Winterhaven Festival of Lights

The Winterhaven Festival of Lights is one of the longest-running holiday light festivals in the country, a cherished Tucson tradition in which the Winterhaven neighborhood opens its streets to the community. It began in 1949, when developer C.B. Richards, inspired by a display he had seen in Beverly Hills, bought the first set of lights for the neighborhood and planted Aleppo pines with electrical hookups along the streets. Today the festival draws hundreds of thousands of visitors and collects food and money for the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, with party bike and silent-disco tours among the ways to see the lights.

Our take: Bring peanut butter, canned goods or other food bank staples to drop at the donation stations by each entrance.