🎡 Light shows, drive-throughs & attractions
Wild Lights at Riverbanks Zoo
Riverbanks Zoo & Garden's after-dark walk-through lantern festival (the successor to the zoo's long-running Lights Before Christmas), with more than 60 larger-than-life handcrafted wildlife-and-nature lantern displays lighting the zoo groun
Holiday Lights on the River at Saluda Shoals Park
The Irmo Chapin Recreation Commission's long-running drive-through display at Saluda Shoals Park west of Columbia: roughly three miles of themed, animated light scenes and more than a million lights along the park roads, with a laser show o
Fireflies Holiday Lights at Segra Park
The Columbia Fireflies transform their downtown BullStreet-district ballpark, Segra Park, into a walk-through holiday light experience: illuminated displays around the concourse and field, seasonal treats, crafts, a scavenger hunt, train ri
Vista Lights
Columbia's 40-year-old holiday kickoff in the Congaree Vista arts-and-dining district: the lighting of the Vista tree (about 7pm) plus 60-plus galleries, shops and restaurants opening their doors for an evening of shopping, live entertainme
Governor's Carolighting at the South Carolina State House
South Carolina's official Christmas-season kickoff on the State House grounds in downtown Columbia: the Governor and First Family light the towering state Christmas tree (a 35-foot Norway spruce in 2025) alongside choirs and live performanc
Fort Jackson Holiday Tree Lighting
Fort Jackson's annual holiday tree lighting at Patriots Park on the Army installation in Columbia, with a holiday market, food trucks and live music. A single-evening community event hosted by the base's MWR.
🏠 Decorated home displays
Lisznyai House Light Show
A synchronized light-and-music show in Columbia's Spring Valley neighborhood, broadcast to 88.7 FM, running nightly from Thanksgiving through Dec 31
11 Heron Pond Road Light Show
A synchronized Columbia home light show that hosted photos with Santa on select Saturdays
394 Poets Walk Light Show
A northeast-Columbia home singled out for its 'fantastic light show' on the free driving-route guide
1925 Madison Road Display
A Columbia home packed with inflatables, a giant lighted tree, lasers and projections
Johnstone Lights
A Blythewood home in its 10th-plus year with a mega tree, pixel tree, dancing trees and candy canes, collecting donations for Make-A-Wish
McFarland Lights
Billed as one of the largest light-shows-to-music in the Midlands, synchronized to 98.9 FM in Lexington
640 Wise Ferry Road Light Show
A full-house Lexington display with spotlights, fountains, matrixes and thousands of pixel lights synchronized to music
497 Sandy Point Road Display
A Lexington home with lights, inflatable characters, a nativity scene and a large lighted tree
318 Shetland Lane Singing Lights
A Lexington home with singing bulbs and a dancing tree synchronized to 89.1 FM
64 Oak Hill Road Light Show
A Lake Murray-area (Prosperity) holiday light show synchronized to music
Judiths Path Disney Display
A West Columbia home known for hand-made wooden Disney characters dressed in holiday attire and lit up
Yinzer Yuletide
An Irmo home holiday display, self-styled 'Yinzer Yuletide,' open on a published weekday/weekend evening schedule
Nesbitt House Lights
A Gilbert home display you can drive through when the gates are open, in the rural Lexington-County part of the metro
Woomer Family Christmas (Danger Zone House)
An Irmo home known for a Top Gun 'Danger Zone'-themed Christmas light show
1678 Brewer Spring Road Display
A Camden home with roughly 22,000 lights, reindeer and a Minnie Mouse display in the Kershaw-County part of the metro
Home locations are shown approximately in the Noelly app to respect residents — please be courteous, keep the street clear, and follow posted hours.