{"id":70641,"date":"2025-11-26T12:56:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T12:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/70641\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T12:56:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T12:56:22","slug":"san-jose-holiday-lights-event-has-discovery-meadow-glowing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/70641\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Holiday Lights event has Discovery Meadow glowing"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re at the start of San Jose\u2019s brightest season, and it\u2019s actually brighter this year than ever before. That\u2019s thanks to the new San Jose Holiday Lights, a new event that\u2019s lighting up downtown\u2019s Discovery Meadow Park.<\/p>\n

The ticketed event has filled the five-acre park next to the Children\u2019s Discovery Museum with huge illuminated sculptures, spread out in six themed areas that range from a pair of Christmas scenes and a Mexican-inspired desert landscape to a whimsical candy land and an enchanted garden with a giant caterpillar and towering plants. (There are a couple of dinosaurs milling about as well, but if Fantasy of Lights at Vasona Lake County Park has taught us anything, it\u2019s that you can\u2019t go wrong with dinosaurs during the holidays.)<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople walk up to the illuminated entrance to San Jose Holiday Lights at Discovery Meadow Park downtown on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. (Sal Pizarro\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

San Jose Holiday Lights, which is produced by DOCA Festival, opened last Friday night and is running through Jan. 4, so there\u2019s plenty of time to check it out. You can get more information and tickets at www.docafestival.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, San Jose\u2019s brightest holiday attraction for the past 45 years returns Friday night with the tree-lighting ceremony at Christmas in the Park at Plaza de Cesar Chavez. The festivities are scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m., but it\u2019s always a good idea to get there early for some hot chocolate before the big switch gets flipped.<\/p>\n

\"AA tree-shaped Santa Claus and a luminescent dragon\u2019s tail are among the displays at San Jose Holiday Lights at Discovery Meadow Park downtown on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. (Sal Pizarro\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t forget that Blinky\u2019s Drive Thru Light Show is already up and running at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. The ticketed event, which opened last Friday and runs through Jan. 1, helps keep the downtown Christmas in the Park free. Get more information at www.christmasinthepark.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HOLIDAY DONATIONS NEEDED: Sacred Heart Community Service in San Jose put out a call Tuesday for donations of frozen turkeys, chickens and hams to make sure 3,000 local families can enjoy a Thanksgiving meal \u2014 along with volunteers to help distribute them. Each 50 pound holiday food box contains nonperishable goods, along with fresh produce, bread and a choice of turkey, chicken or ham.<\/p>\n

Donations can be dropped off at 1381 S. First St. until 6 p.m. Nov. 25 or \u00a08 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 26. You can also donate online at www.sacredheartcs.org\/holidays25<\/a> and sign up to volunteer at www.sacredheartcs.org\/volunteer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

PARTY ON: The Big Bone Game between San Jose and Lincoln high schools may have been moved from its traditional Thanksgiving Day slot to September, but organizer Bill Kleidon says San Jose High alums are keeping the pre-Thanksgiving Big Bone Bash tradition alive. The Nov. 26 party, now in its 33rd year, gets going at 6:30 p.m. at the Courtyard by Marriott San Jose Airport hotel on North Fourth Street. \u201cNow it\u2019s a Thanksgiving party, and it\u2019s open to everybody \u2014 not just San Jose High \u2014 and it\u2019s free,\u201d Kleidon said.<\/p>\n

HOLIDAY SHOWTUNES: Irish tenor Emmet Cahill, who spent 15 years as lead singer of Celtic Thunder, will make his return to St. William Catholic Church in Los Altos with his solo show, \u201cA Broadway Christmas,\u201d on Saturday. This is Cahill\u2019s fourth year in a row coming to Los Altos, where he says he always receives a warm welcome.\u00a0The show \u2014 a mix of Broadway, Christmas and Irish songs \u2014 starts at 1 p.m., with a noon pre-show featuring the Greene Academy of Irish Step Dancers. Tickets are $45, and you can purchase them at the door or at www.emmetcahill.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018WICKED\u2019 RACE MARKETING: Don\u2019t say the Silicon Valley Leadership Group Foundation doesn\u2019t have its finger on the pulse of pop culture fandom. The race shirts for the 21st Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot \u2014 taking place in downtown San Jose on Thursday morning \u2014 have a pink and green color scheme. That might have seemed an unusual combo \u2014 until the past couple of weeks when just about everything has been pink and green thanks to the big push for the hit movie \u201cWicked: For Good,\u201d which opened last Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the color scheme of the year,\u201d Race Director Chris Weiler says. There\u2019s still time to register for the 8:30 a.m. 10K run and 5K run\/walk, which is supporting the Healthier Kids Foundation, HomeFirst, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley and Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz County. Go to www.svturkeytrot.com<\/a> for details, including street closures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re at the start of San Jose\u2019s brightest season, and it\u2019s actually brighter this year than ever before.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[7,967,23,88,90,89,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-70641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-san-jose","12":"tag-san-jose-headlines","13":"tag-san-jose-news","14":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}