Holiday light shows
Sell holiday light show tickets by time slot, per car or per person
Keep traffic moving on your busiest nights. Sell per-vehicle or per-person tickets in timed windows, scan cars through in seconds, and stop the backup at the entrance.
How this type of ticketing works
Holiday light shows live or die on entrance flow. A drive-through that sells unlimited walk-up entry ends up with a mile of idling cars; a show that sells timed slots online keeps the line short and the reviews good.
TixSimple lets you sell per-vehicle tickets (car, van, limo, bus) or per-person tickets for walk-through displays, each in a capacity-capped arrival window. Guests show a QR code through the window and staff scan from a phone, even with gloves on in the cold.
What to set up in TixSimple
- 1Create one event per season with each show night as a date.
- 2Add per-vehicle ticket types (Standard Car, Van/SUV, 15-Passenger, Bus) or per-person types for walk-throughs.
- 3Set timed arrival windows every 15 or 30 minutes with a cap per window.
- 4Price peak nights higher than weeknights with separate ticket types per date.
- 5Add extras: hot cocoa packs, s'mores kits, VIP early entry, and donations.
- 6Create scanner keys for each entrance lane so you can compare lane throughput.
Fee example: Per-vehicle ticket for a standard car
A $30 ticket carries a TixSimple platform fee of $0.72 (1.3% + $0.33). If you sell 900 tickets, the total platform fee is $648. Stripe processing is separate and you choose whether to pass fees to the buyer or absorb them.
Ticket price
$30
Platform fee
$0.72
Net revenue
$26,352
Peak nights, upsells and pre-orders
The last two weekends before Christmas usually carry the season. Sell those windows earlier by opening them first, capping them tighter, and pricing them above weeknights. Because each window has its own inventory, you can see exactly where demand lands and add capacity where it sells out.
Merch and concession pre-orders are an easy add: guests pay online and pick up at a window using the same QR code, so you handle less cash in the dark.
- Per-vehicle pricing with separate types by vehicle size
- Peak vs. weeknight pricing per date
- Merch and concession pre-orders picked up by QR
- Multiple entrance lanes tracked separately
Frequently asked questions
Should we sell per car or per person?
Drive-through shows almost always sell per vehicle — it is faster to scan and easier to price. Walk-through displays sell per person with child and senior tiers. You can run both on one page if you have both experiences.
How do we handle rain or closure nights?
Each night is its own date with its own inventory, so you can close a single night and reissue or refund those tickets without touching the rest of the season.
Does scanning work if cell service is weak at the gate?
Scanning needs a connection to validate. Most shows put a phone or tablet on a hotspot at the entrance booth; if you have a dead zone, run the scan point where signal is strongest and check vehicles there.
Can we sell tickets at the gate too?
Yes. Keep a gate-sale ticket type live and take payment on a phone through the same page, so your online and gate counts stay in one report.
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