Holiday of Lights at Del Mar Fairgrounds, Del Mar, CA. Cost: $14/car sdfair.com

Families and friends can fill up their cars for a pleasure ride through a wonderland of colorful light displays that create fantasy scenes during the holiday season. Santa rides on a sleigh through the sky as a dinosaur munches on grass next to a palm tree decked with decorative lights. This is just a sampling of the themes on display this holiday in Del Mar's Holiday of Lights.

One of the nation's largest drive-through light displays attracts cars and people in the hundreds of thousands. Even after Christmas has ended, you can still get in your car and see the display through the new year.  Themed areas of the drive-through event include places such as Candy Cane Lane, the Twelve Days of Christmas, Elves at Play, Toyland, San Diego County Fair, Treasures by the Lake, and Del Mar Racetrack. In fact the event is located at the Del Mar Fairgrounds where the racetrack hosts numerous horse races each season.

But on the special night you enter into your fantasy flight, from the comfort of a car you'll see twinkling displays accompanied to themed music. Of course you have to roll down your window as you drive along the 1.5 mile route to listed to the sounds of Christmas. Since the weather is generally mild and seldom drops below the 50s to 60s at night, you'll be just fine with a coat on as you cruise through the San Diego County wonderland.

Transformed from its regular venue as one of the busiest and best-attended county fairs in the nation, Del Mar is the home of the San Diego Fair held annually in June / July. The fairground sits just across from a beach and the Pacific Ocean, making it one of the finest fairs and events to attend, thanks to those cool ocean breezes and fantastic weather San Diego is recognized as having.

Drive through light displays in California require much orchestration in terms of traffic. Other drive through areas you may want to check out include the Holiday Lights display in Los Angeles - Griffith Park, Altadena Christmas Tree Lane, and Oxnard's Historic Homes District Christmas Tree Lane.

DEL MAR - Holiday of Lights. Largest animated drive-through light show on the west coast features more than 400 twinkling displays at Del Mar Fairgrounds. Event runs nightly through Jan. 4, 2009.  Time:  Sundays-Thursdays, 5:30 to 10 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 5:30 to 11 p.m. Cost: $14/ car up to 5 people; $19/ vehicle of 6 or more people; $49/ bus. Location: The Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar, CA. Call: (858) 755-1161. sdfair.com