Celebration in the Oaks
Two-Mile Driving Tour, Easy City Park Rides

Short answer: The 2026 season opens Friday, November 27, 2026 in City Park and runs nightly through Friday, January 1, 2027. The festival includes a two-mile Driving Tour and a separate Walking Tour through the Botanical Garden, Storyland and Carousel Gardens Amusement Park, per celebrationintheoaks.com. The festival is the City Park Conservancy's largest annual fundraiser and has been a New Orleans holiday tradition since the 1980s.

The 2026 season spans Thanksgiving week, the December holidays and the New Year, and the festival is closed December 7, 14, 24 and 31. Daily hours are 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM Monday through Thursday, 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM Friday and Saturday, 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM Sunday, with Christmas hours 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM on December 25, per celebrationintheoaks.com/experience/driving-tour. The simplest way to do the lights is to book the car once, run dinner at a City Park restaurant, then do the two-mile Driving Tour and end the night with a curbside pickup.

2026 season at a glance

The 2026 season, published at celebrationintheoaks.com, runs like this:

• Friday, November 27, 2026 (opening night): the Driving Tour and the Walking Tour open. The Driving Tour runs 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM on Fridays and Saturdays.
• Sunday, November 29: the first Sunday of the season. The Driving Tour hours on Sundays are 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM.
• December 1, 2026 – January 1, 2027 (Walking Tour): the Botanical Garden, Storyland and Carousel Gardens Amusement Park open nightly for the Walking Tour, with unlimited amusement rides included.
• Monday, November 30 – Thursday, December 3: the weekday Driving Tour at 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. The Walking Tour runs the same hours.
• Tuesday, December 1 – Friday, December 4, 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM: Bike Nights, the bicycle-only walking-tour hours, with all bikes entering at 4 Friederichs Avenue, per celebrationintheoaks.com/tickets.
• Friday, December 4 & Saturday, December 5: peak Driving Tour hours, 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM, with a long curbside queue at the Driving Tour entrance.
• Sunday, December 6: the Driving Tour closes at 9:00 PM. Monday, December 7: the festival is closed for the season.
• Friday, December 11 & Saturday, December 12: the second December weekend. Driving Tour 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM.
• Sunday, December 13: Driving Tour 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Monday, December 14: the festival is closed for the season.
• Tuesday, December 15 – Wednesday, December 23: the final open weekdays of the season, Driving Tour 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM.
• Thursday, December 24 (Christmas Eve): the festival is closed.
• Friday, December 25 (Christmas Day): the festival is open with Christmas Hours 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM.
• Saturday, December 26 & Sunday, December 27: the post-Christmas weekend. Driving Tour hours Friday and Saturday 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM; Sunday 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM.
• Monday, December 28 – Wednesday, December 30: final weekday nights, Driving Tour 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM.
• Thursday, December 31 (New Year's Eve): the festival is closed.
• Friday, January 1, 2027 (closing night): the final night of the 2026 season. The Driving Tour and Walking Tour close after the 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM Friday block, per celebrationintheoaks.com.

For the live schedule and any same-week adjustments, watch celebrationintheoaks.com and neworleanscitypark.org/visit-city-park/celebration-in-the-oaks.

Tickets and prices

Celebration in the Oaks is a ticketed event, with separate tickets for the Driving Tour and the Walking Tour, per celebrationintheoaks.com/tickets. The Driving Tour is sold by vehicle (a Chauffeured Sprinter counts as a single vehicle for the Sprinter price), and the Walking Tour is sold per person.

Driving Tour (per vehicle):

Walking Tour (per person, children 2 and under free):

The Dasher Pass is the express-entry ticket. It skips the Driving Tour line at the Friederichs Avenue gate and is the right pick for any chauffeured group running an evening block on a peak Saturday, per celebrationintheoaks.com/experience/driving-tour.

Tickets for the 2026 season go on sale Sunday, November 1, 2026. Friends of City Park receive one free Dasher Pass and a Walking Tour discount when booked the same day, but the perk is not valid on Value Nights.

Why a chauffeured car is the easy way to do it

City Park fills up fast during Celebration in the Oaks. The Driving Tour entrance at 4 Friederichs Avenue is in the middle of the park, the parking lots inside City Park close to non-park traffic on festival nights, and the rideshare pickup at the end of the two-mile loop is a twenty-minute walk from the gate. A chauffeured car takes all three off your list.

1. Your driver drops at the gate. The Driving Tour entrance is on Friederichs Avenue off City Park Avenue, and the legal drop-off is the curb at the gate. Your chauffeur sets the pickup before the tour starts and walks your group to the entry.
2. The car stays with your group. The hourly rate is for the car, not the trip. The same driver takes the group from the hotel to dinner, from dinner to the Driving Tour entrance, and from the entrance back to the hotel after the two-mile loop, with the meter in the trunk and no per-trip surge.
3. The price is the price. Jazzy Limousine & Shuttle quotes the all-in number up front. Gratuity and fuel surcharge are already in the rate, so the bill on the way home is the same number the group agreed to when they booked.

Transportation rates (all-in, standard minimums)

Celebration in the Oaks is booked hourly at our standard minimums (three hours for sedans, SUVs and Executive Sprinters; four hours for the Limo Sprinter, stretch limousine and buses), all-in with gratuity and fuel surcharge.

Driving Tour clearance: sedans, SUVs and stretch limousines can drive the Driving Tour route with your group aboard. Sprinters and buses do not have the clearance to drive the route through the Park, so they drop your group at the designated area and wait there while you walk the lights.

A three- or four-hour booking covers the evening — dinner at 5:00 PM, the Driving Tour at 6:30 PM, the after-tour stop for hot chocolate or beignets, and the curbside pickup by 9:30 PM — in one reservation, with extra time billed at the same hourly rate.

An evening at the Oaks

For most groups, Celebration in the Oaks is a single evening. The Friday-through-Sunday block is a popular booking pattern:

• 5:00 PM: the chauffeured car picks the group up at the hotel in the CBD or the French Quarter, and runs to a City Park restaurant like Ralph's on the Park or Toups Meatery for an early dinner.
• 6:30 PM: drop-off at the Driving Tour entrance at 4 Friederichs Avenue. The Dasher Pass keeps the group out of the line.
• 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM: the two-mile Driving Tour, with a stop at the Botanical Garden for the Walking Tour if the group has a Walking Tour ticket.
• 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM: the post-tour stop. Coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde in City Park, or a nightcap at the Pavilion at the Botanical Garden if the group walked the Walking Tour.
• 9:30 PM: the curbside pickup at the Driving Tour entrance. The chauffeur has been waiting in the legal staging spot on Friederichs Avenue the whole time.

For groups that want to combine the festival with the Thanksgiving Bayou Classic the same weekend, Jazzy Limousine & Shuttle can stage the same car for Bayou Classic transportation on the Saturday and the Oaks on the Friday or Sunday. For groups extending the trip to the Sugar Bowl 2027 CFP semifinal on Friday, January 15, 2027 at the Caesars Superdome, see Sugar Bowl transportation. For groups doing New Year's Eve at the riverfront fireworks and the Sugar Bowl parade, see New Orleans New Year's Eve.

From MSY

MSY (Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport) is about 25 minutes from City Park and the Driving Tour entrance. The all-in airport rate is $126.50 in a sedan, $165.50 in an SUV, $204.50 in a Premium SUV, and $278 in an Executive Sprinter for up to 14, per the airport rate card. Your chauffeur tracks the flight, so a delayed arrival does not cost you the car, and meets the group inside at baggage claim.

For the return, the same driver who dropped the group at the hotel on arrival day picks them up at the hotel on departure day, with the flight tracked and the curb staged.

Picking the right vehicle for your group

• Couples (up to 2): a sedan or premium sedan. The most affordable way to the Driving Tour and back, $273 all-in for three hours.
• Families and friends (up to 6): an SUV or Premium SUV. Six adults and the kids' costumes fit comfortably, with room for strollers and hot-chocolate thermoses.
• Group of friends (up to 14): an Executive Sprinter. The most popular booking for a Celebration in the Oaks group that wants to ride together from dinner to the Driving Tour to the post-tour stop.
• Walking-Tour group (up to 12): a Limo Sprinter. Mood lighting, sound system, and room for the Walking Tour crowd's coats and strollers.
• Big group or family reunion (up to 24): a Limo Party Bus. Perimeter seating, room to stand, and a sound system that starts the evening in the car.
• Extended-family reunion (up to 30): a Limo Party Bus XL. The biggest costume-ready vehicle in the fleet.
• Whole-family charter (up to 56): a Motorcoach for the entire family in one vehicle.

For groups doing the festival in multiple cars, Jazzy Limousine & Shuttle stages the SUVs and Sprinters at the Driving Tour entrance on Friederichs Avenue and runs the same dispatch on both nights, so the same dispatcher handles every booking.

What to expect on the two-mile Driving Tour

The Driving Tour is the headline experience at Celebration in the Oaks and runs every open night of the season, per celebrationintheoaks.com/experience/driving-tour. The loop is two miles through the heart of City Park, with the lights built into the live oak canopy that gives the festival its name. The route is one-way from the entrance on Friederichs Avenue, with the legal staging lane on the right side of the entrance road.

The experience on the route runs like this:

• 0.0 mile – the entrance: the gate at 4 Friederichs Avenue opens at the published time. The Dasher Pass is the express lane on the right; the standard lane is on the left.
• 0.3 mile – the Dripping Tree: the signature installation, a 30-foot live oak draped in cascading blue and white lights that looks like a frozen waterfall hanging from the branches. This is the spot most groups ask the chauffeur to stop briefly for a photo.
• 0.6 mile – the Swamp Exhibit: a walk-through lighted swamp installation built around the park's natural lagoon, with Spanish moss draped over cypress knees and color-changing uplighting on the water.
• 1.0 mile – the Botanical Garden gate: the Walking Tour entrance at 7 Victory Avenue is on the left. A second drop-off loop runs past the gate for groups who want to add the Walking Tour after the Driving Tour.
• 1.4 mile – Storyland and Carousel Gardens: the amusement park side of the festival, with the carousel and the Storyland rides lit up for the season. Passengers can see the lights from the road without leaving the car.
• 1.8 mile – the Twelve Yats of Christmas: the whimsical installation that recasts the Twelve Days of Christmas as New Orleans characters, from "Five Gold Rings of Beignet" to "Twelve Drummers Drumming at Tipitina's."
• 2.0 mile – the exit: the loop ends back at the Friederichs Avenue gate. The chauffeur meets the car at the same legal pickup spot on the right side of the entrance road.

The full loop runs about 30 to 45 minutes depending on the line at the gate and the photo stops, per celebrationintheoaks.com/experience/driving-tour. The chauffeur cannot ride the loop with the group (only the car is allowed past the gate), so the group keeps the keys, the phone and the photo gear with them for the two miles.

What to expect on the Walking Tour

The Walking Tour is the second half of the festival and the part most New Orleans families grew up doing, per celebrationintheoaks.com/experience/walking-tour. The Walking Tour ticket includes unlimited rides on the Carousel Gardens Amusement Park rides and the Storyland attractions, with the Botanical Garden open for the holiday lights and a separate Christmas-themed display in the Pavilion.

The Walking Tour experience runs like this:

• 6:00 PM: the entrance at 7 Victory Avenue opens. The line at the gate is shorter than the Driving Tour line because the Walking Tour has a higher per-person capacity per hour.
• 6:15 PM: the Botanical Garden. The garden's regular plant collection is overlaid with a holiday lights installation that runs through the entire garden, with the walking path lit by warm-white lights along the live oak canopy.
• 7:00 PM: the Pavilion. The annual themed display is in the Pavilion, with the 2026 theme announced on the official site closer to opening night.
• 7:45 PM: Storyland. The storybook characters from the New Orleans children's book tradition are lit up as walk-through installations, with the Cajun Crawfish Band, the Muffin Man and the Yat Pack all part of the route.
• 8:15 PM: Carousel Gardens Amusement Park. The Walking Tour ticket includes unlimited rides on the carousel, the Ferris wheel, the miniature train and the other amusement rides, all decorated for the season.
• 9:00 PM: exit. The Walking Tour ends back at 7 Victory Avenue, where the chauffeur is waiting at the same legal pickup spot used for the Driving Tour.

The full Walking Tour runs about 90 minutes, per celebrationintheoaks.com. Children 2 and under are free; the other ticket tiers are $20 for a Value Night, $25 when combined with a same-day Driving Tour ticket, and $35 Stand Alone.

Tips for visiting with kids

The Walking Tour is the right pick for families with kids under 12, and most New Orleans families do the Walking Tour with one of the Chauffeured Sprinter drop-offs, per celebrationintheoaks.com/experience/walking-tour. A few planning notes from doing the festival for years:

• Dress for the weather. December in New Orleans averages 50 to 65 degrees and runs about 30% chance of rain in the evening. A light jacket plus closed-toe shoes is the right base layer for the Walking Tour; the Driving Tour stays inside the car.
• Strollers are fine on the Walking Tour. The route is paved and accessible; the Botanical Garden side path is crushed stone and works for jogging strollers but not for narrow-wheeled strollers.
• Hot chocolate stops. Cafe du Monde runs a satellite stand inside City Park for the festival, and the Botanical Garden has a hot-cocoa and beignet station at the Pavilion. The chauffeur can stage the car at the gate while the group stops for warm drinks.
• The Sunday block is the easy family block. Sunday hours are 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM, an hour shorter than the Saturday block, and the line at the gate moves faster. Sunday is also when most school-aged kids are still in town.
• Combine with the Limo Party Bus for a 24-kid family reunion. The 24-passenger Limo Party Bus fits a full family reunion in one vehicle, with room for strollers and the Christmas presents.

Corporate outings and large groups

Celebration in the Oaks is a popular corporate holiday outing in New Orleans, with the festival running the same week as the Bayou Classic Thanksgiving football game and the company holiday party season, per celebrationintheoaks.com. The Chauffeured Sprinter is the most common booking for corporate groups of up to 14, with the Limo Sprinter (up to 12) and the Limo Party Bus (up to 24) for the larger office parties. Executive Bus (up to 23), Executive Bus XL (up to 32) and Motorcoach (up to 56) are the right call for company-wide outings and school field trips.

The same chauffeur stays with the group for the whole booking, so a corporate outing can run dinner at a City Park restaurant, the Driving Tour and a post-tour stop at the Pavilion for the company toast without anyone changing cars.

Weather considerations

December in New Orleans averages 50 to 65 degrees and runs about 30% chance of evening rain. The festival runs in rain or shine, and only a true severe-weather event closes the gates. The Driving Tour is the rain-friendly option because the group stays inside the chauffeured car for the full two-mile loop. The Walking Tour runs in light rain, with the Botanical Garden's covered Pavilion a good shelter if a heavy shower passes through.

The festival is closed December 24 (Christmas Eve) and December 31 (New Year's Eve), per celebrationintheoaks.com/experience/driving-tour. Christmas Day (December 25) runs with Christmas Hours, 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. The festival is also closed on the two Mondays of December 7 and 14, with those Mondays set aside for maintenance and the Conservatory's behind-the-scenes work.

Where to eat nearby

City Park is a five-minute drive from the French Quarter and the CBD, and the restaurants within a few blocks of the Driving Tour entrance include Ralph's on the Park, Toups Meatery, the Café du Monde City Park location, and the Lakehouse restaurant at the New Orleans Museum of Art. A four-hour chauffeured block covers a 5:30 PM dinner reservation at one of those restaurants, the Driving Tour, and the post-tour stop for coffee and beignets in one reservation.

A short history of the festival

The holiday lights tradition in City Park predates the festival name by decades. The Park installed its first holiday lighting along the live oak allée near the Peristyle in the 1970s, and the City Park Conservancy formalized the public Driving Tour in the 1980s to give residents and visitors a single paid experience of the lights and to raise the operating budget for the rest of the park, per celebrationintheoaks.com/about. The festival has run every holiday season since, with the only major interruption the 2020 season, which was cancelled and replaced with a daytime Lights in the Oaks walking experience at reduced capacity per City Park Conservancy's pandemic-era operating plan.

The 2026 season is the 42nd annual edition. The City Park Conservancy is the nonprofit operator of New Orleans City Park and runs the festival as its largest annual fundraiser; ticket revenue funds park maintenance, the Conservatory, the Botanical Garden, Storyland and Carousel Gardens throughout the rest of the year, per neworleanscitypark.org. The festival's name — the Oaks — refers to the live oaks that line the two-mile Driving Tour route, several of which are more than a century old and are individually catalogued by the Park's horticulture team.

What's new for 2026

The City Park Conservancy publishes the year's themed installations closer to opening night. For 2026, the Conservatory has confirmed the return of the popular Twelve Yats of Christmas installation (recasting the Twelve Days of Christmas as New Orleans characters), and the annual themed display in the Botanical Garden's Pavilion is announced on the official site at celebrationintheoaks.com about four weeks before opening night. Past themes have included A Century of New Orleans (in 2018, the tricentennial year), A Louisiana Christmas, and Wonderland, with the 2025 theme being the Louisiana Lights edition focused on the state's holiday traditions.

Bike Nights return for the 2026 season on Tuesday December 1, Wednesday December 2, Thursday December 3 and Friday December 4, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, with all bicycles entering at 4 Friederichs Avenue, per celebrationintheoaks.com/tickets. Bike Nights are bicycle-only Walking Tour hours — the Driving Tour entrance is closed to motor vehicles during the Bike Nights block, and the Bike Nights tickets are a separate per-person price.

How the Driving Tour entrance works

The Driving Tour entrance at 4 Friederichs Avenue is a single-file gate on the west side of City Park, with two lanes — the Dasher Pass express lane on the right and the standard line on the left, per celebrationintheoaks.com/experience/driving-tour. The legal drop-off spot for chauffeured vehicles is the short curb on the right side of the entrance road; the drop-off loop runs past the gate and back out to Friederichs Avenue in about 30 seconds. The legal staging lane for the chauffeur during the two-mile loop is on the right shoulder of the entrance road, just outside the gate.

The standard line at the gate moves at roughly the speed of the slowest car in front of you — peak Saturday in mid-December can run 30 to 60 minutes from curb to the start of the loop. The Dasher Pass cuts the standard line by routing the vehicle through the express lane on the right, with most Dasher Pass vehicles reaching the start of the loop in 5 minutes or less, per the festival's published wait-time guidance.

Comparing the festival to ZooLights

Audubon Zoo's ZooLights is the other major holiday lights event in New Orleans, and many out-of-town guests ask whether to do ZooLights, the festival, or both, per audubonnatureinstitute.org/zoo/zoonola/zoolights. The two festivals are different experiences:

• City Park festival is a two-mile Driving Tour loop through the live oak canopy, with a separate Walking Tour in the Botanical Garden, Storyland and Carousel Gardens Amusement Park. The Driving Tour ticket is per-vehicle and the Walking Tour ticket is per-person. The Driving Tour is built around staying in the car.
• ZooLights at Audubon Zoo is a walking experience through the zoo's walkways, with themed animal lanterns and a synchronized light show on the lagoon. The ticket is per-person and the experience is entirely on foot.

For families with kids under 12, ZooLights is the easier walking experience; the Audubon Zoo paths are flatter and shorter than the City Park Walking Tour. For groups that want a chauffeured evening without a lot of on-foot time, the City Park Driving Tour is the right pick. For groups doing both on the same trip, the City Park Driving Tour runs Friday through Sunday and ZooLights runs the same Friday through Sunday with the same 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM Sunday block, so the same chauffeured block can cover both on different nights of the same weekend.

Coordination with New Orleans hotels

The festival's Driving Tour entrance is a 10 to 15 minute drive from most French Quarter and CBD hotels, depending on the Magazine Street crossing at Napoleon Avenue and the I-10 traffic on a peak Saturday night, per Google Maps' published drive-time data. The French Quarter hotels (the Bourbon Orleans, the Place d'Armes, the Hotel Monteleone) are on the closer side; the CBD hotels (the Windsor Court, the Four Seasons, the Ritz-Carlton) are a similar distance with less Quarter traffic. The Warehouse District hotels (the Loft 523, the Old No. 77, the Ace Hotel) are the closest by drive time.

For groups flying in for the festival, the standard pattern is a Friday arrival at MSY, a Friday evening Driving Tour or Walking Tour, a Saturday evening repeat or a Saints home game if one is scheduled, and a Sunday departure. The same chauffeur who handles the MSY pickup on Friday handles the festival evening on Friday or Saturday, with the airport transfer on a separate night of the booking.

Accessibility, strollers, and mobility devices

The Driving Tour is the most accessible option for guests with mobility concerns, because the experience stays inside the chauffeured vehicle for the full two-mile loop. Guests who use a wheelchair or a walker stay in the car for the full experience; the chauffeur meets the car at the same curb-side spot on Friederichs Avenue and the only walk required is from the curb to the vehicle.

The Walking Tour is partially accessible. The Botanical Garden side path is paved and works for manual wheelchairs and most power wheelchairs. The Storyland path is crushed stone and works for jogging strollers and most wheelchairs but not for narrow-wheeled strollers or heavy power chairs. The Carousel Gardens Amusement Park rides are accessible individually — the carousel, the Ferris wheel and the miniature train all have accessible loading — but the queue paths inside Carousel Gardens are not all paved. Jazzy Limousine & Shuttle can stage the car at the Walking Tour entrance for guests who want to walk part of the route and ride part of the route.

Photography tips

The festival is one of the most photographed holiday events in New Orleans, and a few practical notes from prior years:

• Bring a wide-angle lens or the phone's 0.5x. The Dripping Tree installation at 0.3 mile into the loop is taller than a standard 50mm lens can frame from the curb. The 0.5x wide-angle on a modern phone fits the whole tree.
• The blue hour is the magic hour. The first 20 minutes after the gate opens — 5:00 PM Friday and Saturday, 6:00 PM Sunday through Thursday — is the only window when the sky still shows color behind the lights. By 6:00 PM in mid-December the sky is fully dark and the photos are lit-only.
• The driver cannot ride the loop with the group. The chauffeur stages in the legal spot on Friederichs Avenue; only the car and the group go past the gate. The chauffeur cannot be the group's photographer unless the group books a second car for a separate photo block.
• Tripods need a curbside setup. The Driving Tour is in motion; tripods are not useful inside the car. The Walking Tour has more stationary installations where a small tripod works.

Booking and what to bring

The Driving Tour and Walking Tour tickets go on sale Sunday, November 1, 2026, per celebrationintheoaks.com/tickets. Friends of City Park receive one free Dasher Pass and a Walking Tour discount when booked the same day; the perk is not valid on Value Nights.

For chauffeured transportation, Jazzy Limousine & Shuttle books Celebration in the Oaks by the hour at our standard minimums (three hours for sedans, SUVs and Executive Sprinters; four hours for the Limo Sprinter, stretch limousine and buses), all-in with gratuity and fuel surcharge. Booking early locks in the vehicle and the all-in price before the holiday calendar collides with the Bayou Classic, the Sugar Bowl 2027 CFP semifinal and the Christmas week.

For groups flying in from out of town, the airport transfer from MSY to a French Quarter or CBD hotel is all-in from $126.50 in a sedan, and the same chauffeur who handled the airport pickup handles the Celebration in the Oaks evening on a separate night of the trip.