A Local Louisiana people look for any excuse to celebrate, and when we celebrate, we tend to go bigger and better! Our statewide obsession with all things bright and colorful extends to Christmas lights. There are light displays worth a drive all throughout the state. We’ve collected a list of our favorites to keep you in a festive mood.

New Orleans

Audubon Zoo Lights includes dazzling life-size lit-up replicas of animals, as well as arts and crafts, snacks, beer and live entertainment. Zoo Lights is every weekend from November 29 – December 30.

Any holiday list would be incomplete without the epic Celebration in the Oaks displays in City Park. Twenty-five acres of park feature over ONE MILLION twinkling lights.

Metairie

Similarly, just a short jaunt down I-10, there’s Metairie and LaFreniere Park. And LaFreniere Park has Christmas in the Park on weekends from December 6-20. This popular event includes over 10 million bulbs, with traditional holiday symbols as well as characters like Hello Kitty and the Grinch. Above all, admission is only $5 a car.

St. James & St. Mary’s Parishes

Cajun Christmas

Cajun Country celebrates everything in its own way, with its own unique charm. A Cajun holiday tradition involves setting Bonfires on the Levee on Christmas Eve. Travel the Great River Road from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, and you’ll see multiple 20-foot tall piers of burning logs, there to illuminate the way for Papa Noel. These bonfires are concentrated in St. James Parish, along Highways 44 and 18.

There’s also this list of lightings and other Cajun-flavored holiday events in St. Mary’s Parish.

Calhoun

Candy Cane Lane is a two-year-old mile-long drive-through display of over a million lights, as well as interactive displays and music. A local family owns and operates the display. It’s $20 a car, with an entrance at 170 Hwy 151 North.

Shreveport

Christmas in Roseland runs November 29-December 23, and features lights, giant Christmas cards to the community, nightly entertainment, hot chocolate and other concessions, and photos with Santa (on the weekends) for $20 a car.

Natchitoches

For $5 a person, wander through eight-acres of lighted walkways with footbridges, snowflakes, and other gorgeous, twinkling displays at the Dark Woods’ Christmas in the Park. After you’ve worked up an appetite, snack on hot chocolate and donuts and have your picture taken with Santa.