Christmas in Las Vegas is quieter than most visitors picture, and the big shows don't take the day off. O at Bellagio, Shin Lim at the Palazzo, Blue Man Group at Luxor and Tournament of Kings at Excalibur all perform on Christmas Day 2026. The city's actual Christmas shows sit on either side of it: Creedmas at Fontainebleau on December 11 and 12, Debbie Gibson's Winterlicious at The STRAT from December 17 to 20, and Derek Hough's Dance for the Holidays back at Fontainebleau on December 29. Here's the month in date order, starting with the lights.
The lights: Bellagio's conservatory and Glittering Lights
The Strip's own Christmas centerpiece is indoors. The Bellagio Conservatory trades its fall garden for a holiday display every winter, and our Bellagio Christmas display guide walks through it alongside the Venetian's atrium. The biggest light show is out of town. Glittering Lights fills a three-mile course at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, about 10 minutes north of downtown, with more than six million LEDs, and its 2026 season runs from November 6 to January 3. It's the 26th year. Part of every ticket goes to Speedway Children's Charities.
Creedmas at Fontainebleau: Creed's Christmas, December 11 and 12
Creed - Creedmas brings the original four, Scott Stapp, Mark Tremonti, Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips, to BleauLive Theater at Fontainebleau Las Vegas for a Friday and a Saturday in mid-December. This is Christmas with the amps up. The catalog runs from "Higher" to "With Arms Wide Open," the song that won the band its Grammy, and Tim Montana joins as the special guest. Both nights fall on the closing weekend of the National Finals Rodeo, so the north Strip will be full of cowboy hats.
Where: BleauLive Theater, Fontainebleau Las Vegas, north Strip. Dates: Friday, December 11 and Saturday, December 12. Best for: rock fans who want their Christmas loud.
Debbie Gibson's Winterlicious at The STRAT, December 17 to 20
Debbie Gibson - Winterlicious is a pop Christmas show from someone who wrote her own hits. Gibson was 17 when "Foolish Beat" reached No. 1 in 1988, a song she wrote, produced and sang herself. Winterlicious pairs those 80s hits with holiday songs from her Winterlicious D'Luxe reissue, including a mashup that folds "Out of the Blue" into "Blue Christmas." Five shows over four days, one of them a Sunday matinee, in The STRAT Theater.
Where: The STRAT Theater, The STRAT, north end of the Strip. Dates: Thursday, December 17 to Sunday, December 20. Best for: families, and anyone who still knows the words to "Shake Your Love."
O at Bellagio: Christmas Day on 1.5 million gallons of water
O by Cirque du Soleil performs on Christmas Day at Bellagio, the same resort as the conservatory, so the two make one evening. The show has run since 1998 on a stage built around a pool that holds 1.5 million gallons, and its name is a pun on eau, the French word for water. Divers drop into it from high above, swimmers rise out of it in formation, and the theater seats 1,800. On Christmas night, with the conservatory lit up across the casino, the curtain opens on water and the whole room goes quiet.
Where: O Theatre, Bellagio, center Strip. Dates: plays Christmas Day. Best for: a first Cirque show, and couples.
Shin Lim at the Palazzo: sleight of hand on Christmas night
Shin Lim won America's Got Talent season 13 in 2018, then won the first season of America's Got Talent: The Champions, which means he beat the other winners. Before either, he fooled Penn and Teller on Fool Us twice. His show, Limitless, plays the Palazzo Theatre at the Venetian Resort, and Christmas Day is on its calendar. It's quiet, precise card magic. Nobody sees the move.
Where: Palazzo Theatre, The Venetian Resort, center Strip. Dates: plays Christmas Day. Best for: a family or a date that wants to be fooled.
Tournament of Kings at Excalibur: a holiday dinner with no forks
Tournament of Kings has been jousting in King Arthur's Arena at Excalibur since 1990. Knights on horseback charge across a dirt floor, swords clash, fire goes up, and dinner comes to your seat medieval-style with no utensils at all. It plays Christmas Day too. Kids remember the horses; adults remember eating a whole meal with their hands in public. Our Tournament of Kings review covers the night in full.
Where: King Arthur's Arena, Excalibur, south Strip. Dates: plays Christmas Day. Best for: kids who would rather eat with their hands.
Check Tournament of Kings tickets
Blue Man Group at Luxor: PVC pipes and paint since 2000
Blue Man Group arrived in Las Vegas in January 2000 and plays the Blue Man Theater at Luxor, Christmas Day included. Three bald, silent blue performers play handmade PVC-pipe instruments with flat mallets and drum on paint until it flies. There are no words in it. That makes it the same show for a 6-year-old and a grandparent.
Where: Blue Man Theater, Luxor, south Strip. Dates: plays Christmas Day. Best for: mixed-age families.
Backstreet Boys at Sphere: the weekend after Christmas
Backstreet Boys at Sphere is the Into the Millennium residency, built around the band's 1999 album Millennium. They were the first pop act to headline Sphere, and by August 2026 they had played 47 sold-out shows there to more than 750,000 fans. Partway through the night the band physically flies through the room, the first artists to do that inside the building. Saturday, December 26 and Sunday, December 27 are the Christmas-weekend shows, and the run carries on to New Year's Eve.
Where: Sphere, 255 Sands Avenue, behind the Venetian. Dates: Saturday, December 26 and Sunday, December 27. Best for: anyone who knows every word of "I Want It That Way."
Raiders vs Titans at Allegiant Stadium, December 27
The Las Vegas Raiders host the Tennessee Titans at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday, December 27, two days after Christmas. It's late-season NFL football under a roof, with the city still full of holiday visitors. The stadium sits just west of the south Strip, across Interstate 15 from Mandalay Bay. If the group wants to see the building on a non-game day, our Allegiant Stadium tour guide covers the behind-the-scenes version.
Where: Allegiant Stadium, just west of the south Strip. Dates: Sunday, December 27. Best for: football fans in town for the holiday week.
Derek Hough's Dance for the Holidays, December 29
Derek Hough Dance for the Holidays is one night only at BleauLive Theater, Fontainebleau Las Vegas. Hough won Dancing with the Stars a record six times as a pro and has four Emmys for choreography. The show is directed and choreographed by NappyTabs, Napoleon and Tabitha Dumo, with a full company of dancers working through carols and pop hits. It fills the quiet gap between Christmas and New Year's Eve.
Where: BleauLive Theater, Fontainebleau Las Vegas, north Strip. Dates: Tuesday, December 29. Best for: families and dance fans.
When the answer changes
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are the thin days on the show calendar. Not every headliner works them. Criss Angel MINDFREAK, the Mac King Comedy Magic Show and MJ Live have no Christmas Day performances on sale, so those belong on the 26th or later. If the trip runs through New Year's Eve, our guide to the hotels inside the Strip closure is the next thing to read.
The short version
Spend Christmas in Las Vegas and the big shows are still on: O, Shin Lim, Blue Man Group and Tournament of Kings all perform on December 25, with the holiday concerts clustered in the weeks around it. For everything bookable day by day from December 23 to 27, see our Christmas week in Las Vegas page, which pulls from what is actually bookable. It updates as shows sell.
