Aerial view of a desert zoo lit up with Christmas lights at night in Phoenix in December

Do

PHOENIX

December is the month Phoenix does at night. The days stay mild enough to hike at noon, and after a 5:20 p.m. sunset the whole Valley switches on: five million lights at the zoo, candlelit trails at the Garden, a resort rebuilt as a Christmas park, and a temple display that costs nothing. This is the December layer of our year-round ranking (things to do in Phoenix, the 25 best), cut down to what this one month does best.

Read the month in two halves. The first half is the local window. Through about December 15, every big show is running and the crowds have not peaked: ZooLights is calmer on weekday nights, Luminarias still has tickets on its early December weekends, and the two parades, the APS Electric Light Parade on December 5 and the Fantasy of Lights Boat Parade on December 12, anchor the two best free nights of the month. The second half is the holiday surge. Visiting family arrives, the Princess extends its hours from December 17, Schnepf Farms goes daily in its final week, and the stretch from December 26 to 31 becomes the busiest lights week of the year. Underneath all of it, the weather is the quiet gift: NOAA 1991 to 2020 normals for Sky Harbor put the average December high at 66.2° and the low at 45.3°. Short days, long nights, and a jacket after dark. That trade is the whole month.

December at a glance

Weather: average high 66.2°, average low 45.3° (NOAA 1991 to 2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor). Sunset near 5:20 p.m. all month, so every plan splits cleanly into a day half and a lights half. All month: ZooLights, Phoenix Zoo, nightly 5:30 to 10:30 p.m., $35 general, $30 members. 20 December nights: Las Noches de las Luminarias, Desert Botanical Garden, Dec 4 to 6, 11 to 13, 16 to 23 and 26 to 31, 5 to 9:30 p.m., adults $39.95 to $44.95 by date. Dark Dec 24 and 25. All month: Christmas at the Princess, Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, nightly to Jan 2, $35 ahead, $45 day of, parking extra. Nov 27 to Dec 27: Christmas at Schnepf Farms, Queen Creek, Thu to Sun, then daily Dec 21 to 27, closed Christmas Day, 5 to 10 p.m., $19.95 to $27.95. Nov 27 to Dec 30: Mesa Temple Christmas Lights, nightly 5 to 10 p.m., free. Dec 4 to 6: Tempe Festival of the Arts, Mill Avenue, free. Dec 5: APS Electric Light Parade, Central Avenue, 7 p.m., free. Dec 11 to 27: The Nutcracker, Ballet Arizona at Symphony Hall. Dec 12: Fantasy of Lights Boat Parade, Tempe Town Lake, 4 to 9 p.m., free. Dec 12 to 26: Winterhaven Festival of Lights, Tucson, nightly 6 to 10 p.m., free. Thursdays: Scottsdale ArtWalk, Old Town, 7 to 9 p.m., free. Hotels: fair in the first half, peak from Christmas week through New Year. Book the nights around Dec 30 and 31 early.

The headline events

December has one job and it does it five ways: a zoo, a garden, a resort, a farm and a temple, all lit, all within about 40 minutes of each other. Our Phoenix Christmas lights guide compares the big four head to head. This is how they sit inside the month.

Lights · Nov 25 to Jan 15

ZooLights, Phoenix Zoo

The family institution, and the easiest yes of the season. ZooLights runs nightly 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. from November 25 to January 15 at the Phoenix Zoo in Papago Park: five million lights over more than two miles of trail, a floating light show on the lake built around a 50 foot LED tree, a 200 foot light tunnel, glowing animal sculptures and the lit Dinosaurs in the Desert trail. Tickets are $35 general and $30 for members, good for any one public night, and photos with Santa run through December 23 by reservation for a separate fee. Two honest notes. First, most animals are asleep and off view; this is a light show at a zoo, not a night at the zoo, and the Zoo itself says so. Second, timing is the whole game: the Zoo flags Monday to Wednesday as the calmest nights, the first two weeks of December run lighter than the Christmas weeks, and arriving around 7:30 to 8 p.m. walks you in behind the opening rush. Members get the best deal of the month: on Member Mondays, December 7 and 14, members can buy up to six tickets at $10 each. Verdict: the default December night with kids and visiting grandparents. Go early in the month, on a weekday, after the first entry wave.

Lights · 20 December Nights

Las Noches de las Luminarias, Desert Botanical Garden

The quiet one, and the night that exists nowhere else. Volunteers light thousands of luminarias by hand and set them along the desert trails of the Desert Botanical Garden, among the saguaros, with live music tucked along the paths. It runs 5 to 9:30 p.m. on select nights only: in December, the 4th to 6th, 11th to 13th, 16th to 23rd and 26th to 31st, twenty nights, with no event on December 24 or 25. Adult general admission runs $39.95 to $44.95 depending on the date, members pay $37.95 to $42.95, and children ages 2 to 17 are $18.95. This winter the trails also carry Super Bloom, the Garden’s large scale floral installation show, so the candlelit version doubles as an art night. The select nights format is the catch: December dates are the Garden’s hottest ticket of the year, so treat the Garden’s own advice literally and buy in advance, especially for the December 16 to 23 run. Note the pairing locals use: the Garden and the Zoo sit minutes apart on Galvin Parkway, so one Papago Park weekend can hold both, Luminarias for the adults’ night and ZooLights for the kids’. Verdict: if you do one lights night all season, make it this one, and make it a weeknight in the first half of the month.

Lights · Nov 20 to Jan 2

Christmas at the Princess, Fairmont Scottsdale Princess

The spectacle. For its 17th year the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess rebuilds its 65 acres as a Christmas park, nightly from November 20 to January 2, with more than 17 million lights in the Lagoon Lights walkthrough, a four story musical tree in the Enchanted Plaza, the Princess Express trains, the Chair Lift Ferris Wheel, the Snow Mountain ice slide and Twinkle Town for small kids. Hours run 5 to 10 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 4 to 11 p.m. Friday to Sunday, and from December 17 the long hours run daily. Now the money, because this is the expensive night of the five: general admission is $35 per person bought ahead, $45 on the day, children 3 and under free, and parking is separate, self parking $35 ahead or $45 on the day, valet $120 ahead or $130 on the day. Ice skating is an extra $35 Ice Pass, and photos with Santa are $55 by reservation through December 24. The math that matters: overnight guests get complimentary admission with VIP express wristbands, up to four per room, which is why so many locals turn this into a staycation instead of paying admission and parking for a family of four. Reseller tickets are not honored, so buy from the resort. Verdict: the big night out of the Arizona Christmas season. Price the room package before you price four wristbands and a parking pass.

Lights · Nov 27 to Dec 27

Christmas at Schnepf Farms, Queen Creek

The East Valley’s own big night, at the best price of the five. A working farm in Queen Creek becomes a walk through Christmas park from November 27 to December 27: Thursday to Sunday for most of the run, then daily December 21 to 27, closed Christmas Day, open 5 to 10 p.m. General admission runs $19.95 to $27.95 by date, ages 2 and under are free, and parking is free. The ticket covers more than visitors expect: ice skating is included, along with the sleigh bell slide, hay rides, a carousel, bonfires, Christmas movies and what the farm bills as the world’s largest Christmas themed inflatable obstacle course. The one extra to budget is the Illumination Express train through the light displays, $10 per person, and it sells out on busy nights, so add it when you buy. It is the same farm, crew and fields as the fall Pumpkin and Chili Party we covered in October, with lights instead of pumpkins. The honest trade is distance: Queen Creek is a real drive from Scottsdale or central Phoenix, and an easy home game from Mesa, Gilbert and the East Valley. Verdict: the value pick of the season, and the one young kids talk about longest. Thursday and Friday nights run calmest.

Lights · Free · Nov 27 to Dec 30

Mesa Temple Christmas Lights and the Nativity Exhibit

The free anchor of the East Valley season, running for more than four decades. The grounds of the Mesa Arizona Temple in downtown Mesa light up nightly from November 27 to December 30, 5 to 10 p.m., hundreds of thousands of lights across the gardens and reflecting pools, and it costs nothing: admission is free and parking is free. Next door in the visitors center, the International Nativity Exhibit shows hundreds of nativity scenes from around the world during the same evening hours. There is no ticket, no timed entry and no upsell, which makes this the easiest December plan on this page: dinner on Main Street in downtown Mesa, a slow walk through the lights, home by nine. It is also the gentlest of the five shows, a stroll rather than a production, and on the weekends closest to Christmas the grounds fill with East Valley families doing exactly that. Go on a weeknight for the quiet version. Verdict: the best free night of the Phoenix December, full stop. Pair it with a Schnepf night and the East Valley has the season covered.

Lights · Check Before You Go

Glendale Glitters, honestly framed

One honest note instead of a confident listing. Glendale Glitters, the West Valley’s downtown lights tradition in Murphy Park, had not posted its 2026 dates or format on the city site when this guide was checked on November 5, and recent seasons ran smaller than the big multi block shows older guides still describe. It may well return in a park centered form, tree, lights and movie nights, but we will not print dates the city has not announced. If a West Valley lights night matters to your trip, check glendaleaz.gov before you drive, and treat any site quoting last decade’s version of this show with suspicion. Verdict: a maybe for 2026, not a plan. The five shows above are the December you can book.

[AFFILIATE: Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Christmas packages] · [AFFILIATE: hotels in Phoenix in December]

Parades, art and city nights

Not every December night needs a ticket. Two Saturdays carry free parades, Old Town wraps itself in a month of programming, and Tucson’s great neighborhood show makes the month’s best day trip.

Parade · Sat Dec 5

APS Electric Light Parade, Central Avenue

Phoenix’s own parade, in its 39th year: illuminated floats, marching bands and community groups rolling down Central Avenue under the lights on Saturday, December 5 at 7 p.m. The route starts at Central Avenue and Montebello Avenue, heads south to Camelback Road, east to 7th Street, then south again to Indian School Road. It is free to watch from the curb, and the local rules apply: arrive early for a spot near the start of the route, bring the jacket the 45 degree evening will demand, and let someone else drive, because Central Avenue closes and the light rail fills. Note the date collision, because it is a gift: December 5 is also a Luminarias night and the middle day of the Tempe Festival of the Arts, so a parade night can stack on top of a full December day without any extra planning. Verdict: the most Phoenix night of the month, and it costs nothing but an early arrival.

Art Fair · Dec 4 to 6

Tempe Festival of the Arts, Mill Avenue

The daytime half of the first December weekend. More than 350 artists line historic Mill Avenue in downtown Tempe for the fall edition of the Tempe Festival of the Arts, Friday, December 4 to Sunday, December 6, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, with free admission. It is the strongest holiday shopping of the season that is not a mall: real artists selling their own work across several closed blocks, with Tempe Town Lake at one end and the light rail running through it. Go Friday for the calm version, or build the Saturday that this page keeps hinting at: festival in the late morning, an early dinner on Mill, then the Electric Light Parade up Central Avenue at 7, or a Luminarias night in Papago Park, twenty minutes away. Verdict: the best daytime anchor of early December, and the start of the month’s best Saturday.

Boat Parade · Sat Dec 12

Fantasy of Lights Boat Parade, Tempe Town Lake

The most Arizona sentence of the season: a Christmas boat parade, in the desert, in December. Dozens of boats dressed in lights parade across Tempe Town Lake on Saturday, December 12, 4 to 9 p.m., from Tempe Beach Park, with a holiday market and Santa on shore and a fireworks finale over the water. Admission is free. The season actually opens two weeks earlier, when the companion street parade and tree lighting take over Mill Avenue on November 28, but the boat parade is the one to circle: there is nothing else like it in the state, the reflections double every light string, and the whole evening fits between a Desert Botanical Garden afternoon and a late dinner. Arrive before dark to claim a spot on the north shore, and expect the bridges and the beach park lawn to fill by the time the first boats push off. Verdict: free, singular and very photographable. The December 12 weekend is the month’s most stackable.

Old Town · All Month

Scottsdazzle and Thursday ArtWalk, Scottsdale

Old Town wraps the season in Scottsdazzle, its month long holiday program of lights, the canal side tree and free downtown programming. One honest flag: the 2026 dates had not been posted on the official event page when this guide was checked, and recent seasons ran from the last weekend of November through December 31, so confirm the calendar at experiencescottsdale.com before building a night around a specific Scottsdazzle event. The part of Old Town December you can set your watch by is the Scottsdale ArtWalk, running most Thursdays, 7 to 9 p.m., free, with more than 50 galleries open late along Main Street and Marshall Way. The December Thursdays to count on are the 3rd, 10th and 17th; the Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve Thursdays are worth a check on the Gallery Association site before you go. Pair an ArtWalk Thursday with dinner in Old Town and you have December’s easiest grown up evening, no ticket required. Verdict: ArtWalk is the reliable weekly ritual of the Scottsdale season. Scottsdazzle is the wrapper around it.

Stage · Dec 11 to 27

The Nutcracker, Ballet Arizona at Symphony Hall

The indoor classic. Ballet Arizona performs The Nutcracker with The Phoenix Symphony at Symphony Hall in downtown Phoenix from December 11 to 27, matinees and evening performances across the run. It is the one December institution on this page that happens under a roof, which makes it the natural anchor for the month’s coldest evenings and the traditional first ballet for a lot of Arizona kids. Book through Ballet Arizona directly, and book early for the weekend matinees closest to Christmas, which are the performances that go first every year. Downtown pairs well with it: the Phoenix Festival of the Arts fills Phoenix Center for the Arts on December 12, free from 10 a.m., so a matinee day can start with local art and end with Tchaikovsky. Verdict: the dress up night of the Phoenix December. One performance is the right dose for most families.

Day Trip · Dec 12 to 26

Winterhaven Festival of Lights, Tucson

The month’s best drive. Since 1949, the Winterhaven neighborhood in Tucson has lit itself up house by house, and the Winterhaven Festival of Lights runs December 12 to 26, nightly 6 to 10 p.m. You walk streets where nearly every home is a display, it is free, and donations to the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona are encouraged at the entrances. Most nights are walk only; the festival runs a drive through night on December 22 for visitors who cannot walk the route, and the official site lists the season’s special nights before you go. From Phoenix it is 115 miles down I-10, an easy evening trip or a better overnight paired with our Tucson and Saguaro weekend guide. Go on a weeknight if you can; the weekends closest to Christmas draw the whole of southern Arizona. Verdict: the most community made Christmas in the state. Worth every mile of the drive.

The desert, in December

Saguaros and desert plants at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix in December light
The Desert Botanical Garden by day in December. By night this month, the same trails run by candlelight.

The nights get the headlines, but December days are the reason the nights work: at a 66 degree average high, the entire outdoor map is open at midday, and the early sunset just means the second half of the day starts at five.

Outdoors · All Month

Hiking season, short day edition

December keeps the deal November made and shortens the clock. Camelback Mountain and Piestewa Peak are still the headline summits, South Mountain and the Phoenix Mountains Preserve give you miles, and the McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale is the quiet escape from the holiday crowds. What changes is daylight: sunset lands near 5:20 p.m. all month, the shortest days of the year, so the standing rules tighten. Start long hikes in the morning, carry a light for any descent that might run late, and remember that Camelback’s trailheads run sunrise to sunset with limited parking that fills on holiday week mornings. Mornings start cold by desert standards, near that 45 degree average low, and warm fast; the layered start and t-shirt finish is the December uniform. Verdict: hike in the late morning, lights at night. December is built for exactly that split, and nothing else in the year is.

Garden · Daytime All Month

Desert Botanical Garden, the day shift

The same Garden that hosts Luminarias at night is a full daytime visit in December, open from 7 a.m. in its fall and winter block and closed only on Christmas Day. Five trails through a living desert collection, docent led tours through the day, and this season’s Super Bloom installation, more than 20 larger than life floral pieces across the grounds, which reads completely differently in morning light than it does by candlelight. Daytime admission is priced by date, so check dbg.org for your day rather than trusting any guide’s number, including ours. One date to circle: Tuesday, December 8 is Community Day, the Garden’s monthly pay what you can day, the cheapest honest way into the Garden all season. The local move for visitors with two Papago Park days: Garden by day and ZooLights by night on one day, Luminarias on the other, and you have seen the park in all three of its December forms. Verdict: the easiest yes on this page, for the third month running. Some picks repeat because they are right every month.

Architecture · Winter Season

Taliesin West, in its home season

Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter camp is in the middle of its long home block. Taliesin West is open daily through the winter season, the first self guided audio tour starts at 10 a.m. and the last entrance is at 3:45 p.m., and the site is closed on Christmas Day. The tour runs 60 to 75 minutes through Wright’s living and working spaces and costs $44 for adults and $22 for ages 6 to 17, with reservations required and tickets limited. December adds a quiet bonus: this winter’s ticket includes the Originals exhibition at no extra charge. Bring headphones for the app based tour and a hat, because as much of the walk is outside as in, and a December morning in north Scottsdale starts cold even when the afternoon is kind. It pairs naturally with a Princess night: same corner of Scottsdale, same day, completely different register. Verdict: the thinking person’s December daytime. Book the morning slot and take the long light.

Museums · Any Day

The MIM and the Heard, holiday edition

December hands every visitor at least one cold morning, and the museums are the answer. The Musical Instrument Museum is open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., admission $24 for adults, $15 for teens and $10 for kids 4 to 12, and most guests stay nearly four hours, so give it a real half day; its current special exhibition of ancient Chinese instruments, on display in the United States for the first time, runs through the season. The Heard Museum on Central Avenue runs daily 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is closed on Christmas Day; Bank of America cardholders get one free admission on the Museums on Us weekend, December 5 and 6, which stacks neatly onto parade Saturday. Put one museum on the morning of a lights night and the day plans itself: culture in the warm hours, candles after dark. Verdict: MIM for the wow, Heard for the meaning. December mornings were made for both.

A December weekend, planned

Take the month’s most stackable weekend, December 11 to 13, and run it like this. Friday: a late morning hike while the desert warms up, then Luminarias at the Garden from 5 p.m., candles on the trails and Super Bloom by night, on the first night of its December 11 to 13 weekend. Saturday: the Garden again by day or the MIM in the morning, then down to Tempe by 4 p.m. for the Fantasy of Lights Boat Parade, market first, boats at dark, fireworks to close. Sunday: a slow Old Town morning, then Christmas at the Princess from 4 p.m. on its long Sunday hours, trains and lagoon lights, home before the week starts. Everything sits within about 35 minutes of everything else, and only two of the three nights need a ticket bought ahead.

Coming for Christmas week instead, December 26 to 31? The shape changes but holds. Luminarias returns on the 26th and runs every night through the 31st, ZooLights runs nightly, the Princess is on long hours every day, and Schnepf Farms closes its season on the 27th, so make the farm the first night of the trip, not the last. Book all of it before you book the flights. That is the month in a sentence: in December, Phoenix rewards the planner.

The honest warnings

Book the two ticketed nights first. Luminarias runs on select nights with dated, dynamic pricing, and its December weekends and the December 16 to 23 run are the Garden’s most wanted tickets of the year. Christmas at the Princess sells its best nights too, and its real cost is admission plus parking, so price the pair together, or price the overnight room that makes both free, before you commit. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day split the calendar. There is no Luminarias on December 24 or 25, Schnepf Farms is closed Christmas Day, and the Desert Botanical Garden, Taliesin West and the Heard Museum all close on the 25th. ZooLights and Christmas at the Princess run straight through, which makes them the Christmas Day plan by default. The cold is real after dark. A 66 degree afternoon becomes a 45 degree night fast once the sun drops at 5:20, and every headline event on this page happens after dark. The jacket is not optional equipment in December. New Year’s week tightens everything. Rooms around December 30 and 31 go early as the holiday crowds stack up, so book those nights when you book the lights, not after. And two listings on this page are honestly unconfirmed. Glendale Glitters and the Scottsdazzle calendar had not posted 2026 dates when this guide was checked on November 5. We flagged both in place rather than printing borrowed dates, and both are worth a fresh check in December.

Keep planning

[AFFILIATE: hotels in Phoenix in December]

About & Disclosure

TRVL Guide is a travel resource site. Some links on this site may be affiliate links. If you book through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It helps keep the guides free.

Filed under Do. Every hub, hike, tour, event and itinerary on trvlguide lives on the Do shelf, next to Eat and See.

The trvlguide letter

Phoenix, in your inbox.

One email a week in season: new guides, event weekends and the desert windows worth planning around, from Phoenix to Sedona to the Grand Canyon. Free, no spam.

Enter your email to join free: