Hudson Oaks' Corridor of Lights Runs Every Night Until New Year's. Which Night Is Yours?
On the city's posted schedule, Hudson Oaks lights its Christmas tree on Friday, December 4. The next evening, the Corridor of Lights opens at Gene L. Voyles Park and stays on every night from 6 to 9 p.m. through New Year's Day. That's 28 evenings of free, music-synced lights at 210 Hudson Oaks Drive.
Those 28 evenings are not all the same, though. Santa, the vendors and the cocoa come out only on tree-lighting night. Monday nights run quieter and stay that way all season. Horse-drawn carriages roll through the light tunnels on just five evenings, all in the middle of December. If you live anywhere from Weatherford to Aledo, choose your night first and plan the rest of the evening around it.
The show started small. The city's FY20 adopted budget describes plans for a new Christmas event, introduced in FY18 under the name "CoHoHo." The plan called for a quarter-mile light trail and a 50-foot tree, with more than 63,000 lights choreographed to music. The same budget shows $10,000 projected for CoHoHo in FY19 and $10,000 adopted for FY20.
Today the city counts more than 75,000 lights, set up as walk-through tunnels and displays around the park. Local businesses have joined in over the years. The Community News' 2024 holiday guide listed Texas Bank, Jerry's Cadillac and Nextlink as Corridor sponsors that season. In 2025, the city lit a brand-new Christmas tree. Its December 2025–January 2026 newsletter thanked Texas Bank, Jerry's Chevrolet, Texas Health Resources Willow Park, H-E-B Helping Here and Home Zone for sponsoring the tree.
The schedule has grown along with the light count. A small city's tree lighting has become a season with separate nights for separate crowds, and the details shift a little from year to year.
Tree-lighting night is the busiest night on the calendar. It runs 5:30 to 8 p.m., and the countdown to light the tree starts at 6. The city's event page lists everything else on the program:
Last year's version gives a sense of the scale. According to the city newsletter, the 2025 tree lighting brought local performances, visits with Santa, train rides and 20 vendors. The year before, Weatherford News listed Snack Shack and DonutNV among the food trucks. Workshop vendors that year included The Swim Lesson People, H-E-B, Sports Clips, CareNow, Divine Mercy, Home Zone, All This Hair, Chick-fil-A, Club Pilates, The Rock, NBT Bank, Change Lee's Taekwondo, Film Alley and First Baptist Church Weatherford. This year's lineup is set by the city, but the list shows the kind of event it is: a showcase for businesses from around Parker County, with Santa as the draw.
If your kids want Santa and a bounce house in the same trip, December 4 is the night to go. If you mostly want to see the lights, the 28 evenings after it give you the same tunnels without the crowd.
Once the tree is lit, the calendar settles into a pattern. Here's how the nights compare, based on the city's posted schedule:
| Night | Dates | Hours | Cost | What sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tree Lighting | Friday, Dec. 4 | 5:30–8 p.m. | Free | Santa photos, cocoa, food trucks, Santa's Workshop, 6 p.m. countdown |
| Corridor of Lights | Saturday, Dec. 5 through New Year's Day | 6–9 p.m. | Free | 75,000+ lights synced to music, walk-through tunnels |
| Sensory-friendly nights | Mondays: Dec. 7, 14, 21 and 28 | 6–9 p.m. | Free | Lights stay on but don't flash |
| Horse carriage rides | Dec. 11, 12, 17, 18 and 19 | 5:30–8 p.m. | $7 per person | A horse-drawn ride through the corridor, weather permitting |
Two of these rows changed recently, and both affect how you plan.
The city describes its sensory-friendly setting in one line on the event page:
"Monday nights at the Corridor will be Sensory Friendly Nights - the lights will be on but not flashing."
The quiet night used to fall on Wednesday. The 2024 Community News holiday guide listed Wednesday nights as non-flashing nights that season. By 2025 it had moved to Monday. The Community News' December 5, 2025 events listing described quieter, low-light sensory-friendly nights every Monday for guests who prefer a gentler experience. The city's current page keeps Mondays.
So if your family worked out a Wednesday routine a couple of years ago, that routine is out of date. This season has four Mondays in the window: December 7, 14, 21 and 28. The December 28 visit lands in the quiet week between Christmas and New Year's, when grandparents may still be in town and school is out.
The carriage rides are the shortest-lived part of the season. The city lists them for December 11, 12, 17, 18 and 19 only, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., at $7 per person. They loop through the Corridor of Lights and run weather permitting. On the calendar, that's a Friday and Saturday one week, then a Thursday, Friday and Saturday the next. The last ride night is Saturday, December 19, the weekend before Christmas.
Paying is easier than it used to be. In 2024, Weatherford News reported the rides as cash only, free for children 2 and under. The city's page now says it takes cash, Venmo, Zelle and Cash App.
Carriages start at 5:30, half an hour before the regular 6 p.m. show, and stop at 8, an hour before the lights go off. If you arrive at 5:30 on a carriage night, you can catch a ride and still have plenty of the light show left to walk afterward.
A few practical points carry across the whole season:
Every night is free, so the Corridor works for a second trip. You could go for Santa on Friday, December 4, then come back on Monday, December 14 for a quieter walk under the same 75,000 lights.
At Lori Mayo Real Estate Group, we keep track of what's happening around Parker County because our clients and neighbors live here too. If you have questions about Hudson Oaks, Weatherford, Aledo or the communities in between, give our Springtown team a call.
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