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

This year’s Hi-Light Festival begins on Friday, November 29th in 2024. The lights stay up until New Year’s Eve. There are special events on opening night as well as Friday, December 13th.

North Van Christmas Lights at Park & Tilford

Not many malls have their own gardens, but Park and 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.

Holiday Hi-Light Festival Details

The Park and Tilford’s Holiday Hi-Light Festival takes place throughout December. The opening event 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 on November 29th, and the Family Friday event on December 13th. Those nights feature live entertainment, face painting and appearances from Santa Claus. The activities begin at 5:30 pm and Santa is there until 8:30 pm.

The Holiday Hi-Light Festival at Park and 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 are what’s been confirmed for 2024, as of late November.

Opening Night Activities in Late November

Opening Night activities on November 29th run 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 this year are the following entertainers:

Scruffles the Elf Balloons
Sea Star Face Painting

Family Nights in December

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

Scruffles the Elf Balloons
Sea Star Face Painting

Kids Saturday Night Fire Engine Rides

The Fire Engine Rides for Kids was a new activity introduced in 2019 and it ran on select Saturdays. During this event kids could ride a fire engine for a donation of $5 or more. It doesn’t seem like it’s taking place in 2024.

About the Park and Tilford Gardens

The Park and Tilford Gardens were built in the late 1960s when the property was owned by a distillery. They are three acres in size and include eight different themed gardens. 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 and Tilford Mall started the decorations back up again and began what is known today as the Holiday Hi-Light Festival.

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