St. Augustine is magical in December! Kicking off each year with Light-Up! Night, the Nights of Lights Festival takes place throughout the holiday season, and roughly 20 blocks in downtown are decorated and draped in lights. Every night downtown is buzzing, with businesses staying open later there’s plenty of places to shop, eat and listen to live music, such a great atmosphere. We drove in and paid to park in the lot by Castillo de San Marcos, however it gets super busy especially on weekends so we had to drive around like ten times before we were able to score a spot. There is a park and ride which might be a better option. There’s also plenty of ways to get around and tour the lights, we enjoyed the walk but you can take a trolly tour, hop on a train at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum, take a country carriage, wine and carriage tour, or even take a harbor tour and see them from the water! There’s also tons of other Christmas events throughout December; there’s a parade with floats, marching bands, cars, horses and the arrival of Santa. A holiday regatta, usually the second Saturday in December with decorated boats. The Aquarium holds an under the sea event on weekends with mermaids, an underwater Santa, kids crafts, etc and the Lighthouse & Maritime Museum holds a luminary night with Santa and activities for all ages….. I could go on. Suffice to say, I’d highly recommend a family visit to St. Augustine in December.
