Christmas-In-The-Park; San José, CA Review

This was my first Christmas in the Park, and it was amazing. Wish I had been more awake, can't wait for next year!

Great place for families to enjoy the season. We well decorated and lot to see.little ones under 3 get overwhelmed if you pick the peak times.parking is not much of a hassle.

EXTREMELY crowded the closer you get to Christmas. Try to go there in early December.

Fun place to be with family with Christmas around the corner.

It was an awesome thing to watch on Christmas kids love it

Beautiful decor And awesome experience ..plan ahead and get prepared for the evening rush ..waited for one hour. management is good.its drive thru experience.
I loved it.

Amazingly awesome!! Line goes by fast...the lights go to the beat of the music!! Super cool!

3.5 stars. A long wait, but the synced sections we're lovely.

Havent been in years this was great..alot of new exhibits

Love the vibes in the downtown at Christmas in the Park. Lot of fun rides and very good connectivity for bus and train. Kids and grown ups will love it. Fun fun fun.

This is such a wonderful place to visit year after year with the family. This year was the best. Lots of new displays and the most decorated fresh trees I ve ever seen here. The Worlds best hot chocolate is the worlds best hot chocolate. Haha It s a must have.

Cute date night place. The snowman hot chocolate is very cute. The trees are decorated nicely and they have carnival type rides.

Surprisingly Excellent! Only say surprisingly due to when I thought it was over it had just begun

First time going and we had a good time. We enjoyed the hot chocolate while taking a stroll through the park. Nice place to take the little one. They will definitely be entertained by all the lights.

Real busy right before Chrustmas. Way to crowded. Dont wait like we did to visit. Go couple weeks before Christmas. Lots to see and do. Real fun and free admission

So beautiful and so much potential but so Overcrowded to even enjoy it.

Same ol as it's always been. Very nostalgic for me.

This is just a great little park in the heart of San Jose when it's not Christmas. But there are lots of benches and concerts and you can even just sit and watch the skaters in the warm San Jose evenings and feel entertained while you relax.

The Hot Chocolate is the main reason we come. It s always really crowded, and the ride prices are a bit high for carny rides, but the kids love it. It s great when they have live music and vendors out. It s fun going with a group and just hanging out. Parking isn t too bad, we park in the garage around the corner and it s $10 for the night.
Get the snowman got chocolate!!! It s affordable, delicious, worth the price and the best part of Christmas/New Years!
Our yearly tradition that won t change!!!!

Had a wonderful time at Christmas in the Park tonight with my family! Beautiful decor, great food & of course can t miss the delicious hot chocolate

It was an awesome light show with all the old time charm.

Good for one-time experience but waiting queue horrible, joined the queue at 7:45PM and reached the park entrance by 9:15PM. However the lightnings were worth the wait.

It's become a family tradition since my child's was born, as she is getting older, she loves It even more.

We always enjoy the lights, but it was just way too over crowded

We liked the Christmas in the Park light festival at Kelley park. Due to covid it was a drive through but well worth the time. There was a light and music synchronization which made things even better.

very beautiful park in the heart of san jose, with a tree display made by the community, lights, music, and decorations! its free to walk around and enjoy but rides, food, and ice skating cost money. there are stations set up for local donations.

it s very crowded even on weekdays, but we usually just park a couple blocks down (most curbside parking is free at nighttime) and walk there, or you could pay for a parking garage.

it s always a super fun experience even if you re just walking around, i highly recommend stopping by for a bit, whether it s with your family or for a date night.

Great for the family with lots of rides and fun things to do. But parking is exorbitant.

fun for family. only had an early time slot but lights were still nice. enjoyed listening to the radio and seeing displays. only thing missing was good hot chocolate.

It s the most wonderful time of the year and the beat place to be to celebrate! A yearly tradition that never gets old. The Christmas trees are bountiful. there must be over 100 trees to look at. I still love the animated designs with the bears, elves and moving characters to remind me of all the hard work that goes on for santa and his team. The hot chocolate with snowman is a bit steep at $7.50 but we did it anyway and enjoyed it all.

If you don't have kids don't waste your time. Its overcrowded, food is overpriced, and its underwhelming. If you like the feeling of being squished and claustrophobic then go for it! Otherwise you should just stay home.

I advise you to attend this event. That's very beautiful. There are a lot of Christmas trees, free fruits and a Christmas atmosphere.

Was an ultra long wait to get in. The line was Winding all the way to Tully road. Lights were okay and something new in the covid times. Make sure you tune in to the fm station on 93.1 as the lights are synchronized to the song that is playing.

It was fun lot of people just enjoying down town "CITY LIFE SAN JO " . # APPS

We took our baby boy to see Christmas in the Park yesterday. We got there on time but the line of cars was over 1 mile long with people trying to get in from all directions. It looked like we would have had to wait hours to get in and see the attraction, which would have been way past our little one s bed time.
When I emailed them about a refund, they said they don t issue any refunds even though they are the ones who failed by overselling and poor logistics. They should be ashamed to be making thousands of dollars off of people having such a bad experience or not being able to see the lights at all!

Right place for Christmas! Beautiful deco and lovely exhibitions. Don t miss the churros and hot chocolate. But parking space was not enough.

Says it opens at 9am, took the kids and nothing was open.

We try to go every year..This year it was fine, but it smelled like urine every where we walked and the beautiful displays need to be cleaned and updated...Still a tradition but not sure of I will go every year anymore

A wonderful idea, poorly executed. Upfront communication is misleading (info on the ticket vs info on the website), traffic management is non-existent, wait times (40min driving around with not even making it into the actual 6 block queue!) are off limits. The experience might be nice but for an event that is mainly built for families with young children the horrible organization is a no-go. I feel sad writing this because I am convinced a lot of people put their heart into building this drive through but it s just not realistic to expect a toddler or young child to sit in the car waiting for two hours before the show even starts.

Great place to get some hot chocolate and walk around and experience all the attractions. There s even a coco based Christmas tree!

The hot chocolate is the main reason we come! It s always really crowded, and the ride prices are a bit high for carny rides, but the kids love it. It s great when they have live music and vendors out. It s fun going with a group and just hanging out. Parking isn t too bad, we park in the garage around the corner and it s $10 for the night.
Get the snowman Hot Chocolate!!! It s affordable, delicious, worth the price, and the best part of Christmas/New Years!
Our yearly tradition that won t change!!!!

I haven't been there in yrs!! Very nice job and great for the kids. Also A very beautiful tree fo honor the victims of the Garlic Fest. May there memory continue on..! Thanks everyone who made it happen

Traffic management is non existent at or past Tully. People are cutting the line by turning off of east and westbound Tully onto Senter. After an hour of waiting in line and not getting close past Tully, I gave up and they will not provide a refund. They need to sell less tickets and provide better traffic management.

Our time window was 5pm on the second day of the event. We arrived just before sunset, so there was still light in the sky. So for the first part of the event the light in the sky made the Christmas lights not be as bright, but the second half the sky was dark and the lights were amazing. Doing it this way meant that there was almost no traffic getting into the event.

Wonderful event. A must see for the holiday season. WEBSITE ADVERTISES THROUGH JANUARY 1ST. Much to our surprise...it was TAKEN DOWN BY DECEMBER 29TH. FALSE ADVERTISING--Our friends from VERY out of town were VERY disappointed.

The only thing wrong here was the area was way over crowded

Beautiful displays and dazzling large tree display with various street vendors, carnival rides and some games to be played with stuffed animal prizes. Just a bit crowded most nights with expensive parking options in downtown area.

There is nothing special. Just bunch of Christmas trees which is sponsored logos ...but good for one visit ...

The synchronized lights were very well done. The line to get in was VERY long.

A perennial event that kicks off every year during the Thanksgiving holiday and extends through the start of the new year. Located at and around Plaza De Cesar Chavez, it first began a few decades ago as Christmas displays and then later expanded to include a carnival with rides and games.

It makes for an enjoyable time, particularly for younger folks. But gets quite crowded during the evenings. Be patient and soak it up.

We arrived at 7pm didn t get into the park until 9pm it s nice, but not worth all that waiting especially if you have young children. The lights were nice, but the waiting was tooo long people were cutting too no respect and road rage too.

Kids had a lot of fun with just $20 for unlimited rides.. totally worth it... rest rooms are the tough part, as long as we can find a shop that let's you in

We love coming here every year. This place has the best snowmen hot chocolates ever. The tress, rides and festivities are great. I highly recommend this place

Wasn't exactly "Christmas"... though was an unexpected pleasure to happen upon the Fountain Blues Festival in the park!

Nice place. Traffic to get in was long. Had to wait almost 90+ minutes to get in.

Very nice as they tried to combine Christmas in the Park and the Los Gatos event We couldn't get tickets for the latter. but we had a 8:00 appointment and didn't get started in the display until about 9:15 as the line started at Tully Road and even when you turned into the park it was 15 minutes more.

It was cool, lots of Christmas Trees and the place that sells the loaded hot chocolate was the best hot chocolate I have ever drank. I highly recommend getting the loaded hot chocolate.

EXTREMELY crowded the closer you get to Christmas. Try to go there in early December.

Free Christmas park to visit. It's very convenient to go there by VTA, just 3 minutes walk from station. Parking will be a problem here. It's a little bit crowded. Anyway still a good place for fun for kids.

Great place to take your kids or significant others.

Really cute displays. Loved the reindeer barn, but where was Rudolph? So many cute moving Santa workshops. Excellent hot chocolate with the works. So many cute Christmas trees. The rides looked fun, maybe next year.

This event seems nice but I was not able to actually enjoy the experience. The main issue is the lack of traffic management. Expect to wait at least 3 hours after you arrive at your scheduled time slot. Arriving early did not make a difference. Cars are driving all over the road, cutting others off, and blocking intersections. It was similar to the roads before a huge concert except without the traffic management.