13 Reasons to Attend the Annual Glow Holiday Festival in St Paul 2023
Looking for a little holiday cheer in your life? You have to check out the Annual Glow Holiday Festival in St Paul.
Glow is an interactive holiday lights festival in St Paul. The Glow Holiday Festival is a Christmas light show and event that started as a drive-thru event in 2021.
Visitors drove their own cars through the light displays and attractions with over a million-holiday light. The experience has been changed to walk-thru allowing you to get up close with the creations.
I attended during the drive-thru celebration and caravanned with some family in different cars. It was so much fun.
The whole time, I kept wanting to jump out of the car and get a closer look. I’m so excited that the format changed to walk-through.
The Glow Holiday Lights Festival is at the CHS Field in St Paul in 2023! They have some great displays, spread out over two floors. It is amazing!
This post is sponsored by DayTripper and Glow Holiday Festival. I received complimentary admission in exchange for an honest review.
13 Reasons to Attend the Annual Glow Holiday Festival in St Paul
An Exciting Night Out for Families & Friends
The holidays are finally here! With Christmas around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about all the festive holiday fun your family can have.
From interactive light exhibits, gingerbread houses, smores roasting and so much more. The Glow Holiday festival has all of your favorite parts of winter all in one place.
There’s no shortage of festive events for you and your family to enjoy.
The Beauty of Northern Minnesota’s Winter Landscape
Minnesota is an absolutely beautiful place to spend the winter. The Glow Holiday Festival in St Paul brings the magic to life. With snow-covered trees and Glitter Critters.
The Enchanted Forest and Tremendous Trees are some of my favorites. The festival does an amazing job of bringing to life the TrueNorth feeling.
The Feeling of Watching Thousands of Lights Dance
Some go their entire lives without seeing the Northern Lights. Glow Holiday Festival has a unique walkthrough experience, with 1,000 LED light tubes raining down below you that is reminiscent of just that.
The LED Lights rain down on you as you walk through. Keep an eye out on the field as zipliners fly by.
Ride the Giant Slide
Have a great time sliding down the Giant Slide. This is a 150-foot tube ride down from the concourse level to the field, providing riders with magnificent views along the way.
Riding on an innertube, you get some serious speed, no need to worry about needing snow! This does cost extra.
Wonderful Opportunities to Take Photos with Family and Friends
If you are like me, and a little behind on the holiday cheer, the Glow Holiday Festival in St Paul is the perfect time to take some magical photos to fill your social media account.
There are so many opportunities to take photos with family and friends. Don’t forget the camera and stop in at the Selfie Plaza. Get a picture at the Bright Bikes, or inside the Color Blossoms.
The Bike Powered Lights
Take control of your own light show with Bright Bikes. The integrative tree is powered by a fleet of bicycles. Around the tree are a dozen bikes you can jump on and power up the Christmas tree in front of you.
The kids will not get enough of it. They have bikes of every type there to try.
Help raise money for Local Charities
Each night of the festival Glow Holiday has partnered with different charitable organizations. $1 from each of the tickets sold goes towards a different charity.
From United Way and the Salvation Army to Be a Boarder and the Page Foundation, the organizations are big and small. If you need a reason to go out, this is one.
Enjoy some great food and drinks
This year, the festival is expanding to include food and beverage stations throughout the grounds, so you can enjoy holiday goodies, snacks, hot chocolate, cider, liquor, beer, and wine while you stroll among the twinkling lights. You’ll find them at all the ball park concession stands.
The food and beverage stations are serving up all of your favorite holiday flavors, so you can indulge in all of your holiday cravings.
From sweet treats to savory snacks. And of course, no holiday festival would be complete without hot chocolate and cider.
Visit with Santa
One of the most popular attractions at the Glow Holiday Festival is the chance to meet Santa Claus himself! Kids and adults can line up to meet Santa and tell him what they would like for Christmas.
Or find out if out which list you’ve made. Santa is always happy to take photos with everyone so make sure you bring your camera!
Santa is located in a warm tent, so it’s the perfect excuse to escape.
Warm up with hot drinks
December in Minnesota is completely unpredictable. One day it might be in the 50’s and the next its 20 degrees with wind.
That’s why Glow has plenty of places for you to warm up. From hot beverage stations to tents and fire pits.
Zip lining at CHS Field
If you love the thrill of flying, you gotta do the Vixen’s Zip Line at glow. Alongside twinkling Lites, this brings me back to their first year where you go in the sky rider at the State Fair.
The zip line soars 30 feet above the ground for over 300 feet! Kids get a lot of speed on this. It does cost extra but worth it!
Get lost in lights
This year the Holiday light maze is bigger and better. Located on the ground floor, it’s got twists and turns that are sure to confuse you.
While there was no official direction you should travel through the displays, take the loop counter-clockwise no matter where you enter. This way you’ll get the maze’s full effect.
How Much It Costs to Attend Glow Holiday Festival in St Paul?
Tickets are on sale now for $20.75 for Adults, $12.75 for Children. Kids 3 and under are free.
Aside from food and merchandise, the only other thing that costs are the Slide. It’s $4 per ride. You can purchase tickets through their website.
When is Glow Holiday Festival open?
Glow Holiday Festival is open Nov. 16-Dec. 31, 2023 from 5 pm-9pm.
What’s New This Year?
They have a lot of the same displays, rearranged and added some little homes in the forest.
The Reindeer Run has been completely redone. The bright bikes are there, along with campfires for s’mores and teeter-totter.
There are plenty of places to warm up, including domes and huts.
You can stay as long as you like and do the loop as many times as you wish.
What I loved was there wasn’t as much dead space between displays. The upper level was all on hard concrete, while the ground level was the field’s gravel.
Warm up at the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum
So not a holiday related thing, but unless you are going to a St Paul Saints game, when will you get the chance to step inside?
This free museum is open to talk into, plus on a cold day, it’s the perfect place to warm up. They have all kinds of memorabilia from the early days of baseball.
FAQs for Attending the Glow Holiday Festival in St Paul
Buy tickets ahead of time. They do sell them at the gate but they will sell out. Tickets are good for a one-hour entry window. Tickets are non-refundable.
Make sure to bundle up. When in doubt, bring it. This is Minnesota after all.
The entire festival is cashless. Bring a credit card or debit card for all transactions. The kids were able to pay with cash for the glowing merchandise off the cart.
The entire festival takes about 1 hr to get through.
Where to Park for Glow Holiday Festival In St Paul?
The closest parking to Glow is at the St Paul Farms market directly across the street. It’s $20.
If you want to save some money, can you park at Union Depot. We paid about $4 total for parking for just over an hour we were there.
There is always street parking too. From Union Depot, it was about three blocks away.
Would I go back to the Glow Holiday Festival in St Paul?
Yes, this is truly a magical experience that my family loved. One of the things I hear from the community about Glow is the ticket prices. They’d rather go to one of the free displays around town.
Let me just say, a family trip to Duluth or Mankato, with a hotel is going to cost you more than seeing this close to home. For the price of a tank of gas, you’ll get a family of four into Glow and not have to drive a long way.
Glow Holiday Festival is exceptionally well done. Crowds are smaller and the experience is memorable. This is a new holiday tradition for my family.
Looking for more great Christmas Light Displays around the Twin Cities? Here are some of my favorites!
Where to See the BEST Christmas Lights in MN
The Newest Holiday Light Display in Wisconsin: Miracle at Big Rock
The Spirit of Winter: Festival of Lights Display in Waconia
