Starting tomorrow, Chula Vista's holiday season has something it never had before. That's a ticketed attraction open every day for 45 days. Christmas at Gaylord Pacific runs Nov. 20, 2026, through Jan. 3, 2027. Its headliner is ice! featuring "A Charlie Brown Christmas," the first time Gaylord's ice attraction has run on the West Coast.
The free traditions keep a much tighter schedule. The Village Walk at EastLake light show runs ten nights. The 62nd Starlight Parade fills one evening on Third Avenue. Santa's train event takes up one Saturday afternoon, from noon to 3 p.m. Most of the free calendar is over by Dec. 20. The bayfront has six weeks and the free events have about a dozen set evenings, so it makes sense to put the free nights on the family calendar first and fit the bayfront around them.
Forty-five days of ice on H Street
Gaylord Pacific Resort, at 1000 H Street, opened in May 2025. It was already open for the 2025 holidays. As the San Diego Union-Tribune reported in July, the owners chose to wait a year before bringing in the ice show. So this is the bayfront's second Christmas but its first year with the ice.
The attraction is built from about 2 million pounds of ice, hand-carved by more than 30 artisans from Harbin, China, over roughly 40 days. It's kept at 9 degrees Fahrenheit, which is why every guest gets a blue parka. Inside are 12 walk-through scenes with Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy and Linus, plus two-story ice slides, and one of the slides is built for toddlers. The Union-Tribune reported that the show fills a temporary tent of nearly 20,000 square feet near the convention center loading dock. The resort's marketing director, Sabrina Medora, told the paper how the carvers get skin tones into clear ice:
"When we're working with characters that require flesh-colored tones, that tone is actually added by using milk alongside with the water to freeze, and then it's a very delicate process of how all of that is frozen and at what temperature."
You don't need a hotel room to visit. Day tickets are sold separately. Entry is timed to a date and time slot. The resort's FAQ asks guests to arrive 15 minutes early and says entry isn't guaranteed if you're more than five minutes late. Hours change by day and by activity. Day visitors pay for parking each time they enter. Here are the starting prices as listed on the resort's ticket site:
| Item | Starting price |
|---|---|
| ice! adult admission, ages 12 and up | $29.99, with November dates listed at $30 to $34 |
| Snow tubing | $28.99 |
| Santa photos | $44.99 |
| Breakfast with Charlie Brown & Friends | $52 adults, $29 ages 3 to 12 |
| Gingerbread decorating | $49.99 |
| Mrs. Claus traditions | $16.99 |
| Scavenger hunt or snowball activity | $14.99 each |
| Self-parking garage | $15 per hour or $45 per day, tax extra |
| Valet | $65 |
Gold and Silver passes bundle ice! with other paid activities and advertise savings of up to 30% and 20%. Carolers, letters to Santa, strolling entertainment and photo spots are listed as complimentary. The resort's offers page lists ticket offers for military, teachers, first responders, Scouts and Marriott Bonvoy members.
Santa is the easiest way to compare the two sides of the season. A Santa photo at the resort starts at $44.99. On Dec. 5, Village Walk at EastLake is offering free Santa photos.
Ten nights of snowfall at Village Walk
The Dazzling Holiday Light Show & Snowfall at Village Walk at EastLake, 884 Eastlake Parkway, opens Sunday, Nov. 29, with shows at 6 and 7 p.m. After that it runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through Dec. 20. That adds up to ten evenings with two shows each. The first one is the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, so if you have relatives in town, they could see it before they fly home.
The center's 2026 special events schedule adds two more free afternoons. On Saturday, Dec. 5, from noon to 3 p.m., Santa arrives on the Holiday Express Train, with free train rides, free Santa photos and a free craft activity. On Sunday, Dec. 6, from 4 to 6 p.m., there's a life-size photo frame and Frosty. The Frosty hours end right as that evening's 6 p.m. light show starts.
December 5 runs from Eastlake to Third Avenue
Dec. 5 has more free events on it than any other day this season. The Village Walk train event wraps up at 3 p.m., which is the same time the 62nd Annual Starlight Parade & Festival opens on Third Avenue. This year's theme is "Where Traditions Shine Bright." The City of Chula Vista organizes it, and the official festival page gives this schedule:
- Noon to 3 p.m. Holiday Express Train, Santa photos and crafts at Village Walk at EastLake.
- 3 p.m. The Starlight holiday market and festival opens, and photos with Santa begin. The festival zone is at Memorial Park.
- 5:30 p.m. Tree lighting ceremony.
- 6 p.m. The Starlight Parade moves along Third Avenue, between E and H streets according to the KPBS listing.
If you want both, go to the train early. Santa photos at Village Walk end at 3, and Starlight's Santa line opens at the same time, so if you skipped the Eastlake photo you can still get one on Third Avenue. Parking is free all day Dec. 5 at every city-owned lot. That includes the ACE lots near Third Avenue, the city parking structure at 340 F St., the Chula Vista Public Library at 365 F St., City Hall at 276 Fourth Ave., the Rec Center at 385 Park Way and the South Bay Community Services Ken Lee Building. That same evening, a car at the Gaylord garage costs $15 an hour.
The parade's sponsors include Lolitas, 7 Mile, HomeFed, the Port of San Diego, Community Health Group and Republic Services. Dec. 5 is also one of Village Walk's light-show nights, with shows at 6 and 7 p.m. The parade starts at 6, though, so you'd have to choose between the two that evening. You can still catch the snowfall on Sunday, Dec. 6, or on either of the next two weekends.
A bayfront stop that opened in October
Some families will want time on the bayfront without buying an ice ticket. Harbor Park, called Bayside Park until this year, has a new playground for that. The Port of San Diego and the City of Chula Vista opened it on Wednesday, Oct. 14. The Union-Tribune reported that it has a nautical theme, slides, a rope-climb hill, climbing equipment for kids of all ages, shade structures and picnic areas.
The playground is the first major piece of a phased expansion that will take the park's recreation area from 12 acres to about 25. It's part of the $15 million Harbor Park Upland Improvements, South Phase. A splash pad is planned next to the playground for spring 2027. Also in 2027, landscaping and walkways in the park's northern section will connect to new street parking along Harbor Park Way, which used to be E Street. The playground is already open, so it's one more bayfront stop for December.
After December 20, the bayfront has the calendar to itself
Village Walk's last snowfall show is Sunday, Dec. 20. After that, every holiday event in this calendar is on the bayfront. The Coca-Cola Christmas Caravan stops at Gaylord Pacific from Dec. 19 to 22 only. The ice show runs through Jan. 3, so it's still open the week between Christmas and New Year's, when school is out and visiting relatives are usually still in town.
So if you're filling in a December calendar, start with Nov. 29, the three December weekends at Village Walk and Dec. 5 on Third Avenue. Then book the ice show for one of the open days left over, and a lot of those fall after the free events end.
If you're hosting family over the holidays and the trip has them asking what a move to the South Bay would look like, the Edna Mitchell Group can walk them through Chula Vista, from Eastlake to the bayfront, in English or Spanish. Get your home valuation, or call to talk through your move.
