Fantasy of Lights Is Walk-Only This Year, So the Real Deadline Is in November

A San Jose family has the same December routine every year, as a Mercury News columnist described it last December. They pick a Tuesday or Wednesday night around 7 p.m. They stop at Happy Hound on Los Gatos Boulevard and eat dinner in the car. Then they spend about 25 minutes on the mile-and-a-half drive through Vasona Lake County Park.

That routine doesn't exist this year. Santa Clara County Parks says Fantasy of Lights 2026 "will transition fully to a walk-through format." There is no drive-through season, no weeknight window and no car line. The event is now four weekend evenings, and every person going needs a prepaid ticket.

So the date that matters for Los Gatos households is Sunday, November 1, at 8 a.m. That's when the first round of tickets goes on sale.

Twenty-three nights became four

In 2025 the drive-through ran from December 9 to December 30, 6 to 10 p.m., closed only on Christmas Day. That's 21 evenings. Two walk-through nights, December 6 and 7, came before it.

NBC Bay Area reported the switch on October 15, saying the county is "cutting back the number of days it's open significantly." In NBC Bay Area's report, county spokesperson Audrey Ann Díaz said, "We did not make this decision lightly." She explained that "Like many beloved community traditions, Fantasy of Lights has faced rising operational costs over the years."

The county hasn't published a dollar figure or a list of which costs went up. The reason it gives is cost, and the result is a much shorter calendar.

The walk-through was already the hard ticket to get

The walk-through started in 2013 as a one-night extra for the event's 15th edition. The Mercury News reported that it grew to two nights and was "selling out 19,000 tickets every year." The county's own page for the 2025 walk-through is marked SOLD OUT.

The drive-through was the backup that made the sellouts bearable. If you missed the walk nights, three more weeks of evenings were coming, many of them on weeknights. That backup is gone. This year the format that already sold out every year is the only way in, on four nights instead of two.

That's why the county split the sale into three phases:

1. Phase 1: Sunday, November 1, 8 a.m.
2. Phase 2: Friday, November 6, 6 p.m.
3. Phase 3: Monday, November 9, 12 p.m.

The county says tickets go on sale at parkhere.org. Each phase opens at a different kind of hour: a Sunday morning, a Friday evening and a Monday at noon. If the first release sells out while you're at soccer practice or still asleep, two more chances follow within about a week. The county page doesn't say how many tickets each phase holds, so it's better to treat November 1 as the main release than to count on later phases.

Two rules on the county page change how a household buys:

• Everyone needs a ticket. That includes children 3 and under, whose tickets are free but still have to be booked.
• Only a prepaid ticket guarantees entry. The county says to buy in advance and notes that the event runs rain or shine.

If you're buying for grandparents, neighbors or a cousin's family coming in from out of town, settle the headcount before 8 a.m. on the 1st.

What a family of four pays now

Per-person pricing changes the math more than the headline price suggests.

Take two adults and two kids between 4 and 12. In 2025 that family could drive through for $30, one price for the whole vehicle. On the walk-through nights they would have paid $17 twice plus $8 twice, or $50. In 2026 the same family pays $25 twice plus $10 twice, or $70.

That's $40 more than last year's drive-through and $20 more than last year's walk-through. A family with a teenager pays more again, because the adult price starts at 13.

Where the money is going on the four nights

The county's description of 2026 reads like it is putting into four nights what used to be spread across a month. It lists "expanded family engagement zones and photo opportunities, live entertainment, and a wider variety of food options throughout the park," and says drone light displays will run "on each of the four nights (weather permitting)."

The drones aren't new. In NBC Bay Area's story, Díaz called the earlier walk-through nights "wildly successful, complete with a drone show, live entertainment, and more food options." What changes is that the extras that came with a walk-through ticket now come with every night of the event.

The displays you remember are still the core of the event. The county's 2026 event page lists the volcano erupting at the Dinosaur Den, Santa shooting hoops, a pen of penguins, the Pirate Cannons and tunnels of moving lights, plus food trucks. According to the Mercury News, the show has grown from fewer than 30 displays to more than 50 over its run, and nearly all of them now use LED lights. The parks department also rearranged the route in 2024, moving the dinosaurs from their usual spot, and kept that new layout for 2025.

The traffic question, for people who live off Blossom Hill

The event is still at Vasona Lake County Park, 333 Blossom Hill Road. The county lists free parking and shuttles at Netflix, 121 Albright Way.

The Mercury News has described the old pressure point. Before reservations were required in 2016, cars waiting to get in caused "huge traffic jams along Blossom Hill Road, Lark Avenue and University Avenue." Advance tickets for set time windows made the lines shorter but didn't end them.

With no drive-through in 2026, there are no weeknight evenings in December when the event is drawing a car line to Vasona. Activity is concentrated on two Saturday and Sunday pairs, December 5 and 6 and December 12 and 13, between 4 and 9 p.m. If you live near the park, those are the four evenings to plan errands around. The county hasn't posted this year's entrance, exit or shuttle-hour details yet, so check its Fantasy of Lights page the week before you go.

The rest of December moves to Oak Meadow

Once the light show ends on December 13, the holiday activity moves next door. The county page points visitors to the Billy Jones Holiday Night Train and Carousel at Oak Meadow Park. It lists the dates as December 14 to 23 and December 26 to 28.

The railroad's own holiday train page lists December 14 through 23, then the 26th and 27th. It also lists train tickets at $10, carousel tickets at $6 and a $15 combo. If you're planning a night between Christmas and New Year's, check the railroad's page for the final date before you commit.

The railroad's directions suggest getting to Oak Meadow from Los Gatos Boulevard by way of Blossom Hill Road rather than turning in from University Avenue, because drive-through traffic can back up there. With no drive-through this year, that warning reflects how the area used to run.

For anyone who loved the weeknight version of December in this corner of town, the replacement looks like this: four ticketed weekend evenings at Vasona, then about two weeks of train rides at Oak Meadow. Book the first by November 1, and you can plan the second whenever it suits you.

If the new calendar has you thinking about December plans for your own place, like hosting family or getting a home ready to list in the new year, Ashley Mateo knows this side of Los Gatos well and is happy to talk it through. Start with an instant home valuation, and we'll take it from there.