- calendar_month November 13, 2023
- folder Entertainment
Stuff your holiday weekend with these things to do on Thanksgiving, from turkey trots to holiday marketplaces
Edited by
Tuesday October 3 2023
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If you’re doing it right, Thanksgiving in Los Angeles means feasting on turkey and the best pies—and finding volunteer opportunities in your community. But what other things to do on Thanksgiving can you partake in? Enjoy the long holiday weekend with a variety of events and these things to do on Thanksgiving in L.A., from turkey trots to illuminated garden walks to parades. (We’ve made sure to specify which events are actually open on Thanksgiving itself and which ones are running the rest of the weekend.)
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Thanksgiving events in Los Angeles
Photograph: Courtesy Turkey Trot Los Angeles
- Things to do
- Festivals
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DowntownNov 23, 2023
Celebrate Thanksgiving with this catchall family-friendly event along Downtown’s Spring Street, chock-full of races, games and activities. Work off those calories in either the 5K or the 10K run/walk (there’s also a 1K “Widdle Wobble” for kids 10 and under). Costumes are always encouraged. Each year, the race benefits the Midnight Mission.
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Photograph: Courtesy Los Angeles Auto Show
- Things to do
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South ParkNov 17Nov 26, 2023
Drift into the Convention Center for the 10-day L.A. Auto Show with cars that would even make Bond drool. If you’re a car nerd, get behind the wheel to test drive one of the cherry rides (including an indoor EV track), while celebrities meet and greet at the manufacturer exhibits. With world and North American debuts from a slate of manufacturers, rev up for the machines of the future.
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3. Holiday Ice Rink Pershing Square
- Things to do
- Ice skating
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Downtown Financial DistrictNov 16, 2023Jan 7, 2024
L.A. doesn’t typically seem like much of a winter wonderland, until, that is, you create an ice skating rink right in the midst of Downtown skyscrapers. Come glide around and pretend there’s snow on the ground at Pershing Square’s outdoor holiday skating rink. Skate rentals are included in admission, though lockers and skating aids costs a few dollars extra.
- Things to do
- Festivals
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La CañadaNov 19, 2023Jan 7, 2024
Discovery and wonder are set to inhabit the illuminated installations once again in Descanso Gardens’ holiday tradition. The botanical garden’s nighttime experience masterfully mixes hands-on art installations with atmospheric, luminescent forests, all against a background of uplit trees and shimmery sound effects. Though the event isn’t open on Thanksgiving day, you can visit it on either side of the holiday.
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Photograph: Time Out/Michael Juliano
- Things to do
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Rancho Palos Verdes/Rolling Hills EstatesUntil Jan 1, 2024
There’s nothing Christmassy nor even wintry about this hour-long Palos Verdes trail, yet its nine stellar installations are the most cosmically mesmerizing of the budding after-dark botanical garden shows that’ve come to blanket L.A. toward the end of the year.
Photograph: Time Out/Michael Juliano
- Things to do
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ArcadiaNov 17, 2023Jan 2, 2024
Uplit trees and illuminated installations will once again dot the roughly mile-long pathway at the third edition of Lightscape at the L.A. County Arboretum. For the 2023 season, the Arboretum has announced a “reimagined” event with an expanded trail. The light cathedral will, of course, make its return, as will the fire garden, one of our standouts from Lightscape’s first year in Arcadia. It’s not open on Thanksgiving itself, but it is the rest of the weekend.
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Photograph: Courtesy CC/Flickr/Chris Jepsen
7. Festival of Lights at the Mission Inn
- Things to do
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Inland EmpireNov 18, 2023Jan 7, 2024
Riverside’s stunningly beautiful Mission Inn is bathed in 4.5 million twinkly lights and decorated with hundreds of animated figures during the annual Festival of Lights. The free seven-week-long holiday tradition starts a little early this year; typically it opens the day after Thanksgiving, but in 2023 it’ll debut on November 18.
Photograph: Courtesy Hollywood Christmas Parade
- Things to do
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HollywoodNov 26, 2023
Like an Angelyne billboard on Sunset Boulevard, the Hollywood Christmas Parade is an essential part of L.A. kitsch. The nine-decade–old parade (held on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend) will feature floats, balloons, bands, equestrians and sort-of-celebrities as they ride in a U-shaped route that begins at Hollywood and Orange and ends up at Sunset and Orange. Reserved grandstand seats can be purchased, with proceeds going to Toys for Tots, but free curbside seating is also available.
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- Theater
- Musicals
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HollywoodNov 14Dec 3, 2023
Pantages hosts this musical about a young bride, her freewheeling mother and the three men who might be her daddy, all set to chart-busting tunes by ABBA. The production will take a pause on Thanksgiving day, but you can catch performances the rest of the weekend.
Photograph: Courtesy Lawrence K. Ho
10. For the Record: Love Actually Live
- Theater
- Musicals
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Beverly HillsNov 22Dec 30, 2023
From Thanksgiving weekend (aside from the holiday itself) through the end of December, cult-favorite musical series For the Record presents a stage show based on one of the world’s most beloved holiday movies, Love Actually. Using a multimedia set, a live orchestra and songs from the film, the show will turn Beverly Hills’ Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts into a feel-good winter set for musical numbers and scenes of the movie’s intersecting love stories.
Photo by: Charles White, JWPictures/©Academy Museum Foundation
11. John Waters: Pope of Trash
- Art
- Film and video
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Miracle MileUntil Aug 4, 2024
See how the Hairspray and Pink Flamingos writer and director’s delightfully filthy style has redefined the possibilities of independent cinema—as well as what exactly goes into making an indie movie—during this career-spanning exhibition at the Academy Museum.
Photograph: Time Out/Michael Juliano
- Art
- Contemporary art
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WestwoodUntil Dec 31, 2023
The Hammer Museum’s excellent, ongoing series of biennial exhibitions ups the ante each year with its spotlight on emerging and under-recognized L.A. artists, and the sixth edition is no exception. See works from 39 local artists on any day of the holiday weekend aside from Thanksgiving itself.
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Photograph: TonelsonProductions / Shutterstock.com
13. Hip-Hop America: The Mixtape Exhibit
- Things to do
- Exhibitions
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South ParkUntil Sep 4, 2024
The GRAMMY Museum celebrates hip-hop’s 50th anniversary with interactive DJing, rapping and sampling stations and instantly recognizable artifacts like LL Cool J’s red Kangol bucket hat and the Notorious B.I.G.’s red leather pea coat.
Photograph: Time Out/Michael Juliano
14. POKÉMON X KOGEI | Playful Encounters of Pokémon and Japanese Craft
- Art
- Sculpture
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HollywoodUntil Jan 7, 2024
I choose you, lacy Pikachu: See familiar Pokémon translated into works of silk, ceramic and copper at this free Hollywood
