In Los Angeles, Thanksgiving should include eating the best turkey and pies and looking for ways to help people in your neighborhood. But what are some other things you can do on Thanksgiving? Enjoy the long holiday weekend with these events and things to do in Los Angeles on Thanksgiving, such as turkey trots, garden walks lit up at night, and parades.
We made sure to list the events that are open on Thanksgiving and the ones that are open for the rest of the weekend. Best Things To Do In Los Angeles And SoCal This Thanksgiving Weekend.
Turkey Trot Los Angeles
This event on Downtown’s Spring Street is a great way for families to spend Thanksgiving. It’s full of races, games, and other fun things to do. One of the 5K or 10K runs/walks will help you burn those calories. There is also a 1K “Widdle Wobble” for kids 10 and younger. People should always wear costumes. The race helps the Midnight Mission every year.
Los Angeles Auto Show
Come to the L.A. Auto Show, which lasts for 10 days and has cars that would make James Bond drool. Get behind the wheel of one of the cherry rides (there’s even an indoor EV track) if you’re a car nerd, while celebrities meet and greet at the maker booths. Get ready for the tools of the future, which will be shown for the first time in the world and North America by a number of companies.
Holiday Ice Rink Pershing Square
Before you build an ice rink in the middle of Downtown L.A.’s buildings, the city doesn’t look like much of a winter wonderland. It’s holiday time at Pershing Square, where you can skate outside and think it’s snowing. You can rent skates for free, but lockers and other skating tools cost a few dollars extra.
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Astra Lumina
This hour-long Palos Verdes trail has nothing Christmassy or even winterlike about it, but its nine stellar works are the most awe-inspiring of the new botanical garden shows that have opened in L.A. around the end of the year.
Lightscape
At the third installment of Lightscape at the L.A. County Arboretum, the mile-long road will once again be lined with lit-up trees and installations. The Arboretum has announced a “reimagined” event with a longer track for the 2023 season. There will be a light temple and a fire garden again. The fire garden was one of our favorites at Lightscape’s first year in Arcadia. It’s not open on Thanksgiving, but it is open all weekend.
Festival of Lights at the Mission Inn
During the Festival of Lights, the Mission Inn in Riverside is draped in 4.5 million twinkling lights and adorned with hundreds of moving figures. A free holiday custom that lasts for seven weeks, it starts a day early this year—November 18. Usually, it starts the day after Thanksgiving.
Hollywood Christmas Parade
The Hollywood Christmas Parade is an important part of L.A. kitsch, just like an Angelyne sign on Sunset Boulevard. The parade has been going on for nine decades and always takes place on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. It has floats, balloons, bands, equestrians, and kind of famous people riding in a U-shaped path that starts at Hollywood and Orange and finishes at Sunset and Orange. People can buy reserved balcony seats, with the money going to Toys for Tots. There are also free curbside seats available.
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Mamma Mia!
This show put on by Pantages is about a young bride, her free-spirited mother, and three men who might be her father. The songs are hit songs by ABBA. While Thanksgiving is going on, there will be no events, but you can still see shows for the rest of the weekend.
For the Record: Love Actually Live
For the Record, a cult-favorite musical show, puts on a stage show based on Love Actually, one of the world’s most famous holiday movies, from Thanksgiving weekend (not the holiday itself) until the end of December. The show will use a multimedia set, a live orchestra, and songs from the movie to make the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills feel like a warm winter setting for musical numbers and scenes from the movie’s two love stories that cross paths.
Hip-Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit
Hip-hop’s 50th anniversary is being celebrated at the GRAMMY Museum with DJing, singing, and sampling stations, as well as iconic items like LL Cool J’s red Kangol bucket hat and the Notorious B.I.G.’s red leather pea coat.