Lights on the Bay 2026: Annapolis Holiday Lights & Getting There

Lights on the Bay — the 32nd annual holiday drive-through light show at Sandy Point State Park — runs nightly from November 23, 2026 through January 3, 2027, featuring more than 70 animated and stationary holiday light displays along a two-mile illuminated drive along the Chesapeake Bay. Sandy Point State Park is at 1100 East College Parkway, Annapolis, MD 21409, directly off US-50 at the western approach to the Bay Bridge. Admission is $25 per car, $40 for large passenger vans and Sprinters, and $60 for buses. The show benefits the SPCA of Anne Arundel County. For groups making this a family holiday outing, a corporate event, or a full-evening Annapolis excursion, this guide covers every access option and why the vehicle you arrive in is as much a part of the experience as the lights themselves.

2026 Season Details

What to Expect: The Two-Mile Drive

The two-mile drive winds through Sandy Point State Park along the Chesapeake Bay shoreline, passing more than 70 illuminated displays — animated reindeer, Maryland-themed scenes including blue crabs (a state traditions that continues every year), winter landscapes, Santa's North Pole train station, and holiday classics from multiple eras. Some displays are 3D-enabled, with glasses available at the park entrance for an additional layer of visual experience. Tune your vehicle's radio to 97.1 FM for synchronized holiday music that scores the drive through the light sequence.

The drive takes approximately 20 to 30 minutes at a comfortable pace. Peak nights — particularly weekends in December and the Christmas week from December 24 through January 1 — move more slowly as the line of vehicles through the park extends. Weeknight visits in late November and the first two weeks of January are typically the least crowded, with the drive completing in close to the minimum 20-minute window. A nightly kids' scavenger hunt adds an interactive element for families — children search for specific displays along the route, giving the drive a structured purpose beyond passive viewing. Check the official Lights on the Bay website for any weather cancellations, special event programming, and the current season's added displays.

Lights & Leashes: The Dog-Friendly Walk-Through

Before the official drive-through season opens November 23, the Lights & Leashes walk-through event runs November 20 through 22, 2026, from 5:00 to 9:00 PM. This event allows visitors — and their dogs — to experience the light displays on foot rather than from inside a vehicle. Pet-friendly vendors, hot drinks, sweet treats, and photos with Santa accompany the walk-through format. Admission is $25 per car (or the equivalent per group). For dog owners who want to include their pets in the holiday light experience, this three-day window is the only opportunity — the standard drive-through season keeps pets in the car, which works but doesn't provide the walking-through-the-lights experience that Lights & Leashes makes possible.

Tickets for both the Lights & Leashes events and the standard drive-through season are available through the Eventbrite ticketing page for Lights on the Bay 2026. Advance ticket purchase is recommended for peak nights — the most popular December weekends can sell out, and arriving without tickets during a high-demand evening can mean turning around at the gate.

Getting to Sandy Point State Park

The Group Vehicle Angle

Lights on the Bay is a drive-through attraction, which means the vehicle itself is a significant part of the experience — more so than any walk-through or venue-based event. Everyone in the vehicle sees every display together, at the same moment, from the same vantage point. The experience of a two-mile light show is fundamentally different when shared with six to twelve people in a single vehicle than when split across three separate cars that get separated in the drive-through line and experience the displays at different moments with different commentary.

The tiered pricing reflects this: $25 per car, $40 for large passenger vans and Sprinters, $60 for buses and oversized vehicles. For a group of twelve splitting the $40 Sprinter rate, the per-person admission is $3.33 — comparable to the per-car rate for a family of four but with the added benefit of a single shared experience rather than a divided one. A Sprinter van or party bus from Baltimore, DC, or the Maryland suburbs turns Lights on the Bay into a door-to-door holiday experience: pickup at home or a central gathering point, the two-mile drive through the Bay-side displays with hot chocolate and blankets, and the return. Nobody drives, everyone watches the lights together, and the December evening stays warm and unified from the first pickup to the last drop-off.

For corporate holiday parties using the $60 bus rate, a chartered vehicle from the office to Sandy Point and back handles 20 to 40 employees as a coordinated group event — the cost per person at the bus rate is $2 to $3 for admission alone, making it one of the most cost-effective group holiday events available. For shuttle service from multiple pickup points across the Baltimore or DC suburbs, a vehicle that collects the group from several neighborhoods before the Sandy Point drive eliminates the parking and the coordination of a self-organized group arrival. An airport car service from BWI for out-of-town family members arriving for a December visit covers the BWI-to-Sandy-Point leg in approximately 20 to 25 minutes — one of the most direct airport-to-holiday-attraction connections in the Baltimore market.

Making It an Annapolis Holiday Evening

Sandy Point's location at the edge of Annapolis — five miles from the historic downtown — creates a natural structure for a complete Annapolis holiday evening. Dinner at an Annapolis waterfront or downtown restaurant before the show (the 5:00 PM opening allows a 3:30 or 4:00 PM dinner reservation with comfortable timing), then the drive-through at Sandy Point, then a post-show walk through Annapolis' holiday-decorated downtown — the Maryland State House and Church Circle area carry particularly strong holiday lighting through December. For groups making the trip from Baltimore or DC, the drive to Annapolis is short enough that combining dinner and the light show into a single evening adds only 45 to 60 minutes to the Sandy Point-only version while significantly enriching the overall outing.

Lights on the Bay in Maryland's Holiday Landscape

Lights on the Bay sits at a specific and valuable position in the Maryland holiday entertainment calendar. It is not a walk-through market (like the German Christmas Village at the Inner Harbor) or a themed attraction requiring a separate venue (like Enchant Christmas at Nationals Park). It is a drive-through experience at a state park on the Chesapeake Bay, combining the specific character of a coastal winter landscape with 70-plus holiday displays seen from inside your own vehicle. For families who have already visited indoor holiday attractions, the Sandy Point outdoor setting — wind off the Bay, the darkness of the water beyond the lights, and the specific Chesapeake ambiance that November and December produce on the Eastern Shore — provides a qualitative difference from arena-based or venue-based alternatives. The $25-per-car admission makes it among the most accessible multi-person holiday attractions in the mid-Atlantic, and the six-week run from late November through early January allows scheduling flexibility that single-date events don't offer. The annual benefit to the SPCA of Anne Arundel County adds the dimension that spending the evening at Sandy Point directly supports animal welfare services in the community that hosts the attraction — a connection that Lights on the Bay's returning visitors cite alongside the lights themselves as a reason they come back every year.

Frequently Asked Questions