Posted: Dec 8, 2023

Updated: Oct 11, 2024

Toronto Christmas lights turn the city into a twinkling playground of festive cheer, where even the most stoic snowman would crack a grin under the shimmering glow of holiday magic! My first Toronto Christmas was nothing short of amazing! From exploring various Toronto Christmas markets, to strolling through uniquely decorated Toronto neighborhoods, I truly felt the spirit of Christmas in Toronto, and can’t wait to experience it again! If you are visiting Toronto during Christmas or are looking for the best things to do in Toronto during Christmas, it can be daunting to know what to focus on, where to go, and what to do. In this article, I am sharing my top recommendations of the best Toronto Christmas lights experiences that are immersive, and could be worth your while. This is part of my Toronto Christmas articles series, where I am sharing recommendations on all the best things to do in Toronto during Christmas, in my opinion. As part of this series, I’ve also got recommendations of free Toronto Christmas Holiday lights experiences, so make sure you check it out to complement the immersive light experiences recommended here! 

With no further ado, let’s dive into the best Toronto Christmas immersive lights experiences!

Glow Christmas Gardens 

If you’ve checked out my top recommendations of things to do in Toronto during Christmas, you will see that I can’t stop recommending the Glow Toronto Christmas Market! This is an immersive indoor Christmas market experience where you get to explore and appreciate Christmas lights decorations inspired by 6 different countries, have countless opportunities for amazing photos with great Christmas displays, and enjoy live music (Christmas-themed) while strolling through the market. I loved this experience because it had a lot to offer, and for the price, I felt it was great value. You can find out more about the Glow Christmas gardens in Toronto here, and check out the other Toronto Christmas markets that are also worth a stop during your winter in Toronto!

Note: the Glow Toronto Christmas lights are not opened for 2023. but see below for a plethora of other activities you can do!

Toronto Christmas Lights – Northern Lights

The Northern Lights exhibition is another great Toronto Christmas lights experience that I recommend. When you’ve seen a lot of Christmas lights in Toronto already, it’s hard to really differentiate and appreciate what makes each event special: one might ask – how many ways are there to portray Christmas anyways? But to this, I’d say that every event has a different vibe, and I love that I was able to experience many, so I could pick up the vibe at each of them. 

When I attended the Northern Lights Christmas display, it felt more like a chilled-down, Toronto Christmas lights exhibition where you would go solo, in a couple or with your family, after work hours. These Toronto Christmas Lights are great to wine down on the weekend, while still giving you a few activities in case the kids are high in energy (photos with Santa for instance). There are a lot of areas where you could play chill games, sit and sip some hot chocolate, or cuddle by the fireplace. For the best things to do in Toronto during Christmas activity, I felt like the Northern Lights brought up a different vibes, which I can appreciate within the bustling and busy Christmas season. You really don’t need to do much to enjoy yourself. Find out more about Northern Lights Toronto, and how you can get your tickets. 

Toronto Christmas Lights: Casa Loma’s Holidays at the Castle

Toronto Christmas Lights at Casa Loma are a completely different experience! Casa Loma is an iconic tourist activity in Toronto, and I will explain to you why I am adding it to this list. Having visited Casa Loma during the holidays, I can definitely tell you that holidays are perhaps the best time to visit such a tourist attraction. I love exploring museums and iconic places, and sometimes the experience might be repetitive and redundant. However, visiting Casa Loma during Christmas brings in a different flair to Sir Henry Pellatt’s real life castle. As I walked through the halls, corridors and the beautifully decorated rooms. I imagined what it felt like living in such a beautiful castle at Christmas. 

Secondly, there was a different component to Casa Loma during Christmas: select key rooms and areas were decorated by prolific Canadian personalities in the arts, creative and beauty industries. It gave me the opportunity to discover their talents, read about their art, and appreciate their work more. When you visit Casa Loma as part of your Toronto Christmas experience, you’ll see different portraits in front of each room/area, describing who was in charge of the décor during the exhibition. I give a bit more of this experience in my “Holidays at the Castle” vlog, featuring my Casa Loma Christmas experience. 

But your Casa Loma tour experience during Christmas can’t be complete unless you also do the Holiday Lights Experience at the Castle…

Toronto Christmas Lights: Casa Loma’s Holiday Lights Experience

The Holiday Lights Experience at the castle perfectly complements the Casa Loma day time tour during the Christmas period. Though the two events are sold separately, you can purchase your tickets online together as a package, if you want to have both Toronto Christmas Lights experiences on the same day. I picked that option because it was my first time visiting Casa Loma and I wanted the whole, comprehensive experience.

The Holiday Lights tour starts at 5:00 PM, right after the day time tour of Casa Loma ends. It is a self-paced walk throughout the Casa Loma gardens, where you can stroll through what feels like an enchanting forest with live Christmas characters such as The Grinch and The Nutcracker. Added to this, are special Christmas-themed rooms (indoors) such as the wonderland room, candy cane room, a bakery-style decorated room and so many more; representing aspects of what we loved so much about the holidays. 

But that’s not all: During this Toronto Christmas Lights experience, you can also attend live fire-display and magic shows that add to your entertainment at the castle. And to end the tour, there is a special story time tour of the Casa Loma Christmas House (that I might have run away from), but which definitely adds “another” dimension to this Toronto Christmas lights experience (since I am trying so hard not to spill the beans, I will say no more… but if you’re smart, you’ll check out my Casa Loma at Christmas to see exactly what I am talking about! Or … just get your ticket with blind faith and find out on your own)!

The best way to end this Toronto Christmas lights experience is by walking through one of Sir Henry Pellatt’s secret tunnels at the castle, admiring the décor, watching some of Santa’s workshops and why not… even participate in one of them! This Toronto Christmas lights experience was definitely full of surprises, and I would recommend it for fun, a bit of scare and …some good memories!

Toronto turns into a magical city at Christmas, and there are so many things to do. From free Toronto Christmas lights displays, to unique Toronto Christmas markets, and exciting Toronto Christmas events, this Toronto Christmas lights combination of experiences simply adds the icing on the cake that makes Toronto a beautiful city to visit during the winter season!