January 2025 events calendar for Los Angeles

Each year, the botanical garden’s nighttime experience masterfully mixes hands-on art installations with atmospheric, luminescent forests, all against a backdrop of uplit trees and shimmery sound effects. This year’s event, which runs from November 17 through January 5, adds in the garden’s whimsical new model railroad, which has been all lit of for the season and filled with miniature replicas of Enchanted’s most recognizable installations (and kept me absolutely mesmerized for about 20 minutes). A few changes have carried over from last year’s edition, which shuffled some of the route and opened up a new glowing area around the rose garden. That’s where you’ll find HYBYCOZO’s familiar 3-D light sculptures (including their dizzying, spinnable versions) as well as a an assortment of food and drink options underneath a cozy pavilion. You’ll find a couple of other snacks by the main lawn, where sculptor Tom Fruin’s kaleidoscopic stained-glass–inspired houses sit flanked by smaller ones that let you smash a button to control the lighting. Elsewhere, Enchanted delightedly looks much like it has in the past: a field of faux tulips ripples with waves of twinkling color changes while the mist-filled “Ancient Forest” still beckons visitors with its straight-out-of-E.T. setting. The event is just as intuitively immersive as ever, and, true to its botanical garden location, the installations’ use of light and shadow emphasize the natural beauty of Descanso’s flora. It’s this sort...

The L.A. Zoo is staying open after dark most nights through January during this delightful take on its light-up holiday tradition. Once again, the event’s “Animals Aglow” edition will go all in on oversized animal-shaped lanterns, and—based on last year’s edition—the result is a colorful, charming trail that celebrates the zoo’s natural inhabitants. Plentiful and vibrant, these lantern versions of parrots, bears, butterflies, scorpions and owls come to life with playful movements and animation. Flora shares some of the focus, too, particularly in the golden glow of the field of grazing bison. We’ll see if this carries over to 2024, but last year’s biggest change came to the northern edge of the grounds, where you’ll find the Winter Wildlands area. The too-narrow lights tunnels here have been ditched in favor of a vision-filling polar playground, a gleefully gaudy burst of rainbow lights and icy structures that’ll make sure you don’t leave wishing that there’d been more lights. Though Zoo Lights has eschewed most overtly Christmassy elements outside of this area (a thematically focused upgrade to its original versions, in our opinion), it hasn’t ditched interactive spectacle. You can stomp on a color-changing hopscotch path, relax on illuminated swings, dance inside a shell of kaleidoscopic mirrors and bounce on some glowing seesaws. Buy your timed tickets (available in two sessions nightly) in advance to avoid the worst of the entry lines, and stick to the “value” nights...

There’s nothing Christmassy nor even wintry about this hour-long Palos Verdes trail, yet its nine stellar installations are the most cosmically mesmerizing of the budding after-dark botanical garden shows that’ve come to blanket L.A. toward the end of the year. Astra Lumina, which debuted in 2022, returns to South Coast Botanic Garden with the same array of celestial-inspired displays. Last year’s edition was basically identical to its debut. But if you loved your first trip to Astra Lumina or haven’t been at all, we still think this is a worthwhile (albeit expensive) event—perhaps better suited for a date night than a large-family affair. While some other year-end light shows seem less focused on moment-to-moment encounters and more on the photogenic snaps you’ll walk away with, Astra Lumina feels truly experiential. You’ll venture through scenes that interpret the arrival and departure of stars in an earthly garden: archways pulsate with light and mist, perforated lanterns spell out a stargazing journey, shooting stars chase up and down a cylindrical frame, shimmery bulbs blanket a forest floor and tranquil lanterns float among the trees. There’s plenty of wonderfully atmospheric fog along much of the trail, including in a shower of lasers so thick that you’ll swear you can touch them. (It’s also worth mentioning how lovely it is to experience a celebration of the night sky from one of the few locations in L.A. where it’s actually dark enough to see plenty of stars.)...

Riverside’s stunningly beautiful Mission Inn is bathed in 4.5 million twinkly lights during the annual Festival of Lights. The free six-week-long holiday tradition runs from late November to early January and typically features more than 400 animated figures. Having been voted the “Best Public Lights Display” by USA Today, the festival attracts over 500,000 visitors each year.

This spectacular exhibition from the Icelandic–Danish artist brings a new series of optical installations to MOCA’s Little Tokyo location. Don’t let the reflective, colorful pieces fool you into thinking this is some run-of-the-mill “immersive” exhibit: Olafur Eliasson’s works invite you to admire the everyday miracles of physics that shape how we see the world. The towering, mirror-lined stacks that fill the entrance of “OPEN” bring the outside in, as the warehouse-style Geffen Contemporary’s skylights create infinite spaces and mini worlds out of the sun and sky. The surprisingly analog optics behind them can be truly sublime: Gently moving water has a pair of pieces appear as shimmery landscapes, mirrors turn tubing into floating rings that trail into a black void and a simple array of pendants produce colorful flares against a screen. These aren’t pieces you’re meant to disappear into; instead, they provide a lens for the enviornment around us. You’ll need a timed ticket ($18) to see “Olafur Eliasson: OPEN.” Look for reservations on the first Friday of the month, from 5 to 8pm, for free admission.

You can’t seem to get more a stone’s throw away from a huge festive light display in Los Angeles come holiday season. Well, except for this new entry to the scene, which is making its L.A. debut all the way at Raging Waters. If you feel like making the trek out to San Dimas, though, Lektrik looks like quite the impressive display, boasting over 1,000,000 LED lights and larger-than-life lanterns through miles of illuminated trails. Adding to the experience are acrobatic performers, artisan vendors, food trucks and even some stone-carving.

Holiday light shows are popping up all over the city, but a new, free light installation is a more-than-welcome addition. Grand Illuminations, which consists of a custom 25-foot-tall LED light tree and Electric Dandelions—kicks off December 4 with a lighting ceremony, live music and refreshments from 5–8pm. The 10 dandelions, 28-foot-tall kinetic sculptures that look like fireworks in action, were designed by L.A.-based art collective Liquid PXL and debuted at Burning Man in 2016, popping up in the U.K., East Coast and various festivals before arriving at the Yard at Cal Plaza. The lights will stay on all holiday season, through January 8, till 10pm nightly.    

Right down the hill from Universal Studios Hollywood, at the Hilton hotel, you’ll find this ice skating rink with views of the Hollywood Hills. For the kids, there’s Santa’s Workshop and face painting. Grown-ups can opt for the “date & skate” package, which includes two tickets and two themed cocktails from Jingle Bell Tavern, a holiday pop-up bar. Theme nights include “Wicked Wednesdays,” when the rink is lit up in green and tracks from the musical provide the soundtrack starting December 4 (timed perfectly not only for the film version of Wicked but also the musical’s return to the Pantages). On opening night, November 30, skating will be free from 6–8pm after performances by a Wicked cast member and the Los Angeles Ice Theater.    

The annual L.A. Kings ice skating rink once again returns to L.A. Live. Skate around the dazzling Christmas tree that stands in the middle of the outdoor rink, and take in an LED holiday light show on the huge screens around the plaza. Choose from four nightly skating sessions. Note: Tickets, which include skate rental, are only sold on-site, and can’t be purchased online. RECOMMENDED: The best places to go ice skating in Los Angeles

From November 18 through mid-February next year, Koreatown’s Boba Bear is transforming into Arcane’s Last Drop Bar to promote the popular Netflix show’s second season. Inside the pop-up, guests will be transported straight into the heart of Zaun, where they can imbibe Arcane-inspired soju cocktails, plus a non-alcoholic option (“Shimmers”) served in a snazzy commemorative glowing glass tube. Expect plenty of games and photo ops in the space, which is decked out in the fictional city’s gritty, steampunk aesthetic, plus build-your-own cocktail classes and cosplay contests. Tickets start at $10 and are open to all ages, and each admission includes a beverage (except for Shimmers).