The 6 Best Christmas Lights: St. Louis, Missouri

If you are looking for holiday cheer, look no further than the Christmas Lights in St. Louis, Missouri. Each Christmas light display is unique and offers different holiday fun for your family. Please choose one or all of them. Each of these dazzling arrays of Drive-Thru Christmas Lights Displays around St. Louis, Missouri, and Southern Illinois will be an excellent addition to your holiday festive traditions for you and your family.  So let us grab those car keys, pile the family into the vehicle, and head out into the bright, colorful world of the Christmas Lights: St. Louis, Missouri.

Celebration of Lights – Fort Zumult Park

The Celebration of Lights is an entertaining family adventure during the holidays. We packed up the car and headed into the park when I went through this light display. We had so much fun with the windows rolled down and climbing over each other to get pictures and videos of the animated displays. Since 1991, this light display has brought joy to thousands of families during the holiday season.

Driving through the always-present light tunnel and taking in the decorated trees and holiday structures, including classic themes and even a Lampoon vacation theme, is exciting. The Celebration of Lights can always bring a smile to your face as your children yell out, “Look at that!”, “Did you see that?” “Look over there!” In addition to driving through the light display, you can purchase tickets to have your family ride through on a horse-drawn carriage. You are making it a truly memorable evening of holiday festiveness! 

Important things to note: There is a lot of traffic around this park during the light display times. Bring your patience. The Celebration of Lights turns on November 24th and runs Sunday to Thursday, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., and on Fridays and Saturdays from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. until December 30th. You must purchase tickets in advance. There is a $15/vehicle fee when entering the light display. The Celebration of Lights is at 1000 Jessup Drive West in O’Fallon. 

Winter Wonderland – Tilles Park

Winter Wonderland is one of the most enjoyable Holiday Light Displays I have seen in St. Louis. The display is 1.5 miles filled with over a million lights decorating over 100 displays of festive characters, trees, classic holiday scenes, and even some modern ones. Have you ever seen Santa on a jet ski? You will see it here! You can also coordinate your car’s radio with the music on speakers while driving through the display. There is also an opportunity to buy tickets for a horse-drawn carriage ride through the park. From what I observed, all the riders in the carriage wore face masks. Horse-drawn carriages stay on the left, so make sure your vehicle stays on the right side of the drive.

Important things to note: Traffic is heavy right before the entrance to Tilles Park. You must queue up on the shoulder to enter the light display. The light show turns on every night starting November 22nd from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. until December 30th. When you leave the light display, you must pay a $20 cash fee per vehicle and try to bring the exact amount or buy your tickets in advance. No credit cards are accepted. Winter Wonderland is in Tilles Park at 9551 Litzsinger Road in St. Louis. Several walk-up carriage rides are available each night at the McCarthy Construction parking lot south of Tilles Park. Please note that walk-up ride prices are higher than pre-registration prices.

Winter Wonderland is my favorite Christmas Light display in St. Louis. If you visit on a lovely evening, roll down the windows and enjoy the lights and wonderful Christmas music. I even saw a kid poking his head out of the sunroof, enjoying the light display. I’m not recommending that, but the cars do drive slowly through the lights. 

Remember to turn off your headlights when you visit any drive-thru Christmas Light Displays. It is inconsiderate to the vehicle in front of you and ruins their light experience when your lights shine into their car the whole time. I’m sure you don’t want the person behind you to do the same. If you are unsure how to turn them off, check before entering the light displays. And above all else, enjoy the canopy of lights glistening throughout the seventy-five acres of Tilles Park.

Check the schedule to find out if it is a walk night or if vehicles can drive through Tilles Park.

Christmas Wonderland – Alton

Christmas Wonderland’s light display has over 4 million lights decorating trees in the Rock Spring Park in Alton. You are welcomed by the giant cascading waterfall of lights when you enter the park. A different group decorates each area of the park. You might think it would be disconnected, but there are so many lights that they flow together. When you get to the park’s high point and look down, it seems like a river flowing with colorful lights with lit trees popping up by the river. If you want to listen to Christmas tunes while driving through the light display, turn your radio station to 87.9 FM or tune in to 102.5 FM for Christmas music from St. Louis. 

Important things to note: Traffic is heavy going through the lights. Please be patient when looking at the lights, as the cars will stop and go throughout the display. The entrance is at 2100 College Ave in Alton. The light show is turned on starting November 24th, Monday to Friday, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays & Sundays until December 27th. A suggested $7 donation per car or $1/person for vehicles with over ten people. 

Christmas Wonderland is a drive-thru light display that my mom and I have been going through almost every time I come into town for the holidays. The year I went, I was pleasantly surprised when the truck paid for my car’s donation in front of me. Thank you for the fantastic pay-it-forward gift! 

Christmas Lights Wonderland – Greenville

This is one light display that you can easily see from I-70, but most people don’t take the time to visit it. What a lovely surprise it was! The light display is in the American Tractor Museum and has a single one-way route through the displays. I was so glad not to rush through this as there are over 50 lightboxes to see. Most of them are on the car’s passenger (right) side. While driving solo, I had to stop the vehicle for each lightbox to see what was in them.

These lightboxes are so creative. You can find everything here, from the traditional nativity and holiday scenes, Santa and Rudolph, and even the Peanuts gang make an appearance. Hot Chocolate and cookies will be available in the Lil’ Red Barn. Hopefully, that sways you to visit this fascinating light display in Greenville. 

Important things to note: The entry is at the American Tractor Museum at 1395 Museum Ave in Greenville. The light boxes and displays turn nightly from November 24th from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. until December 31st. The cost to enter is by donating as much as you want.

Way of Lights – Belleville

Another unique holiday event to add to your list is to explore the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. You can expect an incredible light display with over a million lights annually. But, there are more than lights here. You can make stops at a couple of places for more family fun. The first stop is filled with live animals. You can get some beautiful photos of your children feeding the animals in the petting zoo or getting camel, donkey, or pony rides.

The second stop is indoors in the chapel. Inside, you can find the choir singing beautiful Christmas carols. After listening to the lovely music, you can browse through the creatively decorated Christmas trees and wreaths before you head back out to your vehicle to finish driving through the light display.

For over 50 years, Our Lady of the Snows has been welcoming over 350,000 visitors during each holiday season and shared the Birth of Christ story. Attending the Way of Lights is a magical evening of laughter and smiles; it’s a great reminder of what the Christmas season is all about. 

Important things to note: Traffic is heavy entering the Light Display. The entrance is at 442 South DeMazenod in Belleville. The light show runs daily starting November 17th from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. until December 31st. There is no cost to enter the light display. However, additional costs to feed the animals and the camel and pony rides exist. See more photos in the Way of Lights blog post.

Wonderlight’s Christmas – World Wide Technology Raceway, Madison

Wonderlight’s Christmas is the St. Louis area’s largest synchronized holiday light show. The light display has over a million lights in a two-mile route in the raceway center. You must turn your radio to 89.5 FM to hear the lights synced with the music. There is a 50-minute loop of music timed with the lights. And this is about the time to get through the entire display. It is bumper-to-bumper at the beginning of the route with the dancing candy canes and lollipops. Then as you wind through the presentation, the cars start to space out, letting you enjoy the floating snowflakes, dancing trees, and the five long tunnels of lights.

Important things to note: Traffic is extremely heavy. There are two lanes of traffic winding outside the display, and they all merge into one line for the light display. Please bring your patience as it took me an hour and a half to get to the light show entrance, and I arrived there at 6 p.m. The line behind me looked even longer than when I arrived. The good news is that port-a-johns are sporadically placed while you wait in line to enter the Raceway.

The entrance to the Raceway is from Collinsville Rd. The light show begins on November 17th from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and until December 31st. There is a $7 fee per person, and a carload of up to 7 people is $30. You can purchase your tickets at the gate or online. The World Wide Technology Raceway is at 700 Raceway Blvd in Madison. 

I was not impressed with how long I had to wait to get into the display, and then it seemed a little slow to begin with. The last portion of the show was more exciting, but by then, you were driving too fast to capture anything on your phone without it blurring. Would I go again? Probably not, but I enjoyed rocking out to the Carol of Bells and even the Christmas Vacation song. 

Where to find the best Christmas Lights: St. Louis, Missouri

Christmas is my favorite holiday, and even when I get busy with life, it is nice to step back and measure what is truly important. Taking a break and making time to drive-thru these magical Christmas Light Displays helps you re-focus your crazy-filled life to a simpler time, where thoughts were only filled with what you wanted to get for Christmas and having fun spending time with your family. This holiday season, drive through these spectacular Christmas Lights in St. Louis, Missouri, with your family. It’s time for some laughter, Smiles, and Family Fun. Happy Holidays Everyone!

Have you been to one of these dazzling drive-thru Christmas Light Displays in St. Louis, Missouri? Which one is your favorite?

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Further Reading

If you are exploring Alaska, check out these posts for extra travel inspiration:

• Top 8 Activities to do at Chena Hot Springs Resort
• Arctic Circle and Beaver Village Flightseeing Tour
• Shooting the Northern Lights in Alaska
• Alaskan Dog Sled Adventure and Lots of Puppies
• Yes, There is a Santa Claus!