Looking for a last-minute holiday excursion? Here’s how much it’ll cost you at popular Philly-area attractions

Kaitlyn Rafferty usually fills her December calendar with visits to local attractions — drive-through light shows, Macy’s in Center City, the Christmas Village, really anything holiday-themed.

But this year, the 26-year-old’s festive schedule has been geared more toward movie nights at home in Northern Liberties.

“Just because of the cost of living right now and the cost of doing these things,” said Rafferty, who works in live events. This week, for example, tickets to drive-through light shows from South Jersey to Bucks County cost $35 to $50 per car. “That’s crazy when to fill your car is going to be $30 to $40 and you’re going to be sitting, driving.”

Local consumers said they expected to spend $1,842 on average this holiday season, with more than $700 going toward festive experiences, according to Deloitte’s annual survey. The anticipated experience-spending represented a 21% jump over last year.

During the same period, the cost of experiences is among the few categories where prices have risen nationwide. Overall, inflation has eased since last November, and a Bankrate analysis of federal data found that most items on your holiday to-do list are likely cheaper than they were a year ago.

Some exceptions: admission to movies, theaters, concerts, and sporting events; transportation; and drinking and eating out.

Compared to prepandemic, 36 of Bankrate’s 40 categories of holiday essentials have increased in price, some substantially. At the same time, many consumers have drained their pandemic savings. To afford the holidays, some are taking on even more credit-card debit or turning to buy now, pay later services such as Klarna and Afterpay, a trend that financial experts are wary of.

As for local holiday attractions, spokespeople for several popular experiences said costs, including labor, lights, decor, and other materials, have increased in recent years, but they’ve been able to absorb most, if not all, of it. Ticket prices have increased at most $2 to $3 since 2020.

For Rafferty, she has so far passed on her favorite attractions in favor of buying gifts for an ever-growing list of relatives and friends.

But she is planning a free or low-cost day of festivities in the city the day after Christmas. She hopes to take her family to see the lights of the Miracle on South 13th Street, which is free, and to Macy’s Dickens Village, which is also free but now requires reservations.

As for how they’ll fill the rest of their day, Rafferty was still mulling it earlier this week. It’s been difficult to find fun activities that don’t come with even a relatively low admission fee.

“When you’re looking for a family of 6 to 8 people, $25 [each] adds up real fast,” she said.

Across the Philadelphia region, the price of admission for holiday festivities varies from free to $35 or more per adult, plus parking.

For free, holiday revelers can get in the spirit by walking around Center City’s Christmas Village or Bucks County’s Peddler’s Village, watching the holiday shows at Macy’s and the Comcast Center downtown, and taking in the lights of festive decked-out neighborhoods or city blocks, such as South 13th Street. Pit stops for food, drinks, or shopping not included.

» READ MORE: Here are the best holiday light shows in the Philadelphia area, all of which you can see without spending a cent

Tickets to Wild Lights at the Elmwood Park Zoo — which this season raised admission prices between $2 and $3 for the first time since the pandemic — cost about $22 per adult, while admission to LumiNature at the Philadelphia Zoo has stayed steady at $25 per adult.

“Labor and materials continue to increase, but we have absorbed these costs without raising admission rates,” Philadelphia Zoo spokesperson Maria Bryant said in a statement. “We will stay close to how these expenses trend as we make decisions for next year’s 2024 LumiNature event — too early to tell on that one.”

At Morris Arboretum, tickets to the Holiday Garden Railway: Nighttime Express went for $22 per adult before it sold out for the season. For the first time since the pandemic, the admission price increased $2 last year, according to spokesperson Mellany Armstrong, but it has remained consistent since then.

Longwood Gardens charges $30 per adult to see its popular Christmas light show, which each year draws up to 450,000 visitors from around the world, and has not increased the price of admission since the pandemic (Spokespeople for Longwood did not return requests for comments about additional pricing history.) Parking is free.

Despite increased costs, Diggerland USA’s drive-through light show has kept prices at about $35 per car for the past two years, after a $2 bump in 2021, according to park creative director Dennis Nierzwicki. That price point puts the West Berlin, N.J., attraction at the lower end in terms of area drive-through light shows; others were $40 to $50 per car for the days before Christmas.

At the Tinseltown Holiday Spectacular, which moved from Oaks to FDR Park in South Philadelphia this season, admission is $20 to $33 per adult depending on the day of the week, plus a $12 parking fee for guests who drive there. And at the Main Line’s new holiday village, Yuletide at Devon, admission is $35 per adult.

For some consumers, they’re willing to pay the price for high-quality experiences where they feel like they’re getting their money’s worth.

Every holiday season, Jamie Scavillo finds Longwood Gardens to be well worth the admission price.

“I think the fact that it’s usually all lit — there’s usually nothing that’s out or that you’re missing,” said the 28-year-old teacher who lives in Upper Darby. “They’re pretty accommodating of all people, wheelchairs and strollers. I do prefer that it’s timed tickets,” making it a more controlled atmosphere than some other attractions.

She did visit one other attraction this year — Yuletide at Devon — but did so on its opening night. The organizers were still working out some kinks, she said, so she didn’t feel the experience was worth the $35 entry fee that day. She wouldn’t rule out revisiting, though the fact that preferred parking near the venue costs $30 gives her pause.

“As this is our first year operating, we’re listening to the community’s concerns,” a Yuletide at Devon spokesperson said in a statement. “The value of the cost of admission is its highest when a family enjoys a full musical show, and makes a night out of it with a complimentary photo with Santa and amusement rides.”

Yuletide at Devon is a “multi-million dollar production,” he said, employing 150 seasonal workers and featuring live music, including some nationally-touring artists on weekends. Admission also includes photos with Santa and unlimited rides on four carnival rides.

The cost isn’t keeping everyone away — event organizers say more than 15,000 customers have visited the venue each weekend since Thanksgiving.

Earlier this month Yuletide organizers lowered the weekend preferred parking prices from $30 to $10 for season pass holders, writing on Facebook that they thanked customers for “patience as we pivot to make the Yuletide Devon experience better for our guests.” Parking near the venue for regular guests costs $30 on weekends and $10 on weeknights. Free parking and a shuttle are available on Friday and Saturday nights for visitors who park two miles away at Conestoga High School.

Lauren Hollenbach, 30, of Warrington, said she went to Yuletide at Devon last weekend and was dismayed when it added up to $100 for two people after parking.

“You could go out to dinner for that cost — or less,” said Hollenbach, who works in data management.

Going forward, she said, she plans to stick mostly to holiday attractions that don’t come with entry or parking costs, such as Peddler’s Village. That way, once you get inside, “you can actually spend your money at the stores.”