We’ve been visiting SeaWorld® San Diego for many years and the holiday season is always a favorite time in the park. This year we visited during the media preview and would love to go again before Christmas at SeaWorld is over this holiday season. The festive seasonal fun continues through January 6th with lights and decorations, performances, characters, snow, reindeer and so much more. This year Christmas at SeaWorld in San Diego added an all new live nativity musical, O Wondrous Night. The holiday performance is inspired by the story of Christmas and has been a loved show at SeaWorld Orlando featuring carols, puppets and live animals. 10 things to do at SeaWorld San Diego is a list of must see things during your SeaWorld Holiday visit.
Lights and decorations
The holiday decorations fill SeaWorld San Diego with seasonal joy and the lights are stunning at night with more than a million twinkling lights. Our youngest daughter is just two years old and ever since our SeaWorld holiday visit, she happily points and exclaims we are going to SeaWorld each time she sees a tall tree similar to the lighted Skytower.
dine with Orca
An incredible close up experience with killer whales while hearing first hand experiences of whale behaviorists, Dine with Orcas is an excellent learning opportunity. The experience is not seasonal and makes a great addition to your day at SeaWorld San Diego anytime of the year. Holiday decor and a warm meal alongside the whales is part of our family holiday traditions at SeaWorld.
holiday shows
There are many must-see educational presentations to experience while visiting SeaWorld like the Orca Encounter but during this season, make sure you see the holiday favorites:
- Clyde and Seamore’s Christmas Special
- Dolphin Island Christmas
- O Wondrous Night, A Christmas Story
The all new live nativity musical is a stunning presentation including known carols, funny puppets, live animals and incredible voice talents.
photos
There are photo opportunities all throughout the park with many of your favorite characters like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Bumble and more. There are also areas to pose with your favorite character props while waiting to see the live characters. The snow globe photo is an opportunity to be photographed inside a real snow globe. Last year we took the same snow globe photo with my daughters and their Southern California bestie, Over the Top Mommy‘s daughter. I look forward to continuing this tradition every year as they grow.
food
The SeaWorld holiday menu include pizza and mac & cheese otherwise not available in the park. Last year my favorite was the Holiday Mac & Cheese with bacon, sweet potato and cheddar cheese but this year I really enjoyed a pizza with arugula and cranberry.
animals
We have so many different favorite animals at SeaWorld. Take the time to visit the attractions for a surprise encounter like my youngest daughter experienced with the walrus. Animal ambassadors are roaming the park with behaviorists to share educational information and you never know when you might run into an animal in the conservations connections tour, like Kandoro the Porcupine.
rides
There are many different thrill rides and attractions appropriate for smaller children at SeaWorld. Manta is my oldest daughter’s favorite but we have been spending most of our time at Ocean Explorer where you’ll find many family friendly rides. During our SeaWorld holiday visit, our daughters rode the Sea Dragon Drop over 20 times!
Santa’s Christmas Village
SeaWorld holiday visits features Santa’s Christmas Village through December 31st. Here you’ll find the Reindeer, Santa, story time with Mrs. Claus and hot chocolate to keep you warm!
Snow
It really does snow in Southern California…when you visit SeaWorld San Diego! Snow in Santa’s Christmas Village was my youngest daughter’s favorite part of her evening during our visit.
Family Memories
Make every moment magical during your SeaWorld holiday visit. Christmas at SeaWorld is a tradition for our family and if we lived nearby we would be there everyday of the holiday season!
What are your favorite holiday traditions?
Plan a SeaWorld holiday visit to SeaWorld San Diego now through January 6th to experience all the festive fun. Be sure to check out the new SoCal annual pass pricing that makes visiting often affordable.
See our other Christmas at SeaWorld visits over the past years for more holiday fun: Christmas at SeaWorld with Rudolph & Friends (2016), SeaWorld’s Christmas Celebration (2014), Family Fun at SeaWorld San Diego’s Christmas Celebration (2013).
Learn more about SeaWorld San Diego by connecting with them on Facebook, Instagram and with Clyde the Sea Lion on Twitter.
See more about our experiences at SeaWorld San Diego and read why I still choose to support SeaWorld. A few of my favorite visits include my daughter learning that girls can be anything they want to be from Miss California and killer whales at SeaWorld.
First off, I totally love the family photo of you guys – very sweet! Looks like a wonderful time was had at Seaworld – didn’t realize they decorated the place for the holidays.
I had no idea that they decorate SeaWorld for the holidays. It’s such a magical place and perfect for families to visit.
Now THIS would be an awesome holiday vacation! Nothing more I would love than to take the family to Sea World for the holidays! Everything looks so beautiful!
I loved your family, Heather! San Diego is an amazing place for family vacations. And the Seaworld is just great for kids.
This looks like an amazing experience! We’ve never been to seaworld but it’s on our list. I didn’t realize they had all the extra activities!
You are so lucky to get snow without the cold and messy cleanup. I love SeaWorld ever since I learned about all the science and care that goes into taking care of the animals in their back end.
I had no idea that Sea World offered so many neat things for the holidays! That light show looks amazing!
I didn’t know Sea World has so much to do during the holidays. I’ll miss it this year, but will put it on my list for next year. I know my nieces and nephew would love this.
Wow I love that Sea World goes all out for the holidays. I’m so loving those decorations!
This looks like so much fun. We haven’t gone to Seaworld in a few years, so I didn’t know about the dine with an Orca experience. I wonder if ours has the same.
I can totally see why this would be a fun place to visit around Christmas time. I’m sure the snow just must seem so cool to kids that don’t live in an area that gets it normally.