Hersheypark Christmas Candylane is a must do if you live within 4-6 hours of Hershey, PA. Even if you don’t you should add it to you holiday bucket list! The Hersheypark Christmas Candylane event is an great family holiday tradition that you and your family will love year after year.
About a month before Christmas we packed in the car and drove the 4 hours to Hershey, Pennsylvania. I love incorporating travel into how we celebrate the holidays and celebrating Christmas in Hershey is always fun.
Hershey Chocolate World and Hersheypark offer seasonal activities for guests to enjoy. They are within walking distance to each other and have lots of holiday fun!! I wrote a previous post about our visit to Chocolate World and you can check it out at Hershey Chocolate World.
Details for Hersheypark Christmas Candylane
Christmas Candylane at Hersheypark 2020 Dates
- November 13th, 14th, 15th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th
- December 4th-24th, December 26th-31st
- January 1st, 2nd, 3rd
Hersheypark Christmas Candylane Attractions
We spent the weekend visiting for the event and was able to visit Hersheypark on Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday we wanted to see all the seasonal attractions and we saved most of the rides for Sunday. A lot of the attractions are evening attractions and we were going to leave Sunday afternoon to drive home. The attractions during the evening are:
- Storytime-Join an Elf and Hershey Characters for a special holiday story.
- Zoomerica-This is the zoo connected to the park and is included in park admission.
- Noel-A light show synchronized to Christmas music. (My favorite!!)
- Visit with Santa-Meet Santa in his themed cottage.
- Santa’s Reindeer Stables-All 9 live reindeer!!
- Ice skating- Rental fee applies.
- Character Meet and Greet- We met Hershey, Reese and Jolly Ranger but you will see a variety of characters.
Day 1: Hersheypark Christmas Candylane Special Events
We left our home in Rochester around 12 after the kids morning activities, and started our drive to Hershey. The 4 hour drive had us arriving at dinner time. We surprised the kids with this visit, and had lunches packed in the car and ready to go. The drive takes you through some really pretty parts of Pennsylvania.
We have driven it so many times! If you need to stop for snacks or bathroom breaks I suggest stopping at a Sheetz. They are clean, have a gas station and have many snack options. It’s also a half way point for us and a good time for a stretch.
We arrived around dusk, checked into our hotel and started our way to the park. Hershey has different options for accommodations and we have stayed at the resort and off-site accommodations. Read more in our post about the Hersheypark Hotels.
Our plan was to explore Hershey Chocolate World and then we had tickets from Hershey Sweet Lights on the trolley. The trolley takes you through a guided tour of miles of holiday lights.
You can drive this yourself but we opted for the tickets so we could relax and enjoy the lights. It is spectacular!! They sing songs and the lights are incredible. We all loved it and you receive a sweet treat during your ride!!
After visiting Hershey Chocolate World and the trolley tour we made our way to experience Hersheypark at Christmas.
One of the things I really love is you can enter the park the day before your actual purchase tickets. Guests can enter the park 2.5 hours before closing!! We had tickets for Sunday but were able to enter the park at 7:30 on Saturday night. This was a really cool perk and all I had to do was show our Sunday tickets. Always check the website for times and to confirm.
Saturday night we watched Noel and visited Santa and his reindeer. We also went on a few rides. Not all Hersheypark attractions are open. Please check the website. A lot are open and we were not lacking for things to do. Our favorites were:
- Laff Track(Indoor Dark Rollercoaster) Has a fun house feel! This also had the longest line. If you want to ride it arrive early or at the end of the night. (42 inches to ride)
- Kissing Tower-A tower that lifts up and rotates. Gorgeous views of the town and park. (All can Ride)
Reese’s Extreme Cup Challenge- Shooting ride! Really fun! We rode this the most! (36 inches to ride)This has been closed and will reopen in 2019 as a new attraction. Reese’s Cupfusion is now open!- Monorail-This takes you around the park and it was a nice way to see everything from a different view. (All)
- 2019 Dates: Select dates November 15th-January 1st.
The park has a really cute way of checking height. They are set up by candy character. So you could be a Kiss or a Reese or a Twizzler. My kids were Kisses (36′-42), Resses (42′-48), and Hershey (48′-54′). Outside the park there are places to check their height by standing next to a statue of the character. Learn more in this article about Hersheypark ride height.
We stayed until 10:00pm close at the park. It was so beautiful walking around and seeing the lights all over the park. Remember to pack warm! We wore hats, gloves, and winter coats. When the sun goes down the temperature will drop!
We were having so much fun that we went back in to Hershey Chocolate World and took a few rides on the Factory Tour. At around 10:45pm we left the park!! It was a packed day but we had so much fun!!
Day 2: Hersheypark
Sunday morning we ate breakfast at the hotel. It was typical bagels, cereal, yogurt, and a few hot choices. My kids love hotel breakfast so they were very happy. I love coffee…so I was happy too!!
Then we packed up, checked out and were first in line to enter the park!! I am an early person. I always arrive at theme parks before opening. This was no different. The employees were so nice and they let my kids be the one to open the gates. They still talk about how they opened the park!!
On Sunday we spent the day riding attractions again and riding some that we missed the day before. Most of the holiday activities are in the evening so we used this time to ride attractions. If you only have one day you may want to do rides first and then start exploring all the Christmas activities at the park.
Hersheypark Christmas Candylane is a great place to celebrate the holidays and enjoy time together as a family. We really enjoyed this holiday event in Hershey, PA.
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