After going dark in March 2023, the iconic Bay Bridge lights are making a highly anticipated comeback. Workers have begun installing 50,000 new custom-engineered LED lights on the western span of the bridge, according to Illuminate, the arts nonprofit spearheading the project.
The revamped light display, known as The Bay Lights, will soon brighten the San Francisco Bay Area skyline once more. Illuminate announced that testing for the new system is slated to start in early 2025, with the lights expected to return later this winter. While a specific launch date hasn’t been confirmed, the nonprofit encouraged the public to “stay tuned” for further updates.
Originally lit in 2013, the lights adorned the north side of the western span for a decade before being turned off in early 2023. The old LED system, overwhelmed by San Francisco’s harsh bay conditions, had begun failing faster than repairs could keep up.
“The return of The Bay Lights is something we’re all looking forward to,” the nonprofit shared on Instagram. “We hope you will join us on the waterfront to celebrate!”
The project’s revival was made possible through a successful crowdfunding campaign, demonstrating the community’s commitment to restoring one of San Francisco’s most beloved landmarks.
SF fire stations, including the new floating fire station #35 and their fire boats, compete in the annual holiday decorating contest for charity
San Francisco fire stations are lighting up once again for the holidays, bringing festive cheer with creative decorations and even snow machines! The city’s beloved Fire Station Community Holiday Decorations Competition is back for its fifth year, spreading joy and raising funds for local charities.
What to Expect in 2024
While official details from the San Francisco Fire Department are still pending, past years give us a good idea of what to anticipate. Typically, more than 20 fire stations participate, showcasing their creativity and community spirit. One of the most unique entries is Floating Fire Station #35 on the Embarcadero, which features two lighted fireboats adding extra sparkle to the bay.
According to a recent SF Chronicle article, last year’s contest featured dazzling displays such as:
Station 39 (Mount Davidson): A forest of lighted trees, snow machines, and a fireman mascot with an animated face, reminiscent of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion technology.
Station 12 (Haight-Ashbury): A towering 15-foot live Christmas tree adorned with lights and a Grateful Dead-themed logo projection.
How the Contest Works
The competition encourages fire stations to decorate creatively, with prizes sponsored by the SF Fire Credit Union in the past totaling $4,000. Winning stations donate their prizes to local charities of their choice.
Block Parties & Judging on December 23rd
Traditionally, block parties at participating stations happen on December 23, 2024, with winners announced on December 24. The decorations typically stay up through the end of December, offering plenty of time to visit.
Typically the fire departments will light up around sundown with block parties at a few of the fire stations typically around 7-10p. More details to come.
Stay Tuned for Official Announcements
While we haven’t received formal word from the San Francisco Fire Department yet, we expect details to be released closer to the event. The best way to get updates is typically to follow @SFFDPIO on X. If you’re looking for some festive fun, keep an eye out for announcements and plan your holiday station tour!
For more information please visit the links below:
Winter Walk returns to Union Square from December 13 – 22, located on Stockton Street to O’Farrell to Post! This 10-day event will turn two blocks into a pedestrian plaza with lush turf, diverse food truck offerings, enticing bars, and Instagram-worthy arctic-themed décor. Enjoy live performances and entertainment throughout this festive event! Plus discover the Ornament Trail on Powell Street.
Pick up an Ornament Trail Guide at Winter Walk and explore the larger-than-life ornaments created by talented local artists, displayed along Powell Street. In addition to the stunning holiday decor, you’ll find blue turf, festive ornaments on poles, and other seasonal touches. Stay tuned for details on weekly holiday performances at the Cable Car Turnaround, bringing extra cheer to your winter stroll. Find all 8 ornaments by completing the Ornament Trail Guide during Winter Walk (December 13-22)!
Santa Comes to Winter Walk! All the way from the North Pole to Union Square, Santa is making his way to Winter Walk, bringing joy and cheer to our festivities. Capture photos with family and friends and tell Santa your holiday wishes!
Santa visits Union Square on:
Saturday, December 14 from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Sunday, December 15 from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Saturday, December 21 from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. Sunday, December 22 from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Food Trucks Winter Walk will offer a vibrant culinary experience, showcasing an enticing selection of food trucks with diverse flavors and cuisines featured on themed days. Alongside these delightful offerings, Winter Wak will also feature multiple bars serving a wide range of festive specialty cocktails and beverages.
If you are interested in participating as a food truck in one or more days of the Union Square Winter Walk, please fill out the Winter Walk 2024 Food Truck Application. Please note that there 4 food truck spots available per shift and are first come first served.
Local Merchants Union Square is the perfect destination for holiday shopping, and this season’s Winter Walk hopes to feature a holiday marketplace, offering a diverse array of local vendors where visitors can discover unique gifts and support small businesses. If you’re interested in being considered as a vendor, email info@unionsquarealliance.com.
The annual festivities begin on the night of Friday, December 6th from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. featuring free crafts, live music from Pop Rocks, and dancing. Attendees are invited to come early to enjoy live music starting at 4:30pm at the park’s Main Plaza with 5:15pm as the speaking program start time before lights are illuminated throughout the park at 5:30 pm. This year’s early lighting celebration precedes the neighboring Let’s Glow SF event at the Ferry Building, which Winterfest attendees can check out shortly after our illumination. All events are free!
Friday, December 6, 2024: Holiday Lighting Celebration 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. at the Main Plaza
Enjoy dancing and live music from Pop Rocks, holiday crafts, holiday beverages for purchase from Barebottle Brewing Company, and a countdown to the park’s holiday illumination at 5:15 pm.
Saturday, December 7, 2024: Kids Day 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at the Main Plaza
Saturday is Kid’s Day! Free holiday activities include a special Winter Storytime with the San Francisco Public Library, face painting and a visit from winter fairies with Happily Ever Laughter, a kid’s Holiday Sing-a-long with Music Together of San Francisco, Ornament Making with the Children’s Creativity Museum, and more!
Saturday, December 7, 2024: Ugly Sweater Silent Disco 5 – 7 p.m. at the Main Plaza
On the second day of Winterfest my true love gave to me, a Silent Disco Parrrty! Grab your best ugly sweater and warm up the dance floor in style with music from 3 DJs from HUSHconcerts. Headphones available first-come, first-served (I.D. required).
Sunday, December 8, 2024: Wreath Making Party 9 – 11 a.m. / 12 – 2 p.m. / 3 – 5 p.m. at the Main Plaza
Three two-hour sessions beginning at 9am, 12pm, and 3pm on Sunday, December 8, Main Plaza
Make your own festive wreath with fresh greens, ribbons, and more! A free ticket to attend a session is required, as all supplies are provided but limited. Ticket reservations are available at bit.ly/wreathmaking2024 and will close when tickets are sold out. Walk-ins to the event will be accepted 40 minutes after the start of each session or at the staff’s discretion, depending on capacity and ticket-holder no-show rate. Capacity is 200 wreath-makers per session.
For more information please visit the links below:
Let’s Glow SF, the country’s largest holiday projection event, will return to downtown San Francisco for the 2024 holiday season.
From December 6th through 15th, this free outdoor holiday event will use high-tech projectors and lasers to showcase whimsical, large-scale pieces of animated art across the facade of eight iconic SF buildings from 5:30-10:00 PM nightly (shows begin at 7 PM on the first evening of the event).
Let’s Glow SF is hosted by The Downtown SF Partnership, the community benefit district that oversees 43 blocks across San Francisco’s Financial District and Jackson Square Historic District. The signature event is part of citywide efforts to activate downtown’s public realm and increase programming as a form of placemaking across the city and is partially funded through an economic recovery grant from the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development and Office of Mayor London N. Breed.
2024 Let’s Glow SF Festival Dates:
December 6-15, 2024 – 5:30-10pm nightly
Opening Night Celebration: December 6, 2024 – 5-7pm
For more than a century, Fairmont San Francisco has enchanted guests with holiday festivities and exuberant ambiance. This season, Fairmont’s elves were back at it once again working overtime to create a dazzling, unparalleled winter display.
On display from November 23, 2024 through the New Year, the hotel transforms into one of the world’s most beloved holiday destinations, where moments are turned into cherished memories. Fairmont San Francisco’s two-story, life-sized Gingerbread House in the hotel’s grand lobby has become a must-see attraction for guests from near and far.
With thousands of bricks of real gingerbread baked by the Fairmont’s pastry team and pounds of See’s Candies, the Gingerbread House display brings out the kid in everyone.
The Fairmont’s Gingerbread House 2024 On view from right before Thanksgiving through the New Year Open daily (typically from 11 am – 10 pm) The Fairmont, 950 Mason St., SF FREE and open to the public in the hotel’s lobby
Each year, the Gingerbread House takes center stage and fills the halls with its sweet aroma, but the property’s 23-foot tall Christmas tree, surrounded by a festive holiday train and seasonal decorations, in the main lobby is also impressive in its own right.
Fairmont San Francisco Fun Facts about the Fairmont’s Gingerbread House: 520 hours are spent each year building, lighting, and outfitting a life-sized Victorian gingerbread house 8,000 baked bricks cover the two-story structure The life size gingerbread house stands 25 feet high, 35 feet wide, and nearly 11 feet deep 450 hours are spent decorating the bricks with icing and sweets How is the Fairmont’s Gingerbread House Built? Fairmont engineering and culinary teams begin planning the gingerbread house in July, which is also when crews begin baking 12- by 4-inch gingerbread bricks to cover the home’s wooden frame.
As the holidays draw near, builders frame the rooms, set the roof, and prepare the structure for decorations. “When it’s complete, each gingerbread brick gets placed by hand, and the pastry people pipe icing along every single grout line,” Walton says (that icing requires more than 1,000 pounds of powdered sugar and around 150 gallons of egg whites).
Teams then tackle the sweet job of outfitting the gingerbread house with candy, from Peeps to gumdrops to strands of Nerds Rope in all colors of the rainbow. There are candy canes, of course, and in past years, designers have attached individual Hershey’s Miniatures bars to the walls with icing. When it’s complete, more than 1,900 pounds of candy adorn the Fairmont’s gingerbread house.
Walton, a self-described tinkerer, also creates magical holiday accents for the house, often from everyday items. He turns industrial air filters into snow-dusted hills, and motors salvaged from office shredders and windshield wipers power reindeer rocking chairs and swirling snowflake mobiles. His hand-cut shadow puppets even star in a holiday video aired inside the house.
As any avid baker (or Great British Bake-Off viewer) will know, sometimes, there are mishaps in creating a confectionary masterpiece — one year, the lobby lights even melted the home’s chocolate-covered roof. But unexpected surprises (both planned and accidental) charm hotel guests and public visitors alike throughout the season.
After the holidays, Walton removes the interior electronics and teams tear down the structure. The framework gets recycled, and the bricks, candy, and other edible ingredients are composted. The Fairmont lobby returns to normal, but the holiday spirit lingers until the next season.
“The gingerbread house is definitely a challenge, but we’re all glad to be part of the project. To watch kids light up as they explore, and to see adults marvel at the little nuances, is all really incredible,” Walton says.
The San Francisco Botanical Garden is one of the most diverse gardens in the world. A unique urban oasis, the garden is a living museum within Golden Gate Park, offering 55 acres of both landscaped gardens and open spaces, and showcasing over 9,000 different kinds of plants from around the world.
he garden is always free for San Francisco residents, but visitors can also enjoy this treasure for free on the second Tuesday of every month; plus it’s free on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day for everyone.
Take in the atmosphere of San Francisco’s Noe Valley at our monthly Night Market! Join us in the Town Square for an evening of live music with Lambert Moss and special offers from some of the neighborhood’s best businesses. Stroll around and stop in at our other local businesses for additional specials as we stay open late to welcome everyone to our special neighborhood. All are welcome, and event is free with the Eventbrite RSVP. See you there!
Let’s Glow SF, the country’s largest holiday projection event, will return to downtown San Francisco for the 2024 holiday season.
From December 6th through 15th, this free outdoor holiday event will use high-tech projectors and lasers to showcase whimsical, large-scale pieces of animated art across the facade of eight iconic SF buildings from 5:30-10:00 PM nightly (shows begin at 7 PM on the first evening of the event).
Let’s Glow SF is hosted by The Downtown SF Partnership, the community benefit district that oversees 43 blocks across San Francisco’s Financial District and Jackson Square Historic District. The signature event is part of citywide efforts to activate downtown’s public realm and increase programming as a form of placemaking across the city and is partially funded through an economic recovery grant from the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development and Office of Mayor London N. Breed.
2024 Let’s Glow SF Festival Dates:
December 6-15, 2024 – 5:30-10pm nightly
Opening Night Celebration: December 6, 2024 – 5-7pm
The Great Dickens Christmas Fair is a one-of-a-kind immersive adventure into Victorian London ~ an elaborate holiday party with hundreds of costumed players performing and interacting with patrons in over 140,000 square feet of theatrically-lit music halls, pubs, dance floors, and festive shops.
The Great Dickens Christmas Fair is open for 5 weekends. The Festival opens Saturday, November 23, and runs Saturdays and Sundays (plus the Friday after Thanksgiving) through December 22, 2024, from 10am-6pm.
It is perpetually Christmas Eve at the Great Dickens Christmas Fair! The Fair transports you to the London of Charles Dickens – a city of winding lanes filled with colorful characters from both literature and history – all in a festive mood! Enticing aromas of roasted chestnuts and hearty foods fill the air. Cries of street vendors hawking their wares ring out above the bustling crowd. Dozens of lamplit shops are filled to overflowing with handmade gifts. The Dickens Christmas Fair is a treasured Bay Area tradition since 1970 and a splendid way to celebrate the holidays. Enjoy new immersive experiences, and a live steam train as you arrive in the Victoria Station lobby.
The Great Dickens Christmas Fair & Victorian Holiday Party takes visitors on a deeply immersive adventure through the theaters, pubs, and dance halls of Victorian London. Wander through lamplit lanes lined with charming shops of handmade gifts, and meet and mingle with hundreds of costumed characters. Explore while enjoying the enticing aromas of hot apple cider and roasted cinnamon almonds. The Great Dickens Christmas Fair is a time traveler’s delight and a one-of-a-kind adventure into holiday merriment!
WHERE: The Cow Palace, 2600 Geneva Avenue, Daly City, CA WHEN: Five weekends from November 23 through December 22 including the Friday after Thanksgiving, from 10 am to 6 pm. TICKETS:
Please note, tickets are only available online. Tickets on sale now. Please note that Red Barn Productions, producers of The Great Dickens Christmas Fair, is the only official seller. There are no authorized ticket resellers or on-site box office.
General Adult (All day ticket – Ages 13 and up): $45 General Youth (All day ticket – Ages 5-12): $25 Children under 5: FREE Fair Season Pass: $160 (a $495 value)
2024 Special Discounts:
Active Military: FREE – Active Military personnel plus three family members all receive FREE Admission on 1st and 2nd weekends! (November 23-24, 29-30 and Dec. 1 only). Online reservations not required, show active military I.D at on-site Willcall Booth.
