Koziar's Christmas Village: 2026 Dates, Hours, Tickets, and the Drive from Lancaster

Koziar’s Christmas Village is a walk-through Christmas light display on the Koziar family farm at 782 Christmas Village Road, Bernville, PA 19506, in Berks County. It is not in Lancaster County. From Penn Square in downtown Lancaster the driving route measured October 22, 2026, is 34.1 miles and about 59 minutes, which is about an hour north. That figure is a route estimate. It is not a promise about a Saturday in December, and the operator’s own Visit page says those Saturday evenings are when traffic backs up.

The 2026 season is posted. Opening night is Saturday, November 7, 2026, and the closing night on the 2026 pages is Saturday, January 2, 2027. It is the 79th season. You park and walk. Individual tickets are paid at the gate. The dollar amounts, hours, and the one place those pages disagree are below, each tied to the page that showed it on October 22, 2026. Check the operator’s site again before you go, because the FAQ page and the Visit page do not say the same thing about one Saturday hour, and the homepage still labels the 2026 calendar “coming soon” even though a calendar page is up.

Photo: Koziar’s Christmas Village, December 16, 2010, by Dough4872, via Wikimedia Commons. The photographer released the file into the public domain. The Commons description places the view in Jefferson Township, Berks County. The operator’s published address is the Bernville street address above. This is a 2010 night view, not a 2026 photo.

2026 dates, hours, and ticket prices

Four operator pages agree on the season window. The homepage, the July 2, 2026 season note, the Visit page, and the calendar page all put opening night on Saturday, November 7, 2026, and the last night on Saturday, January 2, 2027. The season note calls it the 79th year and says the family has run the display in Bernville since 1948. It also says the village is open for Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas night, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s night. The Visit page says the same holidays in its own list: Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s.

What changes inside that window is which nights the gate is open. The Visit page, last modified October 6, 2026, splits the season in two:

• November 7 through Thanksgiving: weekends only. Friday 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Saturday 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. Sunday 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.
• Thanksgiving through January 2: every night, including holidays. Monday through Thursday 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Friday 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Saturday 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. Sunday 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.

Thanksgiving in 2026 falls on Thursday, November 26. The site says “Thanksgiving.” It does not print “November 26.” Use that calendar date only as the switch the operator describes: weekends until then, then nightly. The Visit page also says busy nights, especially holidays, may run later than the posted close. The FAQ page says hours may be extended on extremely busy nights and points readers to Facebook for updates.

Read the Saturday line twice, because the pages do not match. The Visit page gives Saturday as 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. both before and after Thanksgiving. The FAQ webpage, in the block for weekends from the first Saturday in November to Thanksgiving, gives Saturday as 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. The PDF linked from that FAQ, Koziars-FAQ-2026-10-7.pdf, gives Saturday before Thanksgiving as 5:00 to 10:00 p.m., which matches the Visit page and not the FAQ webpage. After Thanksgiving, the FAQ webpage, the PDF, and the Visit page all put Saturday at 5:00 to 10:00 p.m. The hours above follow the Visit page. Check the official site the week you drive, because the FAQ webpage still shows the shorter Saturday hour.

One more stale sentence sits on the FAQ page: “Thanksgiving through the end of season (January 3rd in 2025!).” That is a 2025 date left on the 2026 FAQ. The homepage, the season note, the Visit page, and the calendar page all say January 2, 2027. The PDF says the season usually ends January 1 or January 2 and tells you to check the calendar. Do not plan on a January 3, 2027 night from that leftover parenthetical.

Standard prices on the Visit page, checked October 22, 2026, under the 2026 hours:

• Ages 3 and under: free.
• Ages 4 to 10: $12.
• Ages 11 to 64: $14.
• Seniors 65 and older, and military, printed on the same line: $13.
• Prime nights: an additional $5 per ticket.

The Visit page says payments are cash, with an ATM on site, or Visa, Mastercard, and Discover. It says individual tickets are purchased on arrival. Pay at the gate. No reservation for a regular visit. The calendar page repeats that standard and prime tickets are both bought at the gate.

The 2026 FAQ page prints the same four standard amounts, including free for ages 3 and under and $12 for ages 4 to 10, but the heading on that block still reads “PRICING (2025).” Treat the dollars as what both pages displayed on October 22, 2026, not as a promise that a later update will not change them. The FAQ does not put military on the $13 line. It says Koziar’s offers a $1 discount to active duty military with an ID. Those two wordings are not the same sentence. The Visit page is the one that prints military at $13. The FAQ is the one that prints a $1 discount. Neither page prints a military price for each age band.

Prime nights are the gap in the text. The Visit page puts an asterisk on Saturday before Thanksgiving, and on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday after Thanksgiving, and the line under those hours reads “Prime nights: additional $5 per ticket.” It also prints “Christmas Week Prime Night Pricing in Effect.” It does not define which dates “Christmas week” covers. The calendar page says the same Christmas-week sentence and shows standard nights and prime nights as a calendar image, not as a typed list of dates. The homepage, checked the same day, still says “VIEW 2026 Calendar (COMING SOON).” The day-by-day prime list is only an image, and the homepage still calls the calendar unpublished. Open the 2026 calendar before you go, and read the total at the gate. A Friday you assumed was $14 may be a prime night.

Pictures with Santa are a separate charge. The FAQ says they are $14 plus tax, that Santa is there every night, and that his last night is December 23. The PDF says pictures with Santa are $14 and does not add the words “plus tax.” The Visit page says Santa is on site for pictures through December 23 and does not print a photo price. December 23, 2026, is a Wednesday. Groups of 10 or more have to register ahead on the operator’s groups form. Groups of 20 or more get a $1 discount if they pay with a single payment. For a qualifying group of 20 or more, the bus driver and the coordinator are free. Parking for those groups is free, which matches the general parking line.

Checked October 22, 2026. Sources: the homepage, Visit Koziar’s, the 2026 FAQ, the October 7, 2026 FAQ PDF, the 2026 calendar, and the season note.

Is the drive worth it?

The decision is the shape of the night versus an hour of driving each way from Lancaster.

What the operator says you are buying is a self-guided walk, not a show with a start time and not a drive-through. The Visit page calls it a park-and-walk vintage Christmas lights experience, usually 60 to 90 minutes, on paved and lighted paths, with both outdoor displays and indoor buildings. It counts 11 indoor buildings of different sizes, for displays, shopping, food, and what it calls a huge indoor train display. The FAQ says visitors spend on average one and a half hours on the displays, Santa, snacks, and the souvenir, gift, and ornament shops. The homepage describes more than one million Christmas lights on buildings, gift barns, and the landscape. The Step Inside page repeats “over a million Christmas lights” and says William M. Koziar started the display in 1948 for his wife, Grace, and their four children, first around the house and barn, then the lake, walkways, trees, and fences.

The history page, updated July 2, 2026, says the village will mark an 80th anniversary in 2027, says national outlets including the Today Show have featured it, and says it has received awards including “Best Outdoor Christmas Display in the World” from Display World magazine. That page does not give the year of the award. The 2026 season note says the year also carries a United States 250th anniversary emphasis, and the July wording says the family would be adding those touches over the summer. The homepage, still carrying that July update, says highlights include the 250th celebration. It does not list the new pieces by name.

Set that against the drive. About 59 minutes each way from downtown Lancaster is the October 22 measurement, before December traffic. The Visit page’s own warning is specific: Saturdays in December between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. are the most popular, and visitors may be delayed. The FAQ says the village may hand out time-slot cards at the entrance on a crowded night. You wait in the car, portable bathrooms are by the entrance, and the FAQ says you still get a full visit once you are in. Expanded parking is mentioned on the season note and in the PDF as the way they have tried to get cars off the road. None of that is a published wait-time. If the group wants a short walk among a very large private light display, the gate price on the Visit page is $14 for ages 11 to 64 before any prime-night add-on. If the group wants a theme park or a drive-through that stays inside Lancaster County, this is the wrong errand. Those county options are linked at the end.

Dress for a farm in November or December. Paths are outdoors even though buildings are open. The Visit page says the village is open rain or shine, and that an emergency snow closing is rare and will be posted on the website and on Facebook. Sources: Visit Koziar’s, Step Inside, the history page, and the homepage.

Parking and directions

The address to put in a map is 782 Christmas Village Road, Bernville, PA 19506. The Visit page tells drivers to use Google Maps or Waze because those apps include traffic, and it links older turn-by-turn directions for anyone who is not using GPS. Parking is free. That sentence is on the Visit page, the FAQ, and the PDF. Handicap parking is available with a handicap plate or a hanging placard.

Grand View Road near the village is closed because a bridge is out. The Visit page says that in one sentence. The FAQ is stronger: it says Grand View Road is permanently closed, and it dates the note 2024. Do not follow an old set of directions that uses that road. If a GPS track tries to send you that way, stay with the Christmas Village Road pin.

From 25 South Queen Street at Penn Square, the Census Bureau matched 782 Christmas Village Road and an OSRM driving route on October 22, 2026, came out to 34.1 miles and about 59 minutes. The same measurement puts two Bernville restaurants a few minutes from the village pin, and a downtown Reading hotel farther east. Those miles are in the next section. They are route estimates from that afternoon, not a forecast for a holiday Saturday. Leave extra time if you are aiming at the 5:00 p.m. Saturday open, which is also the start of the window the operator calls the busiest.

Where to eat and where to sleep

The village sells food on the grounds. The FAQ names hot dogs, burgers, pizza, nachos, hot chocolate, and cookies in the refreshment barn. It does not print prices. Eat that if you want to stay on the property. The places below are for a meal before the gate opens, or a room that is not an hour back to Lancaster after a 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. close.

Two Bernville restaurants were on their own sites on October 22, 2026. Mario’s Pizzeria lists 300 Penn Valley Road, Bernville, PA 19506, and the phone (610) 488-0831, on its website. That pin is 2.7 miles and about 6 minutes from the village address by the same driving measurement. Call ahead for hours. The Bernville Eagle Hotel, at the corner of 3rd and Main in Bernville, is a restaurant. Its site describes a dining room and a patio and says the place dates to the 1800s. Despite the name, it is a restaurant, not lodging. That pin is 2.5 miles and about 6 minutes from the village.

Blue Marsh Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria’s site lists 5027 Bernville Road, Bernville, PA 19506, with the phone (610) 488-1088, and it prints hours of Monday through Saturday 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. and Sunday 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Those hours sit above a list of four addresses, not a Bernville-only schedule, so confirm you want the Bernville Road dining room. The Census match for that street address is 6.5 miles and about 11 minutes from the village.

For a bed closer than Lancaster, the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Reading publishes 701 Penn Street, Reading, PA 19601, on its Hilton location page. That page says self-parking is complimentary for hotel guests. The pin is 15.4 miles and about 26 minutes from the village, east rather than back south.

If the rest of the trip is Lancaster, sleep there and treat Koziar’s as the evening. The drive back to Penn Square is the same 34.1 miles and about 59 minutes. Which part of the county to use as a base is the where-to-stay guide. Checked October 22, 2026, for the restaurant and hotel pages named above, and for the driving routes from the village pin.

Pair it with a Lancaster trip

The hour each way makes the most sense on a day you already built around Lancaster, not as a second stop squeezed in after a late show. Use the county in the daytime and drive north for the lights after dark. A full first visit is the Lancaster weekend itinerary. The seasonal map is the Lancaster Christmas guide. After New Year’s, when this season’s closing night has passed, the Lancaster in winter guide covers what is still open.

Inside the county, two walks that are not this village: Dutch Wonderland for younger children, and the Strasburg Rail Road if the group wants a train that is not the indoor layout at Koziar’s. A Sight & Sound evening in Ronks is its own plan, with its own clock, in the Sight & Sound trip guide. If the search was really for a drive-through light display near Lancaster, that is a different night. The dated 2026 options that were on official or tourism-board pages are collected on the Hershey Sweet Lights 2026 page. Downtown stops, if you are starting from the square this route was measured from, are on the Lancaster attractions list.

The holiday dates, hours, and ticket prices for that park are on the Dutch Winter Wonderland guide.

The two Lancaster tours below are for the county day, not for the village. Koziar’s FAQ says there is no guided tour on the grounds. You walk at your own pace. These are separate Amish Country visits you can book for the Lancaster half of the same trip.

Frequently asked questions

When is Koziar's Christmas Village open in 2026?

Opening night is Saturday, November 7, 2026, and the closing night printed on the 2026 pages is Saturday, January 2, 2027. The Visit page, updated October 6, 2026, says the village is open weekends only from November 7 through Thanksgiving, then every night, including holidays, from Thanksgiving through January 2. Thanksgiving in 2026 falls on November 26. That calendar date is not printed on the site. The 2026 FAQ page still has a parenthetical that says the season ended January 3 in 2025. Check the Visit page and the calendar before you go.

How much are Koziar's Christmas Village tickets?

On October 22, 2026, the Visit page listed standard gate prices of free for ages 3 and under, $12 for ages 4 to 10, $14 for ages 11 to 64, and $13 for seniors 65 and older and for military. Prime nights add $5 per ticket. Individual tickets are bought at the gate, not reserved online. The 2026 FAQ page prints the same dollar amounts under a heading that still says PRICING (2025), and it describes military admission as a $1 discount for active duty with an ID. The night-by-night prime list is a calendar image, not a text list, so check that image before you pay.

What are Koziar's Christmas Village hours?

The Visit page lists Friday 6 to 9 p.m., Saturday 5 to 10 p.m., and Sunday 5 to 9 p.m. from November 7 through Thanksgiving, with Monday through Thursday closed in that stretch. From Thanksgiving through January 2 it lists Monday through Thursday 6 to 9 p.m., Friday 6 to 9 p.m., Saturday 5 to 10 p.m., and Sunday 5 to 9 p.m. The FAQ webpage instead lists Saturday before Thanksgiving as 6 to 9 p.m. A PDF linked from that FAQ, with October 7, 2026 in the file name, lists Saturday 5 to 10 p.m. before Thanksgiving, which matches the Visit page. Busy nights, especially holidays, may run later. Check the official site before you go.

How far is Koziar's Christmas Village from Lancaster, PA?

About 34.1 miles and 59 minutes. That is the driving route measured October 22, 2026, from 25 South Queen Street at Penn Square in downtown Lancaster to the Census Bureau match for 782 Christmas Village Road, Bernville, PA 19506. It is a route estimate, not a December Saturday. The operator says Saturdays in December between 5 and 8 p.m. are the busiest times and that visitors may hit traffic delays.

Do you need a reservation, and is parking free?

No reservation for an individual ticket. The Visit page says to pay at the gate. Groups of 10 or more have to register in advance. Parking is free. The operator recommends Google Maps or Waze because of traffic, and both the Visit page and the FAQ say Grand View Road near the village is closed because a bridge is out. The FAQ calls that closure permanent and dates the note 2024.

Is Koziar's Christmas Village a drive-through?

No. It is a park-and-walk display on the family farm. The Visit page says the unguided walk usually takes 60 to 90 minutes, on paved and lighted paths, with outdoor lights and indoor buildings. The homepage describes more than one million Christmas lights. Dress for the weather. The same page says the village is open rain or shine, and that emergency snow closings are rare and are posted on the website and Facebook.

Can you bring a stroller, a wheelchair, or a pet?

The FAQ says walkways and building entrances, including bathrooms, can be used with a wheelchair, a stroller, an electric scooter, or a walker. The Visit page says there are a limited number of free wheelchair rentals. The FAQ says the village does not rent wheelchairs but has a limited number that can be borrowed, first come, first served. Family pets are not allowed. The exception on the FAQ is a licensed, insured service dog trained to do work for a guest with a disability. Handicap parking requires a plate or placard.

Sources checked October 22, 2026: koziarschristmasvillage.com homepage, for the Bernville address context, the million-light description, opening night November 7, 2026, closing night January 2, 2027, the 79th season, the USA 250th line, and the “2026 calendar coming soon” label; the Visit page, modified October 6, 2026, for hours, standard prices, pay-at-the-gate, the 60-to-90-minute walk, 11 indoor buildings, the indoor train display, free parking, Google Maps or Waze, the Grand View Road closure, December Saturday traffic from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., Santa through December 23, rain or shine, and snow-closing posts; the 2026 FAQ page and the PDF dated October 7, 2026 in the file name, for the conflicting Saturday hour, the “January 3rd in 2025” parenthetical, the “PRICING (2025)” heading, the military discount wording, Santa photo price, groups, wheelchairs, food, pets, and time-slot cards; the calendar page for weekends before Thanksgiving, nightly operation through January 2, 2027, gate purchase of standard and prime tickets, the Christmas-week prime line, and the calendar image that was not transcribed; the July 2, 2026 season note for the 79th year, the holiday list, and the 250th wording; the history and Step Inside pages for 1948, the 80th anniversary line in 2027, the Display World award as stated, and the Today Show mention; Mario’s Pizzeria order page for 300 Penn Valley Road and (610) 488-0831; the Bernville Eagle Hotel site for the restaurant at 3rd and Main; Blue Marsh Italian Restaurant’s site for 5027 Bernville Road, the phone, and the hours printed above four addresses; Hilton’s DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Reading location page for 701 Penn Street and complimentary self-parking; and U.S. Census Bureau address matches plus an OSRM driving route from 25 South Queen Street, Lancaster, for the miles and minutes.