Eisenhower Park's Holiday Lights Return Nov. 11. The Schedule Has More Rules Than the Ticket Suggests.

The LuminoCity Holiday Lights Festival opens its fifth season at Eisenhower Park on Wednesday, November 11, and runs through Sunday, January 3, 2027. That's 54 days on the calendar. Count the closures in the festival's own schedule and the gates actually open on 43 nights. Most of the missing nights come in the first five weeks, when the festival is closed every Monday and Tuesday until December 14.

For anyone who lives a few minutes from Salisbury Park Drive, that split matters more than the ticket price. The festival really has two seasons. A Wednesday-to-Sunday run carries two of the three theme nights. A seven-day stretch afterward has the only Monday and Tuesday openings, plus two Christmas closures.

Two Seasons on One Ticket

Here is how the 54 days break down, using the closures the festival lists: Mondays and Tuesdays before December 14, Thanksgiving Day on November 26, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

All three theme nights fall on Saturdays. Lumi & Me Night is November 21, Cosplay Under the Lights is December 5, and Ugly Sweater Night is December 19. The October 8 announcement says theme nights add live music and limited-edition merchandise giveaways, while supplies last, for guests who dress up and share on social media. When that release went out, the dates were still "to be announced soon." The event page has since filled them in.

Thanksgiving week has its own shape. The festival is open Wednesday the 25th, dark on Thursday, and back Friday through Sunday. Christmas week is the reverse: open Monday through Wednesday, closed Thursday and Friday for the holiday, then open again that Saturday. Friday, December 25 is one of the two closed nights, so the weekend after Christmas has two open nights instead of three.

The first Monday and Tuesday the festival opens all season are December 14 and 15. If you want a weeknight early in the week, three weeks of the calendar offer one: December 14 through January 3.

What the Clock Allows

Hours are the same all season. Gates open at 4:30 PM every night. They close at 9:30 PM Sunday through Thursday, with last entry at 9:00, and at 10:00 PM on Friday and Saturday, with last entry at 9:30. The festival says most visitors spend about one to two hours inside. On a weeknight, a 7:30 arrival still leaves comfortable time. On a Saturday, the extra half hour of entry gives a little more room.

The rest of the rules are in the FAQ:

1. Entry is timed. Sessions start every 45 minutes: 4:30, 5:15, 6:00, 6:45, 7:30 and 8:15 PM.
2. There is no box office at the gate. If you arrive without a ticket, you buy one on your phone before entering, subject to availability.
3. No re-entry. You can stay as long as you like, but once you leave you can't come back in.
4. Price depends on the date. Non-peak tickets are $29 general admission, $22 for children ages 4 to 12 and $56 VIP. Peak tickets are $33, $26 and $58. Taxes and fees are extra. The festival says peak and non-peak hours vary by date, availability and season, and sends buyers to its booking calendar for current prices.
5. Children 3 and under get in free. Some attractions need separate add-on tickets.
6. Leave the gear at home. The prohibited list includes tripods, camera setups, selfie sticks, drones, large bags and backpacks, sports equipment and glass containers.
7. Unused tickets can be refunded. Requests must come in at least 24 hours before the festival's final day.

Parking is free. You reach it from Salisbury Park Drive, the main road through the park. The festival lists Hempstead-Bethpage Turnpike on the south side of the park and Merrick Avenue on the west as the nearest cross streets.

What's New Inside the 14 Acres

The layout has four zones: Magical Wonderwood, Dino Safari, Holidayville and Tundra Twilight. Together they hold more than 100 illuminated and animatronic creatures and a 40-foot Christmas tree. The headline addition this season is the train, with family extras alongside it:

• The Lumi Express, which the festival calls Eisenhower Park's first holiday train ride. The event page says online RSVP for the train is "coming soon," so check before you go.
• Happy Holidays Hop, a 20-foot-tall Santa inflatable, and the Triceratops Bounce Nest.
• Santa pop-up appearances on select weekends, which puts him in the Wednesday-to-Sunday run as well as the final stretch.

The more local part of the festival is the handmade work. Lumi's Utopia, LuminoCity's children's art program with the Long Island Children's Museum, is in its sixth year. It turns winning drawings from this year's "Dino Friends" contest into handcrafted light sculptures. Master Lantern Artisans Huang Xingxiu and Jiang Lei also give a sensory-friendly demonstration of their craft. For families who grew up with lantern festivals, it's a chance to watch the craft up close, a few minutes from home.

In LuminoCity's season announcement, founder and CEO Xiaoyi Chen describes the fifth year in the same terms:

"Long Island is our home, and returning to Eisenhower Park for our fifth year is especially meaningful. We've watched families make this festival part of their holiday traditions."

The Park's Season Starts Three Days Earlier

Before the lights go on, Eisenhower Park hosts a quieter event. Nassau County's calendar lists the UVO Veterans Day Ceremony for Sunday, November 8, 2026, at 10:00 AM at the park's Veterans Memorial Plaza. It's organized by the United Veterans Organization and local veteran organizations.

The two events use the park very differently. The ceremony is a Sunday morning in daylight at the plaza. The festival runs on evenings, timed tickets and 14 acres of displays. Three days separate them, and with the festival dark on Mondays and Tuesdays through mid-December, the park's evening calendar starts on a Wednesday.

After Last Entry, the Turnpike Stays Open

The festival ends early in the evening. Nights in East Meadow now run later. On Wednesday, October 21, a 3,437-square-foot Shake Shack opened in The Meadows shopping center at 1902 Hempstead Turnpike, a few numbers down from the park's 1899 Hempstead Turnpike address. Long Island Business News reported that it is the chain's ninth Long Island location, after Melville, Westbury, Lake Grove, Oceanside, New Hyde Park, Selden, Holbrook and Riverhead.

Its hours are what matter here. According to the same LIBN report, it's open from 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and until 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. It has a drive-thru with a digital menu board and two ordering lanes. Compare that with the festival: on a Saturday theme night, the gates close at 10:00 PM and the restaurant stays open three more hours. On a Sunday, the lights shut down at 9:30 and the kitchen runs until midnight. Since the festival doesn't allow re-entry, it makes sense to eat after the lights rather than before.

LIBN also reported that the restaurant is donating $1 for every sandwich sold on opening day to the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County.

Picking the Night

The calendar sorts the choices for you. If you want the extras, the Saturday theme nights on November 21 and December 5 come during the Wednesday-to-Sunday run, and December 19 is the last Saturday before Christmas week. For a Monday or Tuesday visit, December 14 is the earliest date. Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are closed. The price for any specific date is set by the booking calendar on the festival's page, not by the day of the week alone.

For homeowners weighing a spring sale, the weeks between the lights and the new year are a good time to plan the staging and video a listing needs. If you're thinking about the year ahead, Michelle Zhao Group can walk you through what your home is worth and how we would present it. Request a Luxury Home Valuation whenever you're ready, before or after your night at the lights.