All of the Lights

10 best places in Austin to watch enchanting holiday light displays

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - Luminations

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center hosts Luminations.

Photo courtesy of Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

When it comes to the best things about the holidays, getting to see all of the twinkling lights go up around town is definitely a top contender. Whether you’re looking for a festive family outing or are celebrating the season with your best pals, catch some fun holiday light displays at one of these events around Austin.

Community First! Village of Lights
Head east towards the Travis County Exposition Center to see a display of over 200,000 lights choreographed to holiday music at the Community First! Village of Lights. The free event takes place on December 1-2 and 8-9, with lights from 6-9 pm. You can also shop for handcrafted gifts at the Advent Market, catch a Christmas movie, and enjoy some hot cocoa and s'mores.

Luminations at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center pulls out all the stops during the winter to illuminate their gardens with enchanting luminarias and light displays. While meandering through the paths, enjoy complimentary maple taffy and hot chocolate, or purchase other tasty snacks from the on-site vendor, Royal Fig Catering. Tickets are $15 for non-members ages 5 and up, and $10 for members ages 5 and up. Children under age 4 can enter for free.

Austin Trail of Lights
A hallmark of the holiday season in Austin is the Trail of Lights at Zilker Park, a community-wide celebration since 1965. Roughly 400,000 people show up every year to enjoy more than 40 displays using more than two million lights. The event runs from 7-10 pm from December 9 through December 23. Options for entry include visiting during their select free entry dates, buying a $3 general admission ticket online to skip the lines at the event, getting a ZIP Fast Pass to gain early access, or go all out with the extra perks of a Platinum Pass. Limited parking is available with a prepaid pass.

Lakeway Trail of Lights
Did you know that there’s more than one place around town to check out a Trail of Lights? Lakeway has its own celebration going on every night through January 1. And the fun goes on late into the evening from 6 pm to midnight. Better still, there's no cost to park or attend. You can get to the trail from either the lower level of the Lakeway Activity Center parking lot or from behind City Hall.

Winter Wonderland at the Circuit
It's easy for the whole family to get into the holiday spirit at Winter Wonderland at the Circuit. On top of its spectacular Tunnel of Lights and Circuit of Lights Track Walk, the transformed Grand Plaza of the racetrack has a human snow globe, petting zoo, Santa's workshop, skating rink, train ride, vendor village, and plenty of other festive activities. The Winter Wonderland is open during the evenings from December 1-2, and then again December 8 through December 30. Admission is $16 (although children 5 and under are free).

Mozart's Christmas Light Show
Mozart's Coffee Roasters is a local favorite known for delicious lattes and scenic water views, but during the Christmas season, it hosts a spectacular nightly light show. You can catch the dazzling display made up of more than a million LED lights from 6-11 pm now through January 1 (except on Christmas Day). It takes place on the outdoor deck, and is completely free to enjoy.

The Domain Holiday Light Shows
The holidays are in full swing at The Domain. On top of checking out the light shows made up of more than 200,000 lights synchronized to music, the complimentary horse-drawn carriage rides, carolers, and Santa photo experience on the weekends make for a jolly ol' time. And, of course, the many different retailers at the mall mean it’s easy for you to go ahead and finish your Christmas shopping while in the area.

Anna Court
You have to love a group of neighbors that all get together to put on an over-the-top holiday lights display. The Anna Court cul-de-sac in Cedar Park is one such group. These houses are decked out in lights, which they coordinate to a playlist of holiday hits. You can swing by any evening of the week to catch the display. It’s free to check out, but they are accepting toys to donate to the Blue Santa program.

Chinati Court
Anna Court isn’t the only street in Cedar Park going all in with the decorations this season. Just a short 5-minute drive away is Chinati Court, which hosts its own lovely light display. Park your car in the neighborhood, and stroll along the street to take in the Christmas cheer. As an extra special touch, they have train rides on Friday and Saturday nights. Chinati Court is also accepting toy donations, which they’re giving to Brown Santa.

Rhodes Family Christmas
For years, the Rhodes family has decked out their home to create a fun Christmas lights display. In fact, a few years ago they were featured on ABC’s The Great Christmas Light Fight. You can see view the lights for yourself by heading over to 2410 Sharon Dr. in Cedar Park. It won’t cost you anything, but they are collecting donations for the Cedar Park Area Food Bank.

Community First! Village of Lights hosts a free, all-ages display.

Mobile Loaves and Fishes

Community First! Village of Lights hosts a free, all-ages display.

holidays

Belles of the Ballroom

9 Austin bar and venue experts take over popular Old Austin space near UT

29th Street Ballroom/Facebook

Changes are coming at the 29th Street Ballroom, but the goal is to preserve what already makes it special.

The evolution continues at the 29th Street Ballroom, the music venue formerly attached to Spider House Café. It's no secret, Resound Presents CEO and co-founder Graham Williams says, that he and a large team of other industry pros are taking over the space; but now they're ready to talk about what comes next for the venue and adjoining bar.

Although Spider House Café closed in 2020, the Ballroom stayed open, and has continued serving University of Texas students and anyone else who wants to see a show outside of the ordinary: punk shows, burlesque revues, fundraisers, and more. It'll stay open through most of the renovations, scheduled through January of 2025, and is expected to hold a grand opening in March.

Now Resound — one of Austin's top live music organizers, which was itself born from the ashes of another Austin institution — is lending two of its co-founders to managing the space going forward: Williams and Ian Orth. They're joining seven other team members from venues around town, many of them overlapping: Amy Mullins, Brian Tweedy, Jason McNeely, John Yaklin, and Shannon LeBoeuf of Hotel Vegas, Chess Club, Kinda Tropical, Tweedy’s, and Yellow Jacket Social Club, in varying capacities; and Brian Buscemi and Mike Sanchez of the Little Darlin’.

Williams emphasizes that although things will be changing at the Ballroom, the goal isn't to change anything people already love.

"Over the next few months as we kind of ease into the spring, we're using this downtime to revitalize things, decorate, revamp some of the stuff in the venue and the bar, and just kind of get things moving in the right direction," Williams says, "taking what's already popular about the venue and just adding to it, really."

Bar updates
The biggest shift will be turning the bar from an accessory to live shows into its own entity that's open even when there's nothing else going on. Amy Mullins, best known as a co-owner of Yellow Jacket Social Club, is overseeing that transition. She's never operated a venue that is primarily focused on music, and has been enjoying learning more about how to do it; she even worked the door recently when a staff member called out sick.

Mullins echoes Williams in assuring that the change is more about logistics than tone. It'll still feel like Old Austin, but she does express a hope to run more than the "typical venue bar," handing out simple drinks as quickly as possible. She's working on a new menu that includes wine, beer, craft cocktails, and non-alcoholic options like tea, kombucha, or mocktails. Regardless of what's on the schedule on any given night, Mullins says the menu will stay the same.

"There's no drink too complicated for us to make, however busy we are," she says.

Food options
Another goal for the team will be making sure the space works when there's not someone onstage to crowd around. They'll expand the front and side patios and create a food truck food court that features the same trucks that are there now, plus one newcomer. All in all, that includes Yalla Burger & Wings, Gyro Center, Li’l Nonna’s Vegan Pizzeria, Guppy’s Indian Fried Chicken, Waylon J’s BBQ, and Ay Chihuahua Tacos.

The expanded patio will connect to Tweedy's Bar next door, which also has its own food trucks. The idea is to create a space to hang out after shows that feels fit for the purpose. It's possible to stick around after events now, but the layout does create a vague feeling of loitering.

Artist and fan-friendly tweaks
On the entertainment side, Williams says some of the renovations include putting in a new sound system, redoing the green room, updating the facade, and repainting signs. Since the winter is a slower time for live music, they'll be taking advantage of the extra time to work on things before packing the calendar with more events than before. Resound will handle most of the bookings in live music, comedy, and DJ sets, welcoming both national and local talent.

Whatever the details end up being, this team has proved to Austinites that they know how to run venues worth visiting. And since they're all friends and business partners on multiple levels, it sounds like having this many cooks in the kitchen just isn't an issue.

"Some of us have been roommates and known each other since we were young," says Williams. "It's a good mix of people who are all very like minded, so a lot is being brought to the table per decision. So yeah, it's it's really exciting. Sometimes that's not the case. .... But with this project, it's a lot of really great, creative people that are good at what they do [and] they trust each other."

bars live music concerts comedy