12 Days of a Las Vegas Christmas 2024 – Spending Christmas & New Year’s in Sin City

Ready to skip the snow this holiday season? Whether your tickets are booked or you’re on the hunt for a holiday getaway, in temperate Las Vegas, you can enjoy a Christmas without cleaning off your car or shoveling out the driveway. You may miss out on the classic white Christmas experience, but Vegas more than makes up for it with impressive displays, exciting activities, and a dash of festive magic (and artificial snow).

Most hotels and casinos boast extravagant holiday displays, and many other Vegas classics embrace the holiday season with decor and themed events. From over-the-top decorations and towering Christmas trees to special seasonal events and appearances from the Big Man in Red, there’s no shortage of festive fun to be had in Sin City, whether you’re in town for the weekend or all 12 days of Christmas.

Let’s find Christmas in Vegas in 2024.

Las Vegas may not be the first place you think of for a yuletide family vacation, but there are tons of family-friendly things to see and do around the city during the Christmas season. Here are some of our favorites:

Based on previous years, you might hear these tunes during the 2024 Fountains of Bellagio Holiday Music shows:

While you’re there, step inside the Bellagio to see the Atrium and Conservatory. Both are completely done up for Christmas.

Every Christmas, the Cosmopolitan transforms its Boulevard Pool into an ice rink with more than 4,200 square feet of real ice to glide over. You can also roast s’mores by the fire pits, catch a holiday-themed double feature, or enjoy warm cocktails between light snow showers that fall every 30 minutes on select nights.

The ice rink re-opens November 28, 2024.

The annual Christmas display at the Bellagio Conservatory will transport you out of the desert into a festive winter wonderland. Every year, the Conservatory is decorated with thousands of twinkling lights, more than 28,000 poinsettias, and a spectacularly decorated Christmas tree that’s over 40 feet tall. The tree alone is decorated with more than 7,000 LED lights and 2,500 ornaments!

Brought to life by Bellagio’s Horticulture team, this year’s theme is ‘Twas – A Visit From St. Nick. As you stroll along the enchanting pathway, you’ll pass by showstopping “whimsical vignettes that celebrate the timeless story of giving, tradition, and family”.

Admission is free and the Holiday display at the Conservatory is open 24 hours a day from November 16, 2024 to January 4, 2025.

If you’re in town for the holidays, you can’t miss Nevada’s largest drive-thru light show. The Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s 2.5-mile course is illuminated with 5 million LED lights that make up more than 600 animated displays. It opens at 5:30 PM and runs from November 8, 2024 to January 5, 2025. Admission starts at $39 per vehicle.

Learn more about Glittering Lights at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway

This Las Vegas holiday staple features more than half a million lights draped over three acres of cacti, chocolate houses and sculptures, and live demonstrations of Ethel M’s chocolate creations. The lights are switched on each night between 5:00 and 8:00 PM or 10:00 PM from November 1 to January 4, 2025 (closed on Christmas). Learn more about Ethel M’s Holiday Cactus Garden Lights.

There is a $3 entrance fee per person. This money is donated to Help of Southern Nevada and Three Square Food Bank. Children under 2 & Senior Citizens 65+ are free.

The factory is open:

Santa sometimes makes a few surprise stops at Mandalay Bay’s famous shark reef and aquarium, but this isn’t your standard visit. This year, Santa will be visiting with “ a rather large and toothy holiday helper – Santa Jaws. Throughout the day, Santa Jaws will happily “swim” by to join the kiddies for a photo.”

Santa can be found in the shipwreck between 10 AM and 4 PM, on December 7-8, 14-15, and 21-24. With each paid admission, children 12 and under receive a complimentary photograph with Santa Claus.

The Shark Reef Aquarium is open daily from 10 AM to 8 PM. Last admission is at 7 PM.

If the 40-foot tall Christmas tree at the Bellagio Conservatory doesn’t cut it for you, make sure you check out the 65-foot tree at the Venetian. It’s truly a spectacle, with more than 50,000 programmable lights and a nightly light show.

Inside the Sam’s Town Hotel, you can find the wooded waterfall area of Mystic Falls Park. At any other time of year, you can catch the Sunset Stampede Laser Light and Water Show, which “chronicles the Western pioneer experience with music, dancing water, and a state-of-the-art laser light show.” But every December, Mystic Falls transforms into a Winter Wonderland, complete with a seasonal update that includes Santa’s workshop, a nightly snow show, and the addition of holiday classics to its laser light show music.

Mystic Falls Winter Wonderland is free to enjoy and open 24/7. Holiday laser light show performances run every two hours between 2:00 PM and 10:00 PM daily from November 27, 2024 – January 1, 2025.

Catch Santa in Winter Wonderland between November 29 – December 22 from 4 PM to 8 PM on Fridays, and 11 AM to 7 PM on Saturdays and Sundays.

ARIA’s winter setup is a must-see for any holiday die-hard with a sweet tooth. Last year’s display was called “Merrymint” and was made up of thousands of pounds of sugar. It took over 100 working hours to build, and was composed of:

This year’s display hasn’t been revealed yet but will surely be spectacular.

Make sure you pick up your own Christmas candies and confections at the ARIA Patisserie, which is currently offering holiday sugar cookies, gift boxes, and more.

From the ashes of Merry Crimson, a new annual Vegas tradition emerges. This year, the Rouge Room at Red Rock Resort Casino will “transport guests from the 1920s to the snowy peaks and frosty forests of the North Pole. Featuring festive holiday décor, Instagram-able photo moments, fire pits, frosty treats, and a merry lineup of seasonal cocktails.”

Guests can visit Rouge Wonderland from December 21 to December 30, Sundays and Thursdays from 5 PM-12 AM and on Fridays and Saturdays from 5 PM-1 AM.

The Tournament of Kings arena is transformed into a medieval winter wonderland for “‘Twas the Knight”—a seasonal show featuring holiday costumes, lights, and a magically conjured snowfall courtesy of Merlin. And, of course, there’s a holiday-inspired meal to go along with the show.

The Tournament of Kings holiday dinner show runs from November 27 to December 25. Tickets start around $64.

See the Strip as Santa would on a helicopter night flight over the dazzling lights of Vegas’s most iconic casinos and resorts, as well as historic Fremont Street. For extra holiday indulgence, upgrade your night flight and travel to and from your chopper in a stretch limousine!

Guests must provide their own transportation to our Las Vegas Terminal located at 5060 Koval Lane, Las Vegas, NV.

See the glittering lights of fabulous Las Vegas in a luxury helicopter! Upgrade your tour and travel to McCarran International Airport by shuttle. Airport fee is included in your price.

Las Vegas is known for its heat, but it can get cool to cold in the winter. Around Christmas time you can expect daytime temps of 56 F (13C) and overnights around 35 F (1 – 2 C), though the temperature can drop even further and the city occasionally even gets snow! Typically only trace amounts will fall, but there are years on record (as recent as 2019) where it has snowed a couple of inches.

When visiting Las Vegas for Christmas, plan to pack warm layers and a light jacket for the evenings, just in case it gets colder than you expect.

If you are worried about the lack of kid-free fun or family-friendly Christmas activities on your Vegas vacation, don’t worry, Las Vegas has lots of festive fun for you to enjoy in 2024.