Tulalip Lights & Ice Is Free Every Night. Here's Which Nights Actually Have Something Going On

If the lights are the same on a Tuesday as on a Saturday, why do the two nights feel like different events?

Tulalip Lights & Ice opens Saturday, November 21, and stays lit through Sunday, January 10, 2027. That's 51 nights in a row, and walking the display costs nothing on any of them, according to the Quil Ceda Village event page. The schedule underneath the lights is uneven, though. The characters, the vendors, the market and the crowds all pile into a few nights each week. The weeknights get the same display with far less going on around it. If you live in Marysville and the amphitheater is ten minutes away, you can choose a night based on what you want from the visit.

The lights run seven weeks. The programming runs on weekends.

The schedule for the 2026–27 season puts a few special dates up front and then settles into a weekly pattern. Entertainment runs 4 to 8 p.m. from November 27 into late December. Mr. and Mrs. Claus appear Friday through Sunday, the Grinch on Saturdays and Sundays, and Buddy the Elf on Fridays only. Character visits are first come, first served, with no appointments.

Here is how a week breaks down once the season gets going:

The dated exceptions all come in the first week:

• Saturday, Nov. 21: Lighting ceremony at 4:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, Nov. 24: Tribal Night, 7 to 9 p.m.
• Thursday, Nov. 26: Thanksgiving hours, 4 to 10 p.m.
• Friday and Saturday, Nov. 27 and 28: Holiday Weekend Market

Tribal Night is the one weeknight with its own program, and it lands on a Tuesday.

The crowds follow the same weekly pattern. When the Everett Herald visited in December 2024, Quil Ceda Village operations director Teresa Meece estimated weekend nights drew 1,000 to 2,000 visitors each. She said most vendors set up on weekends, and that's also when the characters come. That same story noted fewer activities on weeknights but found some vendors open anyway, including a hot dog stand that opened around 5:30 on a Wednesday. Hot chocolate at the rink was available every day of the week.

If you want Santa or the Grinch, plan on a weekend and expect company. If you mostly want the lights, Monday through Thursday gives you the full display with more room to walk.

A display built to be seen more than once

The case for a weeknight trip gets stronger because the display changes every year. The Herald reported that the idea came in January 2022, when the Tulalip Tribes' Board of Directors saw the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe's annual display during a retreat. By the end of that year, Tulalip had a display of its own with 3 million lights.

It has grown every season since:

Tribal Vice Chair Hazen Shopbell told the Herald in November 2025 that the display has grown by about 2 million lights a year, and that 25 people spent three months setting it up. He also explained why entry stays free: "We know some people have rough times during Christmas and some can't really afford a Christmas like others. That's why we don't charge."

The size gets the headlines, but the rotation matters more if you live nearby. Meece told the Herald that organizers never put the same lights on the same trees two years running, because repeat visitors should get a new experience each year. Large trees are lit in a single color by swapping out individual bulbs on multicolored strings. If you went last year, this year's layout will look different, and you can see it on a quiet Wednesday as easily as on a packed Saturday.

The display also covers more ground than the amphitheater. In 2025 it spread across Tulalip Resort Casino, Quil Ceda Village, Quil Ceda Creek Casino, Tulalip Bingo & Slots and the Quil Ceda Village Retail Center. Tulalip News described light tunnels over the walkways in front of the resort casino. Last season also added an animal kingdom display next to the amphitheater, 40 light sculptures ranging from 3-foot penguins to a 14-foot giraffe, along with a Fire & Ice Bar for adults 21 and over and a gas-powered bonfire in the center of the space. Event organizers haven't yet said which of those pieces return for 2026–27.

The rink keeps its own hours

The covered ice rink at the amphitheater is real ice. It's the one part of the event that charges admission, and it follows a schedule separate from the characters. On the Tulalip Ice ticket page currently linked from the rink's site, which is labeled for the 2025–26 season, hours run Monday through Thursday 4 to 9 p.m., Friday 4 to 10:30 p.m., Saturday noon to 10:30 p.m. and Sunday noon to 9 p.m. Over winter break, December 21 through January 1, the rink opens daily from noon to 10:30 p.m. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day it runs 4 to 10 p.m.

Last season's one-hour sessions cost $18 for adults and $15 for kids 12 and under, Monday through Thursday, and $21 and $18 Friday through Sunday and on holidays. Skate rentals and the processing fee were included, and tribal members paid $10. Tickets had to be bought online, with no refunds. My Everett News reported the same rates for 2025–26. Check tulalipice.com for this season's prices before you book.

For comparison, the Herald put one-hour sessions at $10 to $15 back in 2024. At last season's rates, a family of two adults and two kids saves $12 by skating on a weeknight. On the rink, the cheaper nights are also the quieter ones.

A couple of rink rules matter for families. Children under 15 need an adult with them at the rink. In 2024, rental skates ran from kids' size 7 to men's size 12.

The Saturday Marysville already has plans

One weekend night is already spoken for in Marysville. Merrysville for the Holidays is Saturday, December 5, 4 to 8 p.m., at Comeford Park, 501 Delta Avenue, according to the city's event calendar. The calendar lays the evening out in order:

1. 4 to 8 p.m.: Holiday market, food trucks and live reindeer
2. 4 to 5:30 p.m.: Free Santa photos
3. 6:30 p.m.: Electric Lights Parade
4. 7:15 p.m.: Tree lighting

The city hasn't posted the 2026 parade route yet. In 2025 the parade ran southbound on State Avenue from 9th Street to 5th Street.

December 5 is also a Saturday at Tulalip, with Mr. and Mrs. Claus and the Grinch at the amphitheater and the rink open from noon. The two events don't really compete, because Merrysville is the one that ends. Comeford Park wraps up at 8 p.m. that night, while the Tulalip lights stay on through the new year. If your family wants a visit with Santa and the parade, December 5 in downtown Marysville covers both for free, and a weeknight at Tulalip covers the lights and the ice without the weekend crowd.

The rest of December fills in around those two. The Marysville Opera House at 1225 3rd St. hosts Elvis Holiday, Live with Danny Vernon, on Sunday, December 6, from 2 to 4 p.m., and Blitzen Family BINGO on Friday, December 18, with sessions at 4 and 6 p.m.

Getting there and parking

The event sits along I-5 at exits 200 and 202. When the Herald covered the 2025 opening night, Quil Ceda Village president Deborah Parker asked visitors to keep their eyes on the road and arrive early: "Be safe and get here early, so that when it starts to get dark, you can truly see the magic." Designated parking is in the lots south, east and west of the Tulalip Amphitheatre, with overflow at Tulalip Resort Casino. Well-behaved dogs on a leash are welcome, so you can turn the weeknight dog walk into a lap of the lights.

The vendors are worth planning around if you come on a weekend. For the 2026–27 season, Quil Ceda Village took applications from Tulalip Tribal vendors from July 6 through September 6. In 2024, all 18 vendors were Indigenous-owned. One was Cosalish Meets Creole, a fish boil run by Anthony and Marjae Lane that blends traditions from each of their tribal backgrounds, and the Herald reported they kept selling out. The best chance to find the full vendor lineup is the Holiday Weekend Market on November 27 and 28.

At Pilchard Properties, we keep track of what's on the calendar around Marysville, and this season it runs from a Tuesday Tribal Night at Tulalip to a Saturday parade on State Avenue. If you have questions about the area, or want to know what your home is worth before the new year, get your instant home valuation and we'll take it from there.