Columbus has a new holiday tradition this year, and it plays in a ballpark. The Columbus Clippers Holiday Lights, a walk-through light display inside Huntington Park in the Arena District, opened Saturday, Nov. 14, and runs through Dec. 31, according to a first-hand review published by What Should We Do Today Columbus.
The display fills the downtown ballpark with more than one million lights, the review reported. Admission is $12 per person online and $13 at the door for anyone age 3 and up, and the experience is cashless — no cash is accepted, according to What Should We Do Today Columbus.
It is one of the headline additions to the city’s winter calendar. Experience Columbus is promoting the ballpark display as part of a 25-experience digital Holiday Bingo Trail running through Dec. 31, Travel PR News reported on Nov. 9, and the Clippers display includes a 44-foot Christmas tree, Santa visits, fireside s’mores and family activities, according to Travel PR News.
Santa is not there every night — he is mostly in attendance on weekends, What Should We Do Today Columbus reported — and on select nights a drone show is scheduled at 7:45 p.m., according to the review. Visitors should check the night’s schedule before going, the review advised.
The ballpark show joins a crowded Columbus lights season rather than replacing it. Wildlights at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium runs Nov. 20 through Jan. 3 and is included with zoo admission, Travel PR News reported, while the free downtown Wanderlights display runs Nov. 20 through Feb. 14, 2027, and Conservatory Aglow at Franklin Park Conservatory runs Nov. 21 through Jan. 3, according to Travel PR News.
The review’s verdict was that the Clippers display exceeded expectations, and it pitched the ballpark as a cheaper alternative to Wildlights for families without a zoo membership — and as an easy add-on after dinner downtown, What Should We Do Today Columbus reported. Huntington Park is at 330 Huntington Park Lane in the Arena District.
What happens next is a six-week run: the lights stay on at Huntington Park through New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, giving the Arena District a nightly holiday draw long after the last pitch of baseball season — in a ballpark that, this winter, is hosting its first season of a different kind.
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