Holiday light display with more than 2 million lights, trees, rides, food trucks, live music and photos with Santa.
The Austin Trail of Lights returns to Zilker Metropolitan Park this winter, running from November 29, 2026, through January 1, 2027. It's one of the city's three largest events, with more than 40 displays and 2 million lights spread across the park. Along the way, you'll find rides, food trucks, live music, and photos with Santa.
At the center of it all is the Zilker Holiday Tree, which stands 155 feet tall and is held up by 19 utility poles arranged around a historic Moonlight Tower. It carries 3,900 lights—converted from incandescent to LED in 2019—wound in a spiral by City of Austin electricians and topped with a ten-foot double star. Each year, an Austin-area youth artist, chosen through a city-wide art contest, lights the tree; the first was lit on December 10, 1967, by Mayor Pro Tem Emma Long.
The Moonlight Tower itself is part of a set of 17 original towers bought from Detroit in 1894, which became Texas State Landmarks in 1970. Austin is the only US city that still operates them. The Trail of Lights traces back to 1965, when it began as a small gathering called the Yule Fest, a gift from the Austin Parks and Recreation Department to the city. Since that first Yule Log was lit, it's grown into the scale it is today.
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The season kicks off with the Tree Lighting Ceremony on Sunday, November 29, 2026, at 5:15 PM, with pre-event music by the Austin Civic Wind Ensemble starting then and the tree lighting at 6:00 PM. From that point on, the display is open to the public daily from 6:00 PM to the 10:00 PM park curfew. You can find it at Zilker Metropolitan Park, 2100 Barton Springs Road.
