Thoroughbred Street Christmas Lights in Rancho Cucamonga, CA

Rating: You Should Go

The lights on Thoroughbred are almost like a mini theme park. Almost every house from the corner of Sapphire and Thoroughbred up to Turquoise and back down Jennet is covered in lights. Each house has a unique theme, from religious to winter wonderland to Christmas movies. Some are interactive or have moving parts, and others are just to gaze at in wonder of how much the electricity bill must cost. There are
police hired to direct traffic on the weekends and even a mini trash truck that comes around to collect the bags from the trash bins in front of each house. Many families have started selling food to take advantage of the high volume of visitors. I've seen hot cocoa, churros, nachos, funnel cakes, and tamales, just to name a few, so you might want to bring some cash for a snack along your walk. There were porta-potties at one house on the weekend, but I didn't see anything offered when we went on a weekday. Even then, the line was very long so you'll want to make sure everyone has used the restroom before starting your walk.

The weekends and weekdays vary greatly in their number of visitors. We experienced both this year. On the weekday, we were able to park on Thoroughbred Street just east of Sapphire, and it only took us half an hour to walk around the houses and back to our car. On the weekend, we had to park on the corner of Carnelian and Hillside Rd. and it took us 2 hours to walk around the houses and back to our car (mainly because it took a while for our goddaughters in strollers to get a good view of each house through the crowds of people). More houses were lit up on the weekend than on the weekday, though. We've also driven through once before, which took about 1 1/2 hours from when we got in line to get all the way through (which is personally my least favorite option). I prefer the weekday ease to seeing more lights, but that's just me. Any day you go, it's worth experiencing at least once. Hopefully I've given you enough information for you to enjoy these lights yourself.