Common Questions About Our Christmas Light Shows
Tickets are 1 pass per vehicle and can be purchased at a discounted price ahead of time through our website. Click the "Buy Tickets" button to purchase your ticket now. In an effort to disperse traffic evenly throughout the evening, we require you to select a 30-minute window to show up at the gate to enter the display. This will shorten your wait time for entry on busier nights, such as Fridays and Saturdays. The online cost for entry is $28.96 per car (taxes and fees included) and can be paid using any major credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Cash App. If you decide to pay at the ticket booth at the time of your arrival, the gate admission price is $32.04 (taxes & fees included) per vehicle.
Due to liability issues, and some tight turns, we do not allow vehicles pulling trailers to enter our display without prior permission. All guests must remain inside their vehicles at all times. Also, because of the low clearance for many of our props, trees, and tunnels, and windy narrow roads in our display, we do not allow buses, RV’s, or limos to enter our display. Vehicles that enter our display must be no taller than 9 feet and be no longer than 25 feet in length.
Please try to be on time for your assigned time slot. You can arrive at anytime during the 30 minute window. If you are just a few minutes late for your assigned window, and we have not sold out of available tickets for that next 30-minute time slot, we should be able to allow you to enter the display outside of your assigned time slot. If we are sold out of the current time slot, we may have to convert your time slot to a later slot (at no additional cost to you) and ask that you return at that later time. Either way, your ticket is good all night until closing.
We are open every night (including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day) from November 28th through Jan 3rd during the following hours:
Sundays: 6:00 PM -10:00 PM
Mondays: 6:00 PM -10:00 PM
Tuesdays: 6:00 PM -10:00 PM
Wednesdays: 6:00 PM -10:00 PM
Thursdays: 6:00 PM -10:00 PM
Fridays: 6:00 PM -10:00 PM
Saturdays: 6:00 PM -10:00 PM
- Gates will open at 5:45 PM to allow cars to wait in the staging area until we open at 6:00 PM.
Any pre-purchased ticket that has not yet been scanned, can be reassigned by the buyer to a different available date & time. Details on how to do this can be found in the confirmation email you received at the time of purchase. If you are having trouble completing this task, simply show up on another night with your unscanned ticket, and one of our cheerful employees will help convert it for you to get you in.
Yes, your pets are welcome to join you in your vehicle while you drive thru and enjoy the lights. We even offer free “pup cups” of whipped cream (with a small dog treat on top) as a special treat for our furry friends at our concession stand. We only ask that you keep your pets in the vehicle at all times, for liability reasons. If you take your dog into the photo op section for pictures, please have them on a leash, for the safety of our other guests and their small children.
Yes, we have portable restrooms available in the staging/queuing area directly to your left before the ticket booth, as well as near the exit and the phot op section. Feel free to use the restrooms before or after driving thru our display.
Anyone in the line by 10:00 PM who pre-purchased a ticket will be allowed to enter the display, even after our official closing time. At 10:00 PM, we will close off the line entrance and ask that anyone else who shows up come back on another date. Don't worry; your ticket is still good! When you return with your unscanned ticket, we can convert it to allow you entry on another day of your choosing.
Because of our winding roads and tunnels with low clearance, Northern Lights patrons must be inside of a vehicle that is no taller than 9 feet, and no more than 25 feet in length. Trailers, RV’s, limos, and buses are not allowed without prior reservations being made. 15 passenger vans are accepted.
Sorry, we do NOT have parking on site for carpooling. Please remember that you can’t combine vehicles once you arrive. All vehicles that enter our gate must pay (per vehicle) and drive thru the park. If you try to park outside of our gates or along Church Road, you will run the risk of having your vehicle towed at your expense. If you do decide to carpool, please make arrangements to meet and ride together with your family or friends somewhere else BEFORE driving out to our display.
You are welcome to take as many pictures as you like from the comfort of your vehicle; but we ask that all guests stay in their vehicle at all times. However, at the end of the display, we do have parking available for you to get out and take family pictures in our brand new photo-op section. Santa is also available to take professional photos for a fee on the weekends. For liability reasons, please keep any pets on a leash when exploring our photo-op section.
Concession prices are listed on a printed menu that you will receive at the park entrance. We do our best to keep our concession prices low. Grab a hot cocoa, a snack, or a lighted toy before you see the lights by staying to the left after you pass the ticket booth and taking the circle driveway to our drive thru snack shack. NO need to park and walk up. We can serve you from the comfort of your vehicle. Our Snack Shack accepts all major credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Cash App. NO CASH PLEASE!
Yes, as long as the rain does not interfere with our electrical system by tripping breakers, we will remain open: RAIN or SHINE! It's still always a good idea to check our social media pages before heading out though. In the event that inclement weather is severe enough that it causes us to shut down the display, we will update our status on social media and honor your ticket on another night during our season.
We know we are kinda "out in the middle of nowhere," so to avoid congesting the small 1 Lane County roads, we ask that you do NOT follow GPS directions, and instead use the following directions to arrive safely at our gates:
From San Antonio:
Take I-10 EAST toward Seguin and take Exit 601 toward FM 775 La Vernia/New Berlin. Turn RIGHT and head south on FM 775. Go 11 miles through New Berlin to FM 467 and turn LEFT on FM 467. Go 4 miles and turn LEFT on Church Rd and our entrance is ¼ of a mile down on your right. Look for the lit up sign.
From New Braunfels:
From I-35, take the TX-46 Seguin/Boerne exit and go south on TX-46. When you reach I-10, go under the highway and continue south on TX-46 for another 4 miles to FM 467. Turn LEFT on FM 467 and continue for 10 miles until you reach Church Rd. Turn RIGHT on Church Rd and our entrance is ¼ of a mile down on your right. Look for the lit up sign.
From Seguin:
From I-10: Take TX-46 South to FM 467. Turn LEFT (SOUTH) on FM 467 and continue for 10 miles until you reach Church Rd. Turn RIGHT on Church Rd and our entrance is ¼ of a mile down on your right. Look for the lit up sign.
On weeknights, it typically takes 20-30 minutes to drive thru our 1-mile-long Trail of Lights, but times will vary based on how fast you drive (or how often you slow down to look at different props) and how slow the traffic is ahead of you. Most people prefer to get the full effect by driving slower and stopping briefly to take pictures (please stay in your vehicle at all times). If you do stop to take a quick photo, try to pull to the side as much as possible to allow others behind you to have room to pass. On busy nights and weekends, it can take up to 45 minutes to drive thru the trail. Add in our photo op stop and your visit can stretch to an hour or more. Please plan accordingly by stocking up on cocoa and snacks and/or using our restrooms before you enter.
If you do not remember the date or entry time of your ticket, please call us at (210) 383-9155 or email us at northernlightstx@gmail.com. We will resend you your confirmation email and/or ticket. If you know your date and entry time, you can show up at your scheduled time to the gate, and we can look you up in the system and scan you in manually. If we do not answer when you call, we are probably helping another customer at the ticket booth. Please leave a message and we will call you back as soon as traffic dies down again.
This is a tough question to give an accurate answer to, as it depends on the number of cars that show up each night. On weeknights (Sun-Thurs) up through Dec 10th, you can expect little to no wait times (1-5 minutes), especially in the later time slots. Fridays & Saturdays and each day during the 2 weeks leading up to Christmas Eve get very busy. However, because of our assigned entry times and online-only ticketing, we anticipate your wait in the staging/queuing area to be no more than 15 minutes on our busiest nights. Way better than waiting 1-2 hours in line at other light displays!
Yes, we offer a season pass for $60 online (the price of 2 admissions) and they are valid for unlimited visits during Northern Lights hours of operation for the season. Passes are non-transferable and specific to one person. Customer info will be recorded upon purchase and ID will be checked on entry each time the pass is used. The season pass holder must be in the vehicle AND have a valid photo ID with them in order for the season pass to be used.
Tickets are non-refundable once they are scanned at entry, however if you purchased your ticket and cannot make the original selected date and/or entry time, your ticket will still be valid for any other available date/time slot for the current season until it has been scanned.
We use a small FM transmitter to broadcast our music over an empty radio channel, so, in a sense, you might say it’s our own radio station. It broadcasts our music a few hundred yards in all directions. This music is played through a computer that also controls the lights and tells them when to turn on and off. Programming the lights takes, on average, 2-4 hours for every 60 seconds of a song. So one song can take as long as 15 hours to program.
