Golden Gate Park Winter Carnival
SF Rec & Park will kick-off the 2017 holiday season with the annual free winter family event, the 88th Annual Holiday Tree Lighting.
The celebration is a fun mini Winter Carnival with many free activities including a snow play area, carnival rides, arts and crafts for kids, a cookie factory, a visit from Santa, plus there’s music and live entertainment.
The official City Tree will be adorned with more than 550 multi-colored lights and surrounded by a decorated train. The tree is a more than 100 year-old Monterey Cypress planted by the city’s first park Superintendent, John McLaren.
Santa will arrive shortly before the official Tree Lighting ceremony currently scheduled to begin at 6 pm.
88th Annual Holiday Tree Lighting
Thursday, December 7, 2017 | 4-8 pm
McLaren Lodge in Golden Gate Park, 501 Stanyan Street (and Fell)
FREE – Happening rain or shine
In 1929, John McLaren, the grandfather of Golden Gate Park and San Francisco’s first park superintendent, began a holiday tradition of lighting trees along a mile-long stretch of Fell Street that ended in front of McLaren Lodge, his home at the time.
McLaren Lodge is located at 501 Stanyan Street (and Fell), in Golden Gate Park and is accessible by MUNI via the 5 Fulton, 21 Hayes, 33 Stanyan, 71 Noriega and N Judah lines.
