This January in Philly: The 40+ Biggest Events, Festivals & Exhibitions

Through Sunday, January 7, 2024

Santa might have headed home, but the flora is still all aglow at Longwood Gardens. Half a million twinkling lights and spectacular fountain shows combine to create an incredible winter wonderland at A Longwood Christmas — named Best Botanical Garden Holiday Lights for four years by USA Today — where visitors can stroll the grounds to marvel at miles of lights glowing in the trees, seasonal plants decorated with ornaments, a festive outdoor railway, cozy fire pits and colorful fountains dancing to holiday music.

Through Sunday, January 7, 2024

We’ll tell you how to get, how to get to Sesame Place, but don’t delay to catch the waning days of the annual A Very Furry Christmas celebration. Enjoy sunny days and sweep the clouds away at the beloved Langhorne, Bucks County amusement park (the only Sesame Street-themed park east of California) which transforms for the season with millions of lights, themed rides, festive holiday decorations, a special Christmas Parade, gifts and a visit with Santa in the Furry Workshop and the spectacular 1-2-3 Christmas tree music and lights show.

Through Saturday, January 13, 2024

The holidays are coming to a close at Bucks County’s charming Peddler’s Village where the more than 60 specialty shops offer end-of-season holiday shopping and the grounds are festively decorated and you can still catch the annual Gingerbread Competition & Display. The tasty presentation features over 100 handcrafted gingerbread creations on display for free. Come see the winners (and the still-good-enough-to-winners) in ten different categories Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. through January 13, 2024.

Through Sunday, January 14, 2024

Through new works by Indigenous artists — in dialogue with historic Lenape artifacts and European-American representations of William Penn’s 17th-century treaty with the Lenape people — the Never Broken: Visualizing Lenape Histories exhibition, ending a four-month run this month at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, examines the role of art in creating, challenging and rewriting history. The modern pieces reflect on themes of identity and challenge prevailing notions about the Lenape people’s displacement from their homeland.

Through Monday, January 15, 2024

The presents might be unwrapped and the tree put away for the winter, but there’s still time to catch one of the nation’s top traveling holiday spectaculars at the last days of the LuminoCity Holiday Lights Festival at The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks. With a “Golden Holiday” theme for 2023/2024, the sprawling wonderland of immersive illuminated installations features over 20 displays and rides with bright, colorful, large-scale lightscapes, a 50-foot fully-decorated Christmas tree and a festive holiday market.

Through Sunday, January 21, 2024

Parisian painter Marie Laurencin visualized a world for — and by — women in her highly stylized art that defied European norms in the early 20th century. In the final days of the three-month Marie Laurencin: Sapphic Paris exhibition at the Barnes Foundation, Laurencin’s 50-plus displayed works tell stories of femininity, queer expression and the subversion of male-dominated media through self-portraits, collaborative decorative projects, early cubist paintings and more.

Through Saturday, January 27, 2024

Not ready to let go of the season’s illuminated majesty yet? You still have until the end of January to catch the last major holiday light display in the region at Bucks County’s sprawling Shady Brook Farm. The after-dark Holiday Light Show is a whimsical ride through giant animated winter scenes, character displays and illuminated tunnels rendered with 3 million tiny bulbs across acres of farmland. Enjoy the two-mile trail from your own vehicle or an open-air tractor-pulled wagon. End your ride at the holiday farm market, Stone’s Throw Pub or with cocoa and s’mores around the firepit.

Through Sunday, February 11, 2024

The first major showing of Korean contemporary art in the United States since 2009, The Shape of Time: Korean Art After 1989 exhibition brings together several artists of Korean descent who were born between 1960 and 1986, a period of rapid change on the Korean peninsula. Exploring effects of industrialization, differing societal norms and lingering political tensions, the works address Korea’s past, present and future, as well as the complex cultural experiences of the artists themselves.

Through February 23, 2024 (Saturdays only)

A new art and history exploration, Legacy Reclaimed: A 7th Ward Tribute honors the lives — and lesser-known history — of the 19th-century Black residents of Philadelphia’s old 7th Ward, an important part of the Underground Railroad and Great Migration, and former home to 15,000 Black residents including Octavius V. Catto and W. E. B. Du Bois. As part of the event, a 90-minute guided 7th Ward Tribute Walking Tour (Saturdays at 11 a.m.) takes you to nearly a dozen neighborhood sites, including new art installations and several homes and businesses. Tours leave from Mother Bethel AME Church Fellowship Hall. Or grab a self-guided tour map.

Through Sunday, February 25, 2024 (dates vary by attraction)

Wintry fun continues at festive Franklin Square with a few more weeks of seasonal outdoor fun and games. It’s your last chance to play a round at Chilly Philly Mini Golf, Center City’s only outdoor miniature golf course, with 18 holes of merry lights, holiday music and iconic winter characters (through January 28, 2024). And don’t miss the free nightly Electrical Spectacle Light Show, illuminating the square every half-hour with seasonal songs and choreographed light displays, and the friendly competition of street curling — a combination of curling and tabletop shuffleboard — both open through Sunday, February 25, 2024. Tickets are required for mini-golf and street curling.

Through Sunday, March 17, 2024 (dates vary by attraction)

There’s still plenty of time to experience Winter at Dilworth Park as the public plaza just outside City Hall hosts the popular annual winter wonderland. Lace up your skates (BYO or rentals available) for an up-to-90-minute skating session at the Rothman Orthopaedics Ice Rink (best to make reservations in advance) or warm up with comfort food, quick bites, beer and cocktails in the ski chalet-style Rothman Orthopaedics Cabin (both through February 25, 2024). And stroll through the gorgeous topiaries and plantbeds on display in The Wintergarden on the Greenfield Lawn (through March 17, 2024).

Through Sunday, March 24, 2024

This exhibition at The Fabric Workshop & Museum in Market East shed light on an organization critical to the women’s rights movement yet unknown to most. Jessica Campbell: Heterodoxy is an exhibition, lecture and discussion series exploring the complex personal, political and professional relationships facilitated by 20th-century secret feminist debate society Heterodoxy. The exhibit is housed in a recreation of Polly’s Restaurant in Greenwich Village — the space where the group debated still-relevant issues including voting rights, abortion and birth control access, sex education, and universal child care — outfitted in an immersive tufted rug environment.

Through February 2024

Experience a Penn’s Landing waterfront winter wonderland as the 30th annual Independence Blue Cross RiverRink Winterfest keeps the fun going into 2024. Glide around the NHL-sized ice skating rink (book tickets in advance), snap a photo by the festive holiday tree, ride on the illuminated Ferris wheel, play games on the boardwalk, or relax and cozy up with pay-as-you-go seasonal treats and hot drinks next to a toasty fire pit, in quaint cabins or at the Rinkside Lounge (reservations required).

Dates vary by location

A favorite evening (or anytime) seasonal activity in Philly is its slew of spectacular holiday and winter-themed pop-up bars. While most exited with Santa, a couple remain serving into 2024.

• Alpine Heights at Assembly Rooftop Lounge: The swanky Assembly Rooftop Lounge atop The Logan brings the Italian Alps to Center City at their modern ski-lodge-inspired pop-up Alpine Heights. Cozy up around a fire pit with a boozy hot chocolate in hand and enjoy a warming food menu featuring items like short rib rosti, gruyere and onion dip, and a Bavarian smash burger. For dessert? A dark chocolate fondue served with coconut marshmallows (through February 27, 2024).
• The Igloos at Figo: Be on the lookout for Babbo Natale and La Befana as North Philly’s Figo restaurant whisks you away not to Northern Italy but wayyyy further north with a culinary experience inside festive outdoor dining igloos. Complete with heat and insulation, guests are shielded from the elements but with a stellar people-watching opportunity (through February 29, 2024)

There are few traditions more Philly than the annual Mummers Parade each New Year’s Day when 10,000 costumed marchers strut their stuff five miles through the streets of Philadelphia performing skits, dances and music divided into Comics, Fancies, String Bands and Fancy Brigades. The 120-year-old Mardi Gras-esque march down South Broad Street runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and is capped off with the ticketed Fancy Brigade Finale (formerly Mummers Fest) at the Pennsylvania Convention Center where the clans of costumed members hit the stage to compete for first prize.

One of the most popular urban public art installations in the city, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens is Isaiah Zagar’s large-scale indoor/outdoor found-item mosaic structure spanning half a city block along famous South Street. Early January offers your very last chance to exeperience The Gardens After Dark to view the urban museum’s mixed media display — made from discarded materials like broken mirrors, reclaimed glass, tiles, bicycle parts and an assortment of urban waste — under the glow of hundreds of colorful lights, as well as gain special access to the rarely seen mosaicked basement.

January 5-6 & 12-13, 2024

The million twinkling holiday lights covering every building, path and tree at Bucks County boutique shopping oasis Peddler’s Village are only on through mid-January. But those final two weekends are celebrated with the annual Fire & Frost Fun event, featuring live fire artistry and ice carving demonstrations, fire pits, outdoor food and drink, a scavenger hunt, a live DJ, and an extensive display of over 30 ice sculptures (including an Ice Throne for perfect selfies). Don’t forget to check out the last days of the Village’s Gingerbread Display as well (see above).

Bring it on! The National Cheerleaders Association’s touring all-star cheerleading competition hits the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center for the NCA All Star Cheer Competition Oaks Classic. The tour brings a display of the best of the best all-star cheer teams to the region with 500 points in The League available to the first-place squad as well as 15 Wild Card bids to The Summit, D2 Summit, Youth Summit and Regional Summit (plus at-large bids to the Regional Summit), six bids to The Quest, and Golden Tickets to the U.S. Finals up for grabs.

Opening this month at the National Liberty Museum, the juried multimedia exhibition Amplified: Art, Music, Power features diverse artists from across the country who were invited to reflect on music and performance as a positive force for liberty and equality, and how music exists as a form of expression, as an experience and as a soundtrack to our memories.

A favored music venue by the Montgomery County and Delaware County border, Ardmore Music Hall is the site and host for the 2024 Ardmore Winter Beer Fest. Come for fest food, live Dad Funk music from Dad & Company, and to taste more than 50 different craft beers including selections from local breweries like von C Brewing Co., Love City, Broken Goblet and Levante Brewing Company. A VIP experience with a pre-show brunch, early access and discounts on future shows is available.

One of the can’t-miss winter events in Philly each year, the Philadelphia Auto Show returns for its 122nd year as it takes over the Pennsylvania Convention Center for nine days in January. The massive exhibition features hundreds of vehicles on display (with most major vehicle manufacturers represented), test-drive opportunities both outside and inside the Convention Center, and more. Get an up-close look at the industry’s newest model year fleets along with concept, classic, luxury and exotic cars — and even have the opportunity to climb behind the wheel of some.

Linvilla Orchards Fore! The Planet indoor mini-golf is more than just putt putt. This highly interactive and playful museum exhibit was created by The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, pairing important environmental topics with the fun of miniature golf. Across nine holes, players can explore butterfly metamorphosis, a tropical rainforest, evolution, dinosaur extinction, food chains and more. Advance ticket purchase is recommended.

It’s B-I-N-G-O with B-A-R-B-R-A with Simply Streisand GayBingo is the theme of the month at North Philly’s Congregation Rodeph Shalom, a rowdy, irreverent and campy game night that’s been running in Philly for two decades. Join hundreds of bingo aficionados both fabulous and lucky and the infamous Bingo Verifying Divas (BVDs), a wild bunch of drag queens who entertain with wacky humor and outrageous costumes. Advance purchase is suggested for the 18-and-older event as seating requests at the door are not guaranteed.

The horticultural minds at Longwood Gardens prove winter is more than stark, bare trees with their annual Winter Wonder exhibit. In the Conservatory, Streptocarpus, Saintpaulia and Clerodendrum schmidtii fill up the space in purple and white while hundreds of orchids bloom magnificently. Outdoors, the gardens’ 400 acres pop with yellow and orange witch hazel, while winter grasses provide texture to the landscape.

Delicious deals are on the menu at more than 100 restaurants in Center City during this can’t-miss twice-a-year restaurant week. Enjoy a fixed dinner menu for just $45 a pop (or $60 at select locations), or grab a two-course lunch (also at select locations) for just $20.

All your favorite princesses converge on gorgeous Franklin Square in the winter at the public space’s Ice Princess Night. Join Ana and Elsa from Frozen, Isabella from Encanto, Tiana from The Princess and the Frog and more for one night only, meeting kids (and kids at heart) at the free event which also includes face painting and ice sculptures under the lights. While you’re there, check out the other awesome attractions at Winter in Franklin Square events like Chilly Philly Mini Golf, the Electrical Spectacle and street curling (see above).

Learn about Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Tibetan and other Asian cultural traditions and scoop up some holiday treasures at the 43rd annual Lunar New Year edition of the Penn Museum’s signature CultureFest! series. The event includes live music, dance performances, family-friendly activities (like storytelling and make-and-take art), and a packed vendor marketplace. And don’t miss the grand finale: the traditional Lion Dance. Included with admission.

Special programming for the entire three-day Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday comes again to The African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP) which will host a full weekend of special events including music and dance performances, keynote speakers and discussions, family activities, and more to honor Dr. King’s legacy. On the Monday holiday itself, AAMP celebrates with its annual Free Admission Day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. See the museum’s website for details as they are announced.

The Museum of the American Revolution honors the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and how it’s tied to the ongoing legacy of the American Revolution during MLK Weekend at the Museum. Exhibits include First-Person Performance: Meet Elizabeth Freeman, a theatrical performance about Elizabeth “Mumbet” Freeman who sued for her freedom from enslavement and won, the Let Them Vote in-gallery talk discussing the fight for voting rights for women and people of color in New Jersey in post-revolutionary times, and a Community Engagement Wall to share your message about carrying forward the Revolution’s promises of liberty and equality.

What better way to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. than by lending a hand in a service project? This year marks the 29th annual Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service. Volunteers can sign up for one of the dozens of in-person service projects happening throughout the region, including meal prep and food distribution initiatives, community cleanups, and literacy programs.

Celebrate MLK Jr. Day and the freedoms we share by pushing yourself to your personal physical limits during the MLK Jr Day Freedom Run Philadelphia at Chester’s Subaru Park, home to the aptly named Philadelphia Union. The stress-free event — no timing chips and self-timed runs (with coordinators onsite to assist) — offers starting waves at 7:30, 8:30 and 9 a.m. and distances of 5K, 10K or half-marathon. An official running shirt will be mailed prior to the event with finishers’ medals available after. The event is open to all paces (runners and walkers) and all ages (under 18 with guardian).

Through Sunday, January 14, 2024

The beloved musical about the magical singing nanny who can do it all (with help from her enchanted bag) drops from the sky into The Media Theatre in Delco for its final two weeks of shows. Join the Banks family and their new live-in babysitter for this production of the Disney classic as the heroine of Mary Poppins upends the lives of a dysfunctional British family by cleaning up the house, educating the kids, schooling the parents and spelling supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Nominated for 12 Tony Awards (and a 2019 winner for best choreography), the jukebox musical Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations explores the legendary Motown band’s extraordinary journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame while racking up 42 Top Ten hits and 14 number ones during a decade of civil unrest in America.

The historic Walnut Street Theater — America’s oldest theater — presents Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, the Tony Award for Best Play-winning production that tells the story of two American marriages as George and Martha invite the young and naive Nick and Honey over for a late-night party and the comedic and profound events that follow. Matinee performances on select Sundays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Friday, January 12, 2024 | 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

You’ve never heard Coldplay songs or seen a show like this. The Listeso String Quartet brings incredible string arrangements of tracks like Clocks, Speed of Sound, Yellow and A Sky Full of Stars to the Independence Seaport Museum stage for Candlelight: Tribute to Coldplay, a multi-sensory musical experience as part of the Candlelight Concerts series where the lights are off and thousands of candles illuminate the venue creating a serene atmosphere to enhance your listening and viewing experience. Seating is first-come, first-served in each designated zone, with two shows available.

Head on out for a night of psychedelic soul and hip-hop with a hot and cool new school/old school double bill with Black Pumas and Digable Planets as they perform hits like Colors and Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat) for a high-energy show at Fishtown’s The Fillmore Philadelphia.

Multiple Grammy-nominated and Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning actor, producer, director, bestselling author and comedian Craig Ferguson — whom you may know best as the pre-Cordon host of CBS’ The Late Late Show for a decade — brings his hilarious The Fancy Rascal Tour to The Event Center at Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia at the South Philadelphia Sports Complex district.

Are you right here waiting for Jessie’s girl? Then you better come out to Xcite Center at Parx Casino for a two-headed night of ’80s hits performed acoustically by Gen X heartthrobs Rick Springfield and Richard Marx. Come sing along with unplugged versions of classics like Don’t Talk to Strangers, Don’t Mean Nothing, Love Somebody, Hazard and, yes, Jessie’s Girl and Right Here Waiting as well as tracks from their latest releases Automatic and Songwriter, respectively.

After a medical emergency forced her to postpone her summer 2023 dates, the Queen of Pop is ready to host a musical celebration … The Celebration Tour, that is. Condensing four decades of hits and still-sexy style into one epic night of music, Madonna traces her musical and fashion evolution during this personal retrospective tour featuring nearly 40 songs marking 40 years, from Everybody and Lucky Star to I Don’t Search I Find and Living for Love.

Singular among requiem masses is Johannes Brahms’ composition written after the death of his mother, with its emphasis on those left behind and the joy of remembrance. Right from its opening phrase, you’ll be transported to 19th-century Europe as the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and featuring preeminent violinist Gil Shaham, performs Brahms’s German Requiem, part of a show which also includes two newer works, Mason Bates’ Violin Concerto No. 2 and Luis Ernesto Peña Laguna’s Oraison.

Dates vary by game

It’s a big month at Wells Fargo Center for the 76ers with seven important home games including a day-after-New-Year’s skirmish with the Chicago Bulls (Tuesday, January 2, 2024), a big divisional matchup with the rival New York Knicks (Friday, January 5, 2024) and five consecutive cross-conference home tilts with Western Conference foes highlighted by a Tuesday, January 16, 2024 date with the defending NBA Champion Denver Nuggets.

Dates vary by game

The Flyers’ new era of orange enters 2024 with nine home games throughout January at Wells Fargo Center that include important divisional matchups with the Columbus Blue Jackets (Thursday, January 4, 2024) and Pittsburgh Penguins (Monday, January 8, 2024), and a run of three key intra-conference meetings with the Ottawa Senators (Sunday, January 21, 2024), Tampa Bay Lightning (Tuesday, January 23, 2024) and Boston Bruins (Saturday, January 27, 2024) that lead up to the mid-season All-Star break.

Dates vary by game

Professional indoor lacrosse is back at the Wells Fargo Center for the 29th year as the Philadelphia Wings of the National Lacrosse League and stars like Blaze Riorden, Joe Resetarits and Mitch Jones light up the box and snare rope in three home turf clashes this month with the New York Riptide (Sunday, January 7, 2024), Saskatchewan Rush (Saturday, January 13, 2024) and San Diego Seals (Saturday, January 27, 2024).