Christmas lights in El Dorado Hills, California

We track 4 displays in El Dorado Hills. Every one of them is free to visit.

When to go

Displays here switch on around sunset. In El Dorado Hills that means about 4:43 PM in early December and 4:44 PM by mid-month — the earliest sunsets of the year fall right in the middle of lights season. It is properly dark by about 5:14 PM, which is when the displays look their best. December nights in El Dorado Hills typically drop to around 36°F.

Date	Sunset	Fully dark
Dec 1	4:43 PM	5:13 PM
Dec 15	4:44 PM	5:14 PM
Dec 25	4:48 PM	5:18 PM

The El Dorado Hills lights loop — 4 stops

We ordered every display in El Dorado Hills into the shortest sensible driving loop: roughly 0 miles and 16 minutes of driving, before you count time spent parked and looking. Start wherever is closest to you and follow it round.

Barnstead Place — Barnstead Place
Bordeaux Drive — Bordeaux Drive
Philip Court — Philip Court
Timberline Ridge Road and Silva Valley — Timberline Ridge Road and Silva Valley

Driving estimate assumes a 25 mph average on residential streets plus four minutes stopped per display. Straight-line distances with a road-network allowance — treat it as a planning figure, not a satnav route.

Practicalities

Residential displays have no facilities of their own — no parking, no toilets, nowhere to warm up — so it is worth knowing what is around. Within about three miles of the El Dorado Hills cluster, OpenStreetMap maps 2 public car parks and 0 public toilets. Only 9 cafés or takeaways nearby, so bring a flask if you want one. Note the lack of public toilets in particular if you are taking children.