The Best Winter Festivals in the U.S.—and Where to Stay

Festival of Lights: Riverside, CA

When: November 21, 2026 through January 3, 2027

Riverside’s Mission Inn Hotel & Spa provides a suitably extravagant backdrop for one of Southern California’s biggest holiday displays. For six weeks, the nearly 150-year-old property is decked out in more than 10 million lights for its 34th annual Festival of Lights. The opening-night switch-on includes fireworks, live entertainment and Santa, but the spectacle continues nightly with illuminated courtyards, roaming carolers, a giant gingerbread house, holiday shopping, and family activities. The building itself is half the fun: domes, towers, sweeping archways, and arcaded corridors turn the entire city-block property into something resembling an elaborate Christmas castle once the sun goes down.

Where to stay: Right on-site at The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, where you’ll be sleeping in the middle of the festivities. What began as an adobe boarding house in 1876 grew over decades into an architectural mash-up inspired by California’s Spanish missions, eventually taking over an entire city block. Today, the hotel has 238 individually designed rooms and suites, six restaurants and lounges, a heated outdoor pool and Jacuzzi, and a Tuscan-inspired spa with a eucalyptus steam room. It’s worth booking a guided historic tour, too: founder Frank Miller filled the property with artwork, furnishings and artifacts collected from around the world, and its maze of wings, courtyards and corridors gives you plenty to explore between rounds of holiday festivities.

Ho Holidays: Scottsdale, AZ

When: November 24, 2026 through January 4, 2027

Winter in Scottsdale means sunshine, palm trees, and, at Hotel Valley Ho, a roller rink in the middle of the pool. As part of its annual Ho Holidays festivities, the mid-century resort covers its OH Pool with a rink where visitors can skate outdoors throughout the holiday season. Admission is $25 and includes skate rental, with theme nights, games, and other activities throughout the run. Seasonal cocktails and fire pits are also available, plus private cabanas and fire pits for groups to reserve.

Where to stay: Staying at Hotel Valley Ho comes with a useful perk: registered guests get complimentary admission to Ho Holidays and free skate rentals. Opened in 1956, the colorful property combines mid-century-modern architecture with Southwestern touches. Still, it retains original elements, including the concrete panels that have lined the resort since its early days. An $80 million renovation brought it back to life in 2005, and today the colorful Old Town landmark has VH Spa, the quieter OHasis Pool, and ZuZu for meals and cocktails in a stylish setting. The OH Pool closes while the rink is installed, but its hot tub stays open, so you can easily trade roller skates for a soak without missing the party.

Christmas Prelude: Kennebunkport, ME

When: December 3-13, 2026

Kennebunkport may be best known as a summer destination, but come December, the coastal town turns its attention to Christmas Prelude. What started as a three-day local celebration now runs for 11 days, with events spread across two weekends in Dock Square, Cape Porpoise, and the surrounding Kennebunks. Traditions include caroling and a tree lighting in Dock Square, lighting Cape Porpoise’s lobster-trap tree, and Santa arriving by lobster boat on the Kennebunk River. The festival also features candlelight caroling at the Franciscan Monastery, fireworks, a street festival, and late-night shopping throughout.

Where to stay: The Colony Hotel has been part of Kennebunkport’s landscape since 1914, perched above the Atlantic and Kennebunk River with its own private beach, which is arguably even more beautiful under a blanket of sparkling snow. The historic main building closes for winter, but the newer Coveside accommodations stay open year-round, with oversized rooms overlooking the river or gardens and a more contemporary look. The idyllic oceanfront setting also gives you a quieter counterpoint to busy Dock Square once you’ve had your fill of carolers and Christmas crowds.

Bend WinterFest: Bend, OR

When: February 12–14, 2027

Ice and fire share top billing at Bend WinterFest, returning in February 2027 in a new location near The Pavilion. Artists will carve enormous blocks of ice throughout the weekend, illuminated installations will glow after dark and fabricators will turn steel and flame into functioning fire sculptures. The festival also features two nights of live music, food and drink vendors, and expanded activities for families. New for 2027 is WinterFest on Ice, with open-skate sessions set to music, figure-skating performances, a curling exhibition, and other demonstrations. It’s arguably most full-throttle winter celebration on this list, with enough happening to justify spending the whole weekend outside.

Where to stay: Riverhouse Lodge sits right on the Deschutes River, with recently revamped rooms that make the most of the waterfront setting. For the ultimate winter stay, book a Riverview Room with Fire Pit, which comes with direct river views, a private patio, and your own fire pit for s’mores after WinterFest. If you’d rather stay cozy inside, river-view rooms with fireplaces are also available. Families and groups can spread out in bunk rooms, with two twin beds stacked above two queens, or one-bedroom suites with separate living areas. There’s also a year-round indoor heated pool and hot tub, an on-site restaurant and lounge, and a local shuttle available on request.

Vail Winterfest: Vail, CO

When: January - February

There’s plenty to do in Vail once the lifts stop spinning. Each winter, the town’s Art in Public Places program transforms the Gore Creek Promenade into Vail Winterfest, an outdoor installation built from thousands of pounds of ice. The theme changes every year: for 2026, artists used 25,000 pounds of ice to create “Gnome Home,” complete with towering gnomes, snails, toads, luna moths, ferns, and mushrooms. Visitors could wander among the sculptures during the day or return after sunset, when the ice was illuminated nightly until 10 pm. The 2027 theme and dates have yet to be announced, so check the schedule before booking.

Where to stay: Tivoli Lodge puts you within one block of Gondola One and the chairlifts and a short walk from the restaurants, shops and galleries of Vail Village, making it particularly convenient for a weekend that mixes skiing with Winterfest. Rooms have western alder wood finishes and custom furniture, with select Mountain View and Tower rooms adding fireplaces; the latter run as large as 558 square feet. After skiing, head for the mountainside outdoor hot tub or neighboring fire pit, both with Rocky Mountain views. Ski storage, a hot breakfast buffet, and the Brown Hound Lounge downstairs also mean you don’t have to venture back into the cold for your last drink of the night.

Explore more destinations across the Benchmark Resorts & Hotels portfolio, a collection of distinct, independent properties by Pyramid Global Hospitality. Located in diverse destinations across the globe, Benchmark’s resorts and hotels reimagine immersive travel, inspiring guests to create memories born from meaningful exploration, authentic moments, and innovative experiences – no matter the occasion. Benchmark guests can earn complimentary gift cards, on-property perks, and destination experiences through the collection’s signature Mosaic Rewards program.