Suburban Cannabis Life
The Long Island Holiday Lights Circuit, 2026
Two big drive-through displays, two Patchogue parades and a village-lighting circuit that runs from Thanksgiving to the first week of January. Which ones are worth the queue.
Long Island does the holiday season at scale. Two drive-through light displays big enough to back up their access roads, a village-parade circuit running from Thanksgiving through mid-December, and a boat parade that is better than it sounds. Here is what runs, and which parts are worth the queue.
The two drive-throughs
Magic of Lights takes the Jones Beach causeway from mid-November into early January: themed LED displays and digital animations, priced per car. It is the larger and better-known of the two, which is also the problem. On December weekends the queue can run an hour before you reach the entrance. Weeknights are cheaper and dramatically faster.
Riverhead Holiday Light Show at Splish Splash runs a mile of display across the water-park grounds from late November into the first week of January. Also priced per vehicle, and reliably less backed up. If you are choosing one, and you are anywhere east of Route 112, choose this one.
Both are driving events start to finish, which answers the obvious question before it is asked.
The Patchogue double
The 63rd Annual Patchogue Christmas Parade closes Main Street the weekend after Thanksgiving and draws the biggest downtown crowd the village sees all year. Free.
The Christmas Holiday Parade of Boats on the Patchogue River follows in December, with boats strung in icicle lights running the river after dark. Best viewed from the Sandspit or from the marina restaurants, which take reservations for it. Also free from shore, and genuinely worth the cold.
The village circuit
Nearly every incorporated village on the Island runs a tree lighting between the weekend after Thanksgiving and the second week of December. Huntington, Port Jefferson, Northport, Babylon and Sayville all do a version, and they are more or less interchangeable: carols, a fire truck, shops open late, done in ninety minutes. Pick the one nearest you rather than driving for a better one.
Further east, RGNY in Riverhead runs a tree lighting inside the tasting room, which is the off-season version of the North Fork day trip. Pours are 21+ with ID.
The living-history option
Old Bethpage Village Restoration runs candlelit December evenings through its 19th-century houses, with hearth cooking and period music. Timed entry, and it sells out the weekend before Christmas. It is the one seasonal thing on the Island that does not feel like a parking-lot event.
Into January
Long Island Restaurant Week: Winter Edition runs eight days from a Sunday in late January: a $24 two-course lunch, and $29, $39 or $46 three-course dinners depending on the kitchen. Dates post in December. It is the best week of the year to eat out on the Island, and the only one where the good rooms in Huntington and Rockville Centre are gettable on a Friday.
For adults 21+
Long Island's licensed retail has filled in unevenly, with Suffolk carrying more of the footprint than Nassau. Verify licensed status via the OCM QR code at cannabis.ny.gov before planning a stop.
Two rules apply to almost everything above. The light shows are driving events, and you should never drive after consuming. And the parades, the village greens and Jones Beach are public spaces: New York state law prohibits cannabis consumption on state-owned land and in public spaces, and Jones Beach is a state park.
The full Island calendar is on the events hub.