The Bloc Welcomes the Season With a Free ‘Sparkle Holiday Event'

There are so many merry ways to make a display dazzle.

If you are in charge of flipping the switch on a living room lighting installation or the bulbs lining your patio, you might go a few different routes.

Yelling out "3, 2, 1!" surely gets the family excited, as does "lights, camera, action!"

But here is a truth everyone will acknowledge: A grand switch-flipping is made even grander when goodies and good times are involved.

Those elements will be very much in party-ready place when The Bloc, the shopping-and-more destination, turns on all of its twinkle-twinkle lights exactly one week ahead of Thanksgiving.

For sure, the lights are a snazzy show on their illuminated own; sculptural walk-through pieces, glittery orbs, and glowing trees add stunning backdrops to impromptu snapshots and moments of peaceful reflection.

There are moments of high energy, too: The interactive lights are coordinated with music at specific times each evening, upping the magical factor; you can see the nightly schedule here.

But before that can begin, there shall be a grand lighting ceremony on Thursday, Nov. 17.

The Bloc's Sparkle Holiday Event is the main event that evening, starting off Sparkle DTLA in let's-get-this-season-going style.

Hot cocoa will keep tummies toasty, while Café Balzac and Starbucks will have the noshy goodies. Want to decorate a marshmallow snowman? There's a cart for that.

And pulling at sweet strands of cotton candy swirled around a light-up LED stick? That's will lend playful panache to the scene, too.

Grand Arts High School students will also perform at the spectacular off 7th Street.

No one says that your shopping has to be done, or even started, by the middle of November, but take a look at some of the store specials happening in honor of the celebration.

The celebratory start to Sparkle DTLA is free, and it begins at 5 o'clock for a twinkly two-hour run.