When family arrives at Pajaro Dunes for Thanksgiving and someone suggests the holiday lights at the Fairgrounds, which version are they picturing? The 2026 calendar has two. On most nights you stay in the car. On three December nights you aren't allowed to drive through at all, and you get out and walk.
Sparky's Holiday Lights runs at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, 2601 E Lake Ave in Watsonville, inland from the beach end of the Pajaro Valley. The same light displays are up all season. The experience changes completely depending on the date, and so does the kind of evening it makes for guests.
The Season, Night by Night
These dates and hours come from the official Sparky's Holiday Lights site. The weekdays are worked out from the 2026 calendar, with Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 26.
| Date | Day | Format | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov. 27, 28, 29 | Fri. to Sun. | Drive-thru | 5:30 to 9 p.m. |
| Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 | Mon. to Wed. | Dark | None |
| Dec. 3 | Thu. | Walk-thru, Krampus night | 5 to 9:30 p.m. |
| Dec. 4, 5 | Fri., Sat. | Walk-thru with Heritage Holiday Fair | 5 to 9 p.m. |
| Dec. 6 | Sun. | Drive-thru | 5:30 to 9 p.m. |
| Dec. 7 to 10 | Mon. to Thu. | Dark | None |
| Dec. 11, 12, 13 | Fri. to Sun. | Drive-thru | 5:30 to 9 p.m. |
| Dec. 14 to 17 | Mon. to Thu. | Dark | None |
| Dec. 18 to 24 | Fri. to Thu. | Drive-thru, nightly | 5:30 to 9 p.m. |
The ticket page states the switch plainly. December 3 is walk-thru only for the Krampus event, December 4 and 5 are walk-thru only for the Holiday Craft Fair, and "December 6th is back to Drive thru."
Through mid-December the lights only run Friday through Sunday, apart from the Thursday Krampus walk. The first week of December has no drive-thru nights between Sunday, November 29, and Sunday, December 6. The one long nightly stretch is the final week, December 18 through Christmas Eve.
Thanksgiving Weekend Is a Car Weekend
The season opens on Friday, November 27, the day after Thanksgiving, and the first three nights are all drive-thru. If your guests are only in town for the long weekend, a drive is the only way they'll see the lights.
The event site describes about a mile of displays, seen "from the comfort of your car" with holiday music playing. Tickets are sold through Ticket Tailor, linked from the event site's Buy Tickets button. They cost $20 per car, or $40 for RVs, buses and limousines, and the page notes that American Express isn't accepted.
Because you pay by the car, a full car costs the same as a half-empty one. Six people sharing one car pay the same $20 as two.
The same Friday has another lit-up option on the north side of the county. The Santa Cruz Holiday Lights Train starts on November 27 too, with vintage excursion cars leaving from the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk at 5 and 6:30 p.m. on a 60-minute ride, according to the Growing Up in Santa Cruz events calendar. Doing both on the same night would mean a run up Highway 1 and back down to Watsonville, and the Fairgrounds is the closer of the two from Pajaro Dunes.
Walk Week Gives You the Lights and the Fair Together
From Thursday, December 3, through Saturday, December 5, there's no drive-thru at all. Those three nights are the only chance to walk the Fairgrounds route on foot.
The two Friday and Saturday nights belong to the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds Foundation's 49th Annual Heritage Holiday Craft and Gift Fair. It runs noon to 9 p.m. both days in the Harvest, Crosetti and Fine Art buildings, and the lights come on at 5:30. The Foundation says fair admission also lets you walk Sparky's Holiday Lights. For those two days, then, the lights are part of a fair, and the fair is what you pay to enter.
The Foundation calls the fair "the official start of the holiday season here in the Pajaro Valley." It describes three buildings of handmade crafts, gifts, antiques, collectibles and toys, plus food at the Heritage Holiday Kitchens. It also notes that "many of our crafters have been with us for several years."
The Foundation's case for walking is specific. "Walking thru you'll see several things you might miss on your drive thru experience," its fair page says, adding that visitors might run into Santa Claus or the Grinch along the way. The event site describes the walk-thru as "hundreds of thousands of twinkling lights and festive displays," with cocoa, treats and shopping at the Holiday Faire.
Because the fair opens at noon, a full afternoon and evening can look like this:
- Arrive in the afternoon and shop the Harvest, Crosetti and Fine Art buildings while it's still light.
- Eat dinner at the Heritage Holiday Kitchens.
- Walk the lights once they come on at 5:30, with cocoa in hand.
Check the Foundation's fair page for this year's admission details before you go.
Thursday, December 3, is a separate walk-thru night listed as a Krampus event, running 5 to 9:30 p.m., half an hour later than the fair nights. It's the only walking night that isn't attached to the craft fair, and the only time the lights run on a Thursday before the final week.
The next day, Saturday, December 5, the Aptos Village Holiday Market and Tree Lighting takes place on the Aptos Village Green, with local craft vendors, photos with Santa and the tree lighting. That weekend has the most holiday events in the south county, with Watsonville's fair and walk-thru on Friday and Saturday and Aptos's tree lighting the same Saturday.
The Dark Nights Matter Most for Weekday Plans
Through mid-December the lights are off Monday through Thursday, with the single exception of the Krampus walk on Thursday, December 3. The three gaps are November 30 to December 2, December 7 to 10, and December 14 to 17. Apart from that one Thursday, a midweek visitor in early December has no night they can go.
That changes in the final week. From Friday, December 18, through Thursday, December 24, the drive-thru runs every night. It's the only time a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday visit is possible. For anyone hosting family over the Christmas break, that's the week to plan around. Christmas Eve is the final night.
Put together, the calendar breaks into four blocks:
- Thanksgiving weekend: three drive nights, for guests who are only in town Friday through Sunday.
- December 3 to 5: three walk nights, two of them combined with the craft fair, and no driving.
- December 6, 11 to 13: single weekend drive nights, with dark weekdays in between.
- December 18 to 24: seven straight drive nights, the only weekday drive option all season.
Where the $20 Goes
The Agricultural History Project says it produces Holiday Lights with the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds Foundation, and that the proceeds go to both organizations. Some of the people behind the event are local too. The 2026 season includes Youth Art in Lights, which turns children's artwork into actual light displays. Entries closed on October 23, and the event site also invites groups to apply for community display spaces.
The Agricultural History Project runs the Codiga Center & Museum on the same fairgrounds. Its exhibits cover the Pajaro Valley's apple industry, food preservation, vaqueros, fruit jars, milk bottles and dairy artifacts, alongside a research center, archives and a gift shop, according to the project's exhibits page. The museum keeps its own schedule. It's open every second Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. by appointment. It closes on Thanksgiving, Christmas and major holidays. Its page doesn't mention opening during the lights, so if you want to see the exhibits, plan a separate daytime visit.
So a drive past a lit-up windmill and reindeer also helps fund a museum about how this valley farmed, canned and shipped its crops. From Pajaro Dunes, that's the farmland you drive through to reach the Fairgrounds.
If you're planning holiday visits at the Dunes and want ideas for filling the days around a night at the lights, Melanie & Natalia are happy to share what we know about this stretch of the coast in December. Schedule a consultation and we'll help you plan the season around the dates that work for your guests.
