
  • San Marino

We could spend hours wandering the Huntington’s gardens—and about just as long in its wonderful gift shop. Well, here’s an excuse to spend even more time there: this one-day-only artisan pop-up market, which brings more than three dozen art, home, jewelry, craft and fashion vendors to the visitor center’s Haaga Hall. We recommend French-style caramels from Le Bon Garçon, old-Hollywood-inspired makeup from Bésame Cosmetics, and retro L.A. menus turned into art from Vintage Menu Art. Admission is free and doesn’t require a museum ticket.

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  • Music
  • Dance and electronic
  • Palm Springs

Looking for another excuse to escape to the desert? Try this team-up from Splash House and Goldenvoice, which are putting together an electronic music fest at the Palm Springs Air Museum. Kaytranada, Jamie xx, Club Heat (Tove Lo and SG Lewis) and Slayyyter top the mid-November event.

  • Things to do
  • Ice skating
  • Santa Monica

Located just blocks from the ocean, Ice in downtown Santa Monica brings a bit of winter to the comfortable coastal city. The 8,000-square-foot outdoor rink runs daily from November to mid-January on the corner of Fifth Street and Arizona Avenue (less than a 10-minute walk from the E Line). Tickets for an hour-long slot ($22) include skate rentals, and you can book private parties and cabanas if you’re looking for something a bit more premium. Look out for treats for sale, plus special themed nights.

RECOMMENDED: The best places to go ice skating in Los Angeles

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  • Things to do
  • Walks and tours
  • Rancho Palos Verdes/Rolling Hills Estates

Feeling like you and your four-legged friend are attached at the hip? Spend even more quality time together during this dog-friendly series at Palos Verdes’ South Coast Botanic Garden. One Sunday a month (usually the last one of the month), you can roam the gardens’ 87 acres with your fur baby. Nearly all of the paths are open to pups, except for the rose garden and a couple of other small areas. You’ll find plenty of water stations set up across the grounds, as well as an optional obedience class for purchase. You—the human—will need a reservation, while your best friend—the pup—will need to remain on their leash at all times, including in the parking lot.

 

  • Music
  • Classical and opera
  • Downtown

Can’t get enough of his yearly appearance at the Bowl? The LA Phil wraps up its two-year John Williams at Disney Hall with a second season of live scores and concerts in his honor. Listen to a selection of pieces from the entire Star Wars saga, hosted by C-3PO actor Anthony Daniels (Nov 21–24).

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  • Things to do
  • Fairfax District

Nope, that’s not some sort of catastrophic explosion in the center of the city—that sound’s just the arrival of Christmas at the Grove. Brace yourself: L.A.’s shopping mall metropolis lights up its Christmas tree with fireworks and a slew of special guests, including Santa himself (may we humbly suggest that you ask Santa this year for a prime spot in that mammoth parking garage). Lance Bass hosts this year’s show. Stick around for the fireworks finale (and we’ll reiterate that, yep, anxious Angelenos, those are indeed fireworks that you’re hearing on November 25).

  • Music
  • Rap, hip-hop and R&B
  • Anaheim

If you got it bad—a bad case of nostalgia for Usher in the wake of his Super Bowl performance, that is—then you’re in luck as the R&B singer is coming to town this fall. Yeah! Usher will play a run of shows at the Intuit Dome, the new Clippers arena in Inglewood.

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  • Things to do
  • Boyle Heights

After welcoming more than 5 million guests worldwide, the Balloon Museum is making its way to Los Angeles with Let's Fly. This immersive inflatable art experience lands at the iconic Ace Mission Studios and is opening its doors to the public on October 30. Featuring mind-blowing installations from 21 world-renowned artists, the pop-up installation blends contemporary art with hands-on experiences. Here you're meant to touch, interact and explore. From a visit to an extra-terrestrial planet to a collection of graceful bubbles and a kaleidoscopic fountain, these exhibits will let your imagination take flight.

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  • Things to do
  • Griffith Park

LA Compost’s annual autumnal event gives “smashing pumpkins” a whole new—and very literal—meaning. Now that Halloween is over, you likely have at least one pumpkin rotting on your doorstep. Did you know that trashing it and sending it to the landfill releases methane, which contributes to global warming? Instead of adding your jack-o’-lantern to the 1.3 billion pounds of yearly pumpkin waste, bring it (as long as its free of paint, glitter or anything else nonorganic) to one of these composting parties to help nourish the earth. Check here for the different locations and to sign up.

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  • Things to do
  • Hollywood

Billed as a “pre-meal celebration of turkeys,” the Gentle Barn’s Thanksgiving-morning event lets you cuddle turkeys, feed them treats and appreciate them for the intelligent and majestic fowl that they are. (This event will likely appeal more to the “animals are friends, not food” set, otherwise you might feel a little guilty sitting down to your Turkey Day feast after your farm visit.)

  • Things to do
  • Santa Monica Mountains

Stroll across the grounds of King Gillette Ranch as the Santa Monica Mountains hideaway is illuminated during Holiday Road, which returns with a nearly mile-long walking trail. The event, which comes from the same team as Nights of the Jack, includes thousands of lights, festive decor like a small Christmas village, larger-than-life holiday displays and lit-up archways. Look out for Santa and Mrs. Claus, and fill up with food trucks and a holiday bar while you’re there. Prices start at $25 before fees and go up depending on the day and time you visit.

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  • Things to do
  • San Gabriel Valley

You can’t seem to get more a stone’s throw away from a huge festive light display in Los Angeles come holiday season. Well, except for this new entry to the scene, which is making its L.A. debut all the way at Raging Waters. If you feel like making the trek out to San Dimas, though, Lektrik looks like quite the impressive display, boasting over 1,000,000 LED lights and larger-than-life lanterns through miles of illuminated trails. Adding to the experience are acrobatic performers, artisan vendors, food trucks and even some stone-carving.

  • Things to do
  • Ice skating
  • Lake Arrowhead

It’s always Christmas at this charmingly kitsch amusement park outside of Lake Arrowhead. But it’s extra Christmassy toward the end of the year at Santa’s Village—especially if we’re lucky enough to have had some fresh mountain snowfall. Swing by from November 14 to January 5 for lighting displays, a train ride, a magical nighttime walk through the forest, seasonal snacks, breakfast with Santa and tea with Mrs. Claus (those require a separate ticket) and ice skating.

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  • Dance
  • Ballet
  • Downtown

The American Contemporary Ballet returns to the holiday stage with its fantastical take on the tale from author E.T.A. Hoffmann. Experience the seasonal classic on a snow-shrouded stage set within an immersive space in DTLA’s Bank of America Plaza. The 75-minute production includes live musicians performing Tchaikovsky’s iconic score, as well as an artist reception following the show.

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  • Things to do
  • Walks and tours
  • USC/Exposition Park

Face your fears and head to the Natural History Museum’s Spider Pavilion, where you can observe several hundred orbweaver spiders in a living exhibit just outside of the museum. Scared the spiders might be hard to spot in the wild? Fret not. In previous iterations we’ve spotted ones about the size of an adult’s palm. Gulp. (But don’t worry: The scariest ones are in enclosed habitats.) 

  • Movies
  • Montecito Heights

Street Food Cinema has put together a series of outdoor holiday screenings in the closest thing to a Dickensian town square in L.A.: Heritage Square. In between Victorian home tours, piano sing-alongs, strolls through a light tunnel and sips on hot chocolate and mulled wine, you can catch screenings—many of them double features—of flicks like ElfHome Alone, A Christmas StoryThe Muppet Christmas Carol and more. Just make sure to bundle up in your best Christmas sweater.

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  • Children's
  • Beverly Hills

Judging by the fussing toddlers we see at just about every performance of The Nutcracker, it might not be quite as magical for kids as parents expect. So why not pair the iconic holiday ballet with something a little more hands-on? The Los Angeles Ballet will take excerpts of its Nutcracker show to teatime at the Waldorf Astoria. The Beverly Hills hotel will host morning and afternoon sessions of high tea that include holiday crafts, dancing with Clara and her doll friends, and photo ops with Santa. Meanwhile, grown-ups can get some shopping done, thanks to the on-site boutique and its luxury pop-ups. Tickets support the ballet company’s outreach and education programs, so you’ll need to pay fundraiser prices to attend.

  • Things to do
  • Performances
  • Downtown

Commuting through Union Station around the holidays? Make sure to take a detour into the historic ticket concourse for the train station’s ninth annual tree lighting on November 25, with musical performances by Kingston Ska Collective and Los Rebeldes Romanticos. You’ll also find a “North Pole” on the north patio, where you can enjoy arts and crafts with a side of milk and cookies. Little ones can pose for photos with Santa. The holiday décor will stay up through Christmas.

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  • Things to do
  • Festivals
  • Costa Mesa

This Christmas-themed Costa Mesa event is celebrating 10 years of turning Orange County into a winter wonderland. Expect a North Pole walk-through, snow play, ice tubing and photo ops, plus an all-new holiday light show twinkling with more than 2 million lights. Upgrade your experience with an expanded carnival, ice skating, VIP arctic cabanas, “polar putt putt” golf, and fireside igloos. Hot cocoa and seasonal treats will help keep things cozy.

  • Things to do
  • Downtown

Celebrate Thanksgiving with this catchall family-friendly event along Downtown’s Spring Street, a morning chock-full of races, games and activities centered around Los Angeles City Hall. Preemptively work off calories from your upcoming feast in either the 5K or the 10K run/walk. There’s also a “Widdle Wobble” for kids 12 and under and, for the first time this year, a 1K Dog Jog where your four-legged friends can join in. Turkey Day costumes are encouraged. Each year, the race benefits the Midnight Mission.

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