Vancouver’s most amazing and affordable Christmas lights are the Bright Nights displays at Stanley Park which feature millions of sparkling festive lights.
Last season Bright Nights ran on most days between November 29th, 2024, and January 4th, 2025. The Stanley Park Miniature Train, however, was closed for the season in mid-December due to mechanical issues. The rest of Bright Nights remained open.
This article includes information on all of the following topics:
Admission | Location | Miniature Train | Train Hours | Train Cost | Train Video | Activities | Parking | History of Bright Nights | Tips & Advice | Burn Fund Video | Bright Nights 50/50 | Other Information
Click on any of the above links to jump to a specific subject, or continue reading to learn all about this wonderful Vancouver Christmas attraction.
Stanley Park Christmas Lights
Bright Nights is an annual event running from the end of November until the beginning of January each year. It’s one of the best places in Canada to take children to see holiday decorations and illuminations in December.
Open during the holiday season from 4:00 pm until 10:00 pm, Bright Nights probably features the most lights of any attraction in Metro Vancouver. There are also train rides (most years), Christmas character displays and festive cheer. The 2024/2025 season marked the event’s 27th edition.
Admission to Bright Nights
In 2024 Bright Nights was open daily from November 29th until January 4th, 2025. It was only closed on Christmas Day, so on December 25th. Dates for 2025/26 are to be confirmed as of March.
Admission to the event in general is by donation, and all proceeds go toward the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund. It’s a great cause, so give generously when you can!
There are usually train rides which are great for those of all ages (although sadly they stopped operating midway through 2024/25). Train tickets cost between $12 and $16 depending on your age. Kids under two years old ride for free.
Bright Nights Location
Bright Nights takes place in Stanley Park just off Pipeline Road in the middle of the park. If using GPS to get there, type in 690 Pipeline Road. It’ll get you close enough to see signs directing you where to go. Or, park for free at a variety of parking lots mentioned further below.
Bright Nights Miniature Train
The miniature train at Stanley Park returned for Bright Nights in 2024, although it closed down halfway through the run of the event.
The ride is incredibly popular and takes about 12 minutes. Continue reading below for information of what it’s like when the train is operational, or click Stanley Park Train to learn about rides at other times of the year.
Stanley Park Train Hours
Tickets for the Stanley Park miniature train during the 2024/2025 Christmas season were available online. The train operated daily beginning November 29th, 2024 until it closed on December 14th. Hours were between 4:00 pm and 10:00 pm each day. Trains usually departed once every 20 minutes or so.
Bright Nights Miniature Train Cost
In the 2024/2025 season, ticket prices varied depending on your age. Children under two years old rode for free. Tickets cost $16 for teenagers and adults, and $12 for children between three and 12 years old.
Stanley Park Train Video
To get an idea of what to expect on the miniature train at Christmas, check out the following video. It shows what the train ride looked like in 2021.
Bright Nights Activities
In addition to the train and all of the Christmas-themed illuminations, there are also food trucks and live performances to enjoy at Bright Nights. Firefighters are on-site for photos and there’s an antique fire truck to check out too. Santa’s Workshop offers Christmas displays and photo opportunities with Santa Claus himself.
Bright Nights Video
For an idea of what to expect at Bright Nights, check out the following video. It shows what the place looked like in the winter of 2021.
Parking at Bright Nights in Stanley Park
Stanley Park has pay parking throughout the year. However, during Bright Nights all parking in the immediate area and specific overflow lots is usually free. In 2024 this included parking at the Vancouver Aquarium, Stanley Park Information Booth, and Lumberman’s Arch lots.
Note: Other parking lots still require payment. Also, immediate on-site parking is free only after 3:00 pm most years.
About Bright Nights`
Vancouver’s Bright Nights has been running at Stanley Park since 1997. Today, it’s one of Western Canada’s largest and most famous Christmas attractions.
Admission to Bright Nights is by donation with proceeds benefiting the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund. This registered charity does all kinds of valuable work to support victims of fires, and educates the public to help keep people safe. It also sends child burn victims to summer camp, and provides support and accommodations to families of burn victims in hospital.
The History of Bright Nights
Bright Nights is a tremendously popular and valuable attraction with an interesting story involving creative ideas, Christmas and community passion, and tons of hard work.
Bright Nights Early History
Years ago each December, a couple in Surrey – Bob and Marg Wingfield – turned the outside of their home into a Winter Wonderland and collected donations from appreciative viewers for the Burn Unit at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH).
The Wingfields owned a retail store that sold knick-knack-sorts-of-things. Over the years they had collected an impressive array of Christmas decorations from tradeshows and various suppliers.
After decorating their home and collecting donations for many years, and raising over $500,000 for the Burn Unit at VGH, the Wingfields decided to retire from their holiday-decorating hobby.
The Wingfields then approached North Vancouver firefighter Peter Hansen to see if the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund (a different but related charity from the one they were donating to) would be interested in taking over the decorations and their Christmas fundraising tradition.
Bright Nights and The Burn Fund
Peter Hansen was a member of the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund, as was Jeff Dighton from the City of Vancouver Fire Department. Together the two men took the lead in convincing the Burn Fund’s Board to take on the Wingfield’s offer, and the challenging task of finding a location to set up each year.
At the time, in the late 1990s, Stanley Park already had its annual Christmas Miniature Train. The venue around the railway was lit up and decorated in December each year, but the area just outside in the park was dark, wide-open and empty.
The location was the perfect spot! The Vancouver Parks Board just had to be convinced to let it happen. Negotiations began and after considerable hard work and convincing, the Parks Board finally agreed to allow the project.
The BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund purchased the lights, decorations, an antique sleigh and a variety of mechanized characters from the Wingfields. Bob Wingfield then helped a group of firefighter volunteers set up the displays (in both the first and second years of the event). In 1997 Stanley Park celebrated its first of many Bright Nights events.
Bright Nights Today and Over the Years
The legacy of Bob and Marg Wingfield’s Winter Wonderland, and the hard work of Peter Hansen, Jeff Dighton and numerous other firefighter volunteers, continues today.
What began with about 500,000 lights and miscellaneous decorations in 1997 is one of the largest, most affordable and most impressive displays of Christmas lights anywhere on the planet most years.
In 1997 Bright Nights raised enough cash donations to cover its initial costs. The attraction features an estimated 3 million lights and generates around $400,000 annually for the Burn Fund.
Thanks to the hard work of volunteers and corporate support, the event has extremely low operating expenses and thus a huge charitable impact!
The miniature train ride that is a highlight of Bright Nights ran again in 2023. The COVID-19 pandemic and train maintenance issues derailed the train’s run in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. So for the first time in four years, the train hit the tracks again during the 2023 holiday season!
Community Support and Volunteers
Over the years Bright Nights has received tremendous support from the community. The Vancouver Parks Board generously supplies all the electricity, and paid for the initial power infrastructure which in 1997 didn’t exist. Also, around the year 2000, the Parks Board covered the cost of paving the pathways through that part of the park which exist today and greatly benefit the attraction.
Over the past 20 or so years, lights and decorations have been added to the collection at Bright Nights, with additions being financed through donations of cash and products. BC Hydro, for example, has donated significantly towards the purchase and transition to energy-efficient LED lighting.
Every day in November leading up to opening night at the end of the month, between around 10 and 30 Lower Mainland firefighters donate their time to set up the displays. It takes hundreds of people and thousands of volunteer hours, as well as extensive ladder-climbing time on area fire trucks. White Spot restaurant generously feeds all the volunteers during this time, which is greatly appreciated.
Today, hundreds of thousands of people visit Bright Nights annually. Also, hundreds of British Columbians suffer severe burn injuries and require support and treatment each year. Donations collected by firefighter volunteers at Bright Nights over the winter holiday season are used to support victims of burn accidents.
Bright Nights is a fabulous Christmas tradition and for an amazing cause! Well done and thank you to all the founders, organizers and amazing volunteers!
Tips & Advice
The following is a list of suggestions to help you make the most of your experience at Stanley Park’s Bright Nights:
TIP #1: To avoid the biggest crowds, go on a weekday before the second half of December. It’s busiest on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays as well as weekdays close to Christmas Day.
TIP #2: Expect there to be lots of other people checking out the displays – so maybe leave the kids’ stroller in your car on the busiest nights. The site is wheelchair accessible, though; the miniature train for the time being, though, is not.
TIP #3: Be generous with your donations to the Burn Fund. The Christmas displays at Stanley Park are some of the best in the Lower Mainland, with comparable attractions charging between $10 and over $40 per person. Also, thousands of volunteer hours go into the event, and it’s for a most worthwhile cause.
TIP #4: If it has been raining a lot, as it often does in Vancouver in winter, wear boots or other waterproof footwear. The pathways are paved, but there can be puddles.
TIP #5: If you plan to ride the train at night, don’t go at the very start before it gets dark. The lights are what makes the ride so special.
Burn Fund Video
Want to learn about the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund, the charitable organization that donations to Bright Nights at Stanley Park benefit? Then check out the following video produced by SEE the Change Productions and sponsored by TELUS. Watch it and you’ll want to donate extra generously!
Bright Nights 50/50
Another way to support the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund is by entering the Bright Nights 50/50. Half of the prize money goes to the winner while the other half goes to the Burn Fund.
For the 2024/2025 season, the draw took place at 12:00 pm on January 15th, 2025. One ticket cost $15, three tickets cost $40, six tickets cost $60 and 25 tickets cost $250. The winner usually takes home more than $500,000!
For more information about the Bright Nights 50/50 and other similar draws, click Vancouver Fundraising Events.
Other Information
For more information on the Bright Nights’ miniature train rides and to purchase tickets now, see the City of Vancouver’s Stanley Park Bright Nights webpage.
For information about the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund, check out the Burn Fund‘s website.
To learn more about the venue, click Stanley Park or Stanley Park Train. To learn about the train in other seasons see our articles about Stanley Park’s Easter Train or Halloween Train.
For more ideas on places to see Christmas lights in the Lower Mainland, check out any of the following:
- Top Things to do at Christmas
- Vancouver’s Best Christmas Activities
- Vancouver’s December Events Calendar
