Just after sunset on the Santa Monica Pier, the Pacific Wheel cuts through the marine haze like a signal flare. For Thanksgiving week, the 90-foot Ferris wheel turns into a rotating canvas—174,000 LEDs programmed with precision, pushing out turkey silhouettes, harvest motifs, and the deep oranges and reds that define late-November across the country.
The scene is unmistakably Los Angeles: families drifting off the boardwalk after dinner, teens leaning over the rail to film the wheel’s next sequence, and line cooks getting off shift catching a minute of quiet before heading home. The light show runs at up to 24 frames per second, the kind of technical detail you’d expect in a town built on motion pictures, not amusement rides. But here, it fits.
Pacific Park’s team describes the show as “a seasonal marker for anyone who ends up at the pier this week,” a simple way to acknowledge the holiday in a place that draws locals, tourists, workers, and night-shift regulars into the same stretch of coastline. The park remains LA’s only admission-free amusement zone, a democratic slice of beachfront with 12 rides, midway games, and enough snack stands to keep a steady stream of visitors cycling through the night.
The sustainability story is built in. The Pacific Wheel remains the world’s only solar-powered Ferris wheel, running on an LED system that cuts energy use by 81 percent compared with traditional bulbs—an efficiency milestone tucked inside a holiday display most people will simply experience as color against the ocean.
Thanksgiving in Los Angeles rarely looks like the postcards sold elsewhere. Out here, the season is measured by small shifts: cooler nights, earlier sunsets, and a Ferris wheel that turns itself into a bright marker of the week ahead.
For more information, visit pacpark.com
Pacific Park, Santa Monica Pier | 380 Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Dates: Nov. 21–27, 2025
Hours: Sunset (~5:38 p.m.)–Midnight
Photo credits: Photos courtesy of Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier and Scott Trento
