Thanksgiving Ferris wheel lighting at the Santa Monica Pier

Published on November 17, 2023

The Pacific Wheel will be lit orange and red, and feature a giant animated turkey, Monday, November 20 to Thursday, November 23 for Thanksgiving; the amusement park will have extended hours all week.

Nighttime visitors at the Santa Monica Pier can enjoy Pacific Park’s seasonal salute to Thanksgiving with festive patterns and turkey designs on the Pacific Wheel.

Thanksgiving is an annual holiday celebrated on the 4th Thursday in November in the United States. This harvest festival is a time for people to give thanks for the bounty of the season. Feast on a Ferris wheel Thanksgiving celebration that features a fun and festive 90-foot-tall Thanksgiving turkey along with all the light trimmings including orange and yellow colors, dancing turkeys and fun harvest themes.

Thanksgiving is an annual holiday celebrated on the 4th Thursday in November in the United States. This harvest festival is a time for people to give thanks for the bounty of the season. Thanksgiving is celebrated in several other New World countries including Canada and Brazil. In the U.S., Thanksgiving is traditionally celebrated with a large meal of turkey or ham and many seasonally harvested vegetables such as corn, yams, and cranberries.

Many local schools are closed for the week of Thanksgiving. The weather for the week of Thanksgiving in Southern California is typically mild with daytime temps reaching into the 70s. The rides at Pacific Park, including the world-famous Pacific Wheel, will open at 11 AM daily and run until about 9 PM at night Monday – Sunday Thanksgiving week.

This special lighting event will take place on the evening of Monday, November 20 to Thursday, November 23. The Ferris wheel lights can be seen from dusk until 11:35 PM each evening. Enjoy watching the light program online at pacpark.com/live.

WHAT:
Special Lighting of the Pacific Wheel for Thanksgiving 2023

WHEN:
Monday, November 20 to Thursday, November 23
dusk (around 5 PM) to midnight

WHERE:
Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier

 

Pacific Park regularly programs the Ferris wheel to display seasonal programing and themed light designs for holidays and special occasions. The Pacific Wheel’s state-of-the-art lighting package was installed in 2016 and can display over 1.6 million different colors and animate patterns and icons in 24 frames per second. The energy efficient LEDs on the face of the Ferris wheel are powered by solar arrays inside Pacific Park. The light programs are curated and designed by Pacific Park staff. Each design is manually animated; some designs can take hours of programming. The aim is to provide fun, high-energy, and sometimes whimsical designs to entertain guests on the Santa Monica Pier and surrounding beaches.