🎡 Light shows, drive-throughs & attractions
North Carolina Chinese Lantern Festival
Cary's marquee holiday attraction and the largest Chinese lantern festival in the Southeast: a walk-through of more than 25 larger-than-life silk-and-steel lantern sculptures at Koka Booth Amphitheatre, plus nightly cultural-arts performanc
WRAL Nights of Lights
A 1.3-mile drive-through holiday light show winding through Raleigh's Dorothea Dix Park, produced by WRAL/Capitol Broadcasting with the City of Raleigh. Cars roll through five themed lands - Toyland, North Pole Neon, Wild Lights, Winter Won
Magic of Lights Raleigh
A one-mile drive-through holiday lights spectacle at Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek in southeast Raleigh, with LED scenes and digital animations you view from your own car - the Blizzard Tunnel, 12 Days of Christmas, Winter
Moonlight in the Garden
A ticketed after-dark walk through NC State's JC Raulston Arboretum, where the gardens are artfully illuminated for a handful of November evenings. Timed entries every half hour, with live music, food trucks, fire pits for roasting marshmal
Festival of Lights at Hill Ridge Farms
A family light festival at Hill Ridge Farms in Youngsville, just north of Wake Forest: ride the covered wagon or the Hill Ridge Farms Express train through more than two million lights and themed displays, then roast marshmallows by the bon
Meadow Lights
Billed as the largest and oldest Christmas attraction in Eastern North Carolina - a 30-acre drive-through display in Benson with a 37-foot tall centerpiece, train rides, an old-fashioned carousel, Santa visits and a candy store stocked with
🏠 Decorated home displays
Rogers Family Lights
A free music-synchronized home light show in Apex broadcast on 93.5 FM with listener-selected songs, run in memory of the family's son Caden
Goldman Family Lights
A synchronized residential light show in Raleigh with music broadcast on 90.9 WGFL FM
Nelson's Christmas Light Show
A Raleigh home light show with music, inflatables and moving displays, open Wednesday through Sunday evenings
Torockio Christmas Light Extravaganza
A Raleigh home light display with music synchronized to speakers and broadcast on FM 88.7
Gebhardt Family Lights
A Cary home light show synchronized to music on 90.3 FM
Johnson Family's Christmas Light Show
A Cary home Christmas light show run by the Johnson family, with its own carychristmas.com site
Holidays on Hemby
A Morrisville walk-through home display with thousands of lights, more than 100 inflatables and an outdoor G-scale model train, with train rides on select nights
Lights on Cedar
A Wake Forest home light display open nightly 5-10pm, with Santa on select December weekends
Holland Road Lights
A Fuquay-Varina home display of more than 40,000 lights synchronized to music on FM 90.9, collecting for local charities
Mangum Family Christmas Lights
A long-running home display of more than 100,000 lights synchronized to music on 90.3 FM, viewed from the road across from the house
The Indigo Light Show
A Durham home light show praised as one of the best in the city, with creative rotating Christmas themes
Lights on Birch Hollow
An animated home light show with singing trees in the Briar Chapel neighborhood, opening the night after Thanksgiving
Home locations are shown approximately in the Noelly app to respect residents — please be courteous, keep the street clear, and follow posted hours.