WonderLAnd

For a few weeks this winter, Woodland Hills is turning into the North Pole. The team behind this fall’s Haunt’Oween is back for a drive-thru holiday experience, again in the parking lot of the former Westfield Promenade (6100 Topanga Canyon Blvd).

You’ll drive through a half-dozen light tunnels, some of them with spaced out arches of string lights but others more fully-enclosed like the snowflake tunnel near the start. In between those, you’ll find rows of house facades decorated for the holidays, blasts of fake snow, flashing trees and just the right amount of tacky lawn decorations. Expect some actors outside your window, too, with stilt-walking toy soldiers, elves tangled up in wrapping paper and even Santa himself. You might not totally forget that you’re in a parking lot in the Valley, but the tightly-arranged route helps pack together as many lights as possible (though we’d never say no to more lights).

Our stop-and-go trip through WonderLAnd took just short of a half hour. But that was without any wait at the entrance, so maybe budget in some extra time during weekends. And speaking of budget, though $70 per car may seem step, we think this is actually the most reasonably-priced  and easy-to-recommend pick for families among this year’s drive-thru lights shows.