{"id":58335,"date":"2025-10-01T16:06:03","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T20:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=58335"},"modified":"2025-10-01T16:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T20:06:08","slug":"tampa-bays-festival-of-lights-santas-village-returns-to-hillsborough-county-fairgrounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/10\/01\/tampa-bays-festival-of-lights-santas-village-returns-to-hillsborough-county-fairgrounds\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay\u2019s Festival of Lights & Santa\u2019s Village Returns to Hillsborough County Fairgrounds!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
The Holidays Shine Brighter Than Ever at
Tampa Bay\u2019s Festival of Lights & Santa\u2019s Village
from Thanksgiving Day through December 25<\/strong>
at the Hillsborough County Fairgrounds<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td><\/tr>
\"\"\"\"<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Due to Popular Demand,<\/strong>Second Paws & Claus Night Set for December 11<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
TAMPA, Fla. \u2013 October 1, 2025<\/strong> \u2013 <\/strong>The holidays shine brighter than ever at Tampa Bay\u2019s Festival of Lights & Santa\u2019s Village<\/strong>, lighting up the Hillsborough County Fairgrounds<\/a> with more than 1 million lights from Thanksgiving Day through December 28. New this year in the 2-mile drive-thru experience, the Santa\u2019s Winter Woodlands<\/em> display shines with an extra 5,000 lights, while returning favorites like the whimsical Under the Sea<\/em> display and the swashbuckling Pirates of Tampa<\/em> bring the magic back bigger than ever.

Surprises await in Santa\u2019s Village<\/strong>, including Tiny the Tanker, a bubble-blowing, talking mini fire engine, rolling through the village to delight children. From The Strong and Amazing<\/em> aerial show to the toe-tapping Dennis Lee and Ridge Country Band, festive performances fill the air with holiday cheer. Tickets are on sale now for the hometown holiday festival.

Due to overwhelming popularity, there will be two Paws & Claus Nights<\/strong>, on Thursday, December 4, and Thursday, December 11. Guests can bring their well-behaved dogs and cats on a leash to join in the festive fun. For a $10 donation to the Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center, guests can receive a complimentary printed photo of their furry friends with Santa. On Thursday, December 18, Heroes Night<\/strong> salutes our community\u2019s heroes by offering active and retired military, police, fire and first responders a discounted admission of $15 per car.

Families will love visiting Santa, crafting in Santa\u2019s Workshop and exploring children\u2019s games. Seasonal fun continues with Santa\u2019s Barnyard, camel rides, holiday-themed rides, movies, and firepits for making s\u2019mores. The Holiday Market and Hometown Hillsborough Historical Village round out the experience with shopping, history and festive cheer.

Tickets $25\/car on drive-thru-only nights, and $30\/car on nights when Santa\u2019s Village is open. The season pass is available for $75 per person.  Tickets and season passes are on sale now<\/a>; click here<\/a> <\/a>for more information and the schedule.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Holidays Shine Brighter Than Ever atTampa Bay\u2019s Festival of Lights & Santa\u2019s Villagefrom Thanksgiving Day through December 25at the Hillsborough County Fairgrounds Due to Popular Demand,Second Paws & Claus… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"6","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMTBcL3VubmFtZWQud2VicD9maXQ9MTAyNCUyQzEwMjQmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJUYW1wYSBCYXlcdTIwMTlzIEZlc3RpdmFsIG9mIExpZ2h0cyAmYW1wOyBTYW50YVx1MjAxOXMgVmlsbGFnZSBSZXR1cm5zIHRvIEhpbGxzYm9yb3VnaCBDb3VudHkgRmFpcmdyb3VuZHMhIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.FwVFyR3vVaxvDCrkCJjLmGwdNs6pzomuBlKteGzyv5kMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":58336,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/unnamed.webp","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[12342],"class_list":["post-58335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-tampa-bays-festival-of-lights-santas-village-returns-to-hillsborough-county-fairgrounds"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58337,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58335\/revisions\/58337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}