Christmas in the Canyon at Tuacahn

A Christmas Display With 1,500-Foot Walls

For about a month either side of December, Tuacahn strings its canyon with lights and opens the grounds most evenings. It runs from the week of Thanksgiving through the days before Christmas, and walking in costs nothing — you pay only for the specific attractions inside.

What makes it work is the site. Tuacahn sits in a box canyon in Ivins with red sandstone walls rising directly behind the amphitheater, and the lights are hung against that rather than against a parking lot. Most large light displays are impressive because of how many bulbs they hang; this one is impressive because of what the bulbs are hung on.

What Costs Money and What Does Not

This catches people out, so it is worth being clear. Entry, the lights, the fire pits and Santa are free. A short list of things inside the gate are not, and they are the ones worth deciding on before you leave the house.

The practical consequence: a family can have a full evening here without buying anything, and can add pieces to it as budget allows. That is unusual among the region's December attractions, most of which are all-or-nothing at the gate.

The Live Nativity

The nativity is presented nightly with assigned seating, and it is the piece most likely to sell out. It is staged outdoors with live animals against the canyon wall, which is a different proposition from a nativity in a chapel or a hall.

Seating being assigned means a fixed number of places and no standing room at the back, which is not how most people expect an outdoor nativity to work.

Getting There, and When to Go

Tuacahn is on Tuacahn Drive in Ivins, roughly twenty-five minutes from downtown St. George, out past Snow Canyon. The last stretch is dark and winding; it is not a drive to rush in the cold.

Go on a weeknight if you can. The nights between Thanksgiving and the second week of December are noticeably quieter than the run-up to Christmas, and the display is identical. Dress for a canyon after dark — the walls that make the setting also hold the cold, and it is consistently colder here than in town.

Who It Suits

Families, visitors in town over the holidays, and anyone who wants a Christmas outing that is genuinely outdoors rather than a mall. It pairs naturally with the Holiday Lights at Red Hills Desert Garden on the other side of town, and with the rest of the county's Christmas events. If you are staying on the Ivins and Santa Clara side of the valley it is essentially on your doorstep.