Park and Tilford Gardens in Snow

The Holiday Hi-Light Festival at North Vancouver’s Park & Tilford Garden is the Lower Mainland’s best outdoor shopping mall display of Christmas lights.

The lights and decorations are usually up between the end of November and New Year’s Eve.

North Van Christmas Lights at Park & Tilford

Not many malls have their own gardens, but Park & Tilford in North Vancouver does and its holiday Christmas light displays are actually quite impressive. If you’re heading to or from the North Shore, then definitely check out the garden’s lights during the Christmas season.

In 2025 the Holiday Hi-Light Festival runs from Friday, November 28th until Wednesday, December 31st. There are usually special events on opening night.

Holiday Hi-Light Festival Details

The Park & Tilford’s Holiday Hi-Light Festival takes place throughout December. The opening event usually runs from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm and features giveaways, hot chocolate, treats, carolling and more. The lights remain up in the garden until the end of the year.

Located at 333 Brooksbank Avenue in North Vancouver, admission to the Holiday Hi-Light Festival is by donation. Funds raised go to the North Shore Women’s Centre, which is an excellent cause.

The best times to visit (but also the most crowded) are the Opening Night Light Up event and the Family Friday event (which last year was on December 13th). Those nights feature live entertainment, face painting and appearances from Santa Claus.

The Holiday Hi-Light Festival at Park & Tilford doesn’t win top prize for lights in the Lower Mainland, but considering they are almost free and the crowds aren’t bad, they are pretty impressive. On regular nights, plan to stay for about 20 minutes, and then go for hot chocolate, some Chinese food or grocery shopping at the strip mall afterwards.

Entertainment Lineup

Special entertainment usually takes place on the special event nights. Below was last year’s lineup and will likely be similar in 2025, though exact details are to be confirmed.

Opening Night Activities in Late November

Opening Night activities on November 29th ran from 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm in 2024. The festivities typically include hot chocolate and live entertainment. In addition to Santa Claus, at the event last year were the following entertainers:

Scruffles the Elf Balloons
Sea Star Face Painting

Family Nights in December

Family Friday on December 13th, 2024, ran from around 5:30 pm to 9:00 pm. Santa Claus was there until 8:30 pm. Other entertainment activities included the following:

Scruffles the Elf Balloons
Sea Star Face Painting

About the Park & Tilford Gardens

The Park & Tilford Gardens were built in the late 1960s when the property was owned by a distillery. The gardens are three acres big and include eight different themes. Over the Christmas season the venue is decorated with over 50,000 sparkling lights, which makes it especially pretty at night.

Up until the mid-1980s the distillery set up Christmas light displays in the gardens in December every year. When the distillery closed in 1984, however, that tradition ended. It wasn’t until more than 12 years later that Park & Tilford Mall started the decorations back up and began what is known today as the Holiday Hi-Light Festival.

The Park & Tilford Gardens are pretty anytime, but usually become an attraction really worth visiting on December evenings.