I love this Christmas tradition. Look around at more than 600,000 on a half mile trail. Five buildings line the trail, a small building, a concession building, a train building with a wonderful train display, an entertainment building where group sing and play music, and Santa's building, all heated and three with a burning fire place. Outside the buildings lies a winter forest. Different areas contain different types of decorations, one area contained toy soldiers as a tribute to American soldiers, another Christmas Carol era nights, another ginger bread men, another contained animals, and the final trail is a music show. This is truly a tradition that will be passed down the generations and please all. The only problem is the turn onto back Mt Zion Road is on a hill and extremely dangerous please be careful. read more

See all

A visit to Christmas magic is a family tradition and by the line of cars to get in it must be everyone else's tradition as well. The entry fee is $8 for adults and you walk though about a mile, maybe little less, of Christmas lights. They have 5 building to walk into as well, each with a theme. The train garden is my kids favorite. The little kids and even big kids too can sit on Santa lap and get a photo taken. They do serve typical concession type food (hotdogs, fries, burgers) but we usually go out to eat after. We do however stop in the refreshment building for some popcorn, cookies and hot chocolate or cider. read more

Christmas Magic - Train garden - Festivals Near Me - York, Pennsylvania

Loved it when I took my children there and now I was able to take my 3 year old grandchild there tonight. They do a wonderful job with everything and we loved it just as much. Only thing I would change adding police to the dangerous intersection at Rt 24. Despite the flashing light sign, ppl still speed up and around that turn and endanger lives of those at the intersection. I fear tragedy is inevitable if action is not taken by the authorities. In my opinion, police are needed there with flares coming north up the hill with a chase car to catch those who are apathetic. I hope they do this before an innocent child, children and/or their parents are killed by a speeder. read more

They have been doing a great job with adapting to the pandemic! All of the buildings are now pavilions which really helped keep everyone distanced. The walk thru traffic was spaced out nicely, I imagine they further limited tickets than other years before. They still had their yummy hot chocolate too! Always love visiting Christmas Magic & I'm glad we didn't have to miss out this year :) read more

Visited on a snowy evening and they do a wonderful job. Free pictures with Santa and an amazing light display. Very fun for a family, can't recommend it enough! read more

I was really jazzed about visiting Christmas Magic after reading that it was on of the "Top attractions in Pennsylvania" and the entire country. This, unfortunately, was one of those situations where I walked out feeling like I had just wasted money. At $8 an adult, the entire thing took about 30-40 minutes to get through. Granted, they DO have a lot of lights but they are old and set up sloppily (most teddy bears had demonic looking RED eyes). Every few hundred feet they had buildings you could go into. Each building had a set up (train, winter theme, santa, etc) but EVERY building was selling things for home improvements that were very unnecessary, awkward and off putting (bath fitter, roof restoration, basement waterproofing, etc). So weird. Needless to say we will not be making this a Christmas tradition nor will it be a repeat visit. read more

Terrible. Absolutely no signs to get in. We were redirected to central York high school by traffic cops and told to follow the signs. The path is so poorly marked we went around the school twice trying to find where we needed to go. After sitting at a sign that said "pick up pass for Christmas magic entry" we realized no one was coming and left. Even a booth with a sign that said closed would be better. Absolutely no direction for where to go or what is happening. We tried to call but the number sent us to voicemail. Do not go here unless you want to be lost for an hour and confused. read more

Way too crowded on weekends for what it is. Underwhelming in my opinion. If you go, try to get a discount coupon. Only way I would even consider it. read more

Such a beautiful light show, almost magical. The music, food, and atmosphere are a great time. The walk is so much better than those drive through Christmas light shows at a fraction of the price. They even have Pet night where you can bring your best friend & get a picture with Santa. I go every year, I love it! Highly recomended. read more

With the idea and the location, this has the potential to be something really great, but it's a huge miss. It's purely a money-grab and I won't go again. First, we waited about 45 minutes to be parked only to see the aloof and inept Park Rangers in charge of parking standing around ignoring cars while 1/3 of the lot was empty. It wasn't crowded. Once inside ($10 per adult later), you'll see that there are a lot of lights. They're the type you'd find at any estate auction or in your Grandparents' basement- 20 years old and worn. Lots of cut out plywood things that are showing their age. You'll see none of the computer controlled lights set to music or any modern lights or projections invented within the past 10 years. They apparently don't reinvest ANY of the $ they're raking in new lights, or even a ladder or lift, as all trees are only decorated to about 6' off the ground. To top it all off, as you walk thru they have people hawking replacement windows and basement waterproofing. How tacky is that? Food and Hot Chocolate is available and also overpriced, of course. I really want to like this, as I said it's a great idea. Sadly, it comes across as a way to take in as much money as they can in any possible way without offering anything other than tradition. The organizers need to visit a few displays in other cities, reinvest some of their proceeds, and freshen this up, otherwise attendance will keep going down and this tradition will die off. At this point I won't be going again. And no thanks on the replacement windows. read more

I gave this event one star, because you cant rate lower. Being a York county native I thought this would be a good tradition for my family. We arrived soon after dark to sit in a traffic jam that lasted 45 minutes, witch feels like three hours with 3 pre-teens in the car. Then the sticker shock hit when we finally got out of the car. $34 dollars for us to pass the gate. Didnt even get ticket for proof of purchase. Lots of lights, old looking displays,not impressed. My son kinda got freaked out about the red eyes on some of the figurines. Then you start walking into the buildings and are immediately greeted by home improvement marketing people. Whats that all about? I wasnt there to buy windows! At that point I wanted my money back. Finished walking through feeling of never again am I doing this. As we were leaving, the oncoming traffic was even longer, out to Mt Zion road. Kinda thought to myself, look at all the suckers. read more