When the Rink Opens, the Pool Closes: How West Hollywood Park Changes Hands for December

The WeHo Winter Ice Rink returns to the Great Lawn at West Hollywood Park from Friday, December 11, 2026, through Sunday, January 3, 2027. Tickets are already on sale. The pool calendar runs on a matching schedule. The rooftop West Hollywood Aquatic Center has a full-day closure on every date from Monday, December 14, through Sunday, January 3. Ice on the lawn and no water upstairs fill almost the same block of dates. For the rest of the year the park runs pool, library and lawn side by side. In December it runs on a different schedule, and the change takes place over one weekend.

The handoff weekend, December 10 to 14

The switch starts before the rink opens. Here is how the five days line up at the park complex, using the City's published schedules:

1. Thursday, December 10. The pool closes at 3 p.m. for staff appreciation.
2. Friday, December 11. The rink's Grand Opening starts at 4 p.m. The Rainbow District Winter Market brings local vendors, artists and makers to the park from 4 to 9 p.m.
3. Saturday, December 12. WeHo Winter Wonderland runs from noon to 3 p.m., and the market is back from 4 to 9 p.m. The pool is closed all day for the special event.
4. Sunday, December 13. The pool closes at 11 a.m. so the Polar Plunge Pool Party can take over from noon to 2 p.m., with games, crafts and giveaways on the deck. The market's last day runs from noon to 5 p.m.
5. Monday, December 14. The pool's three-week closure begins.

The Polar Plunge is the last pool event of 2026. It falls the day before the Aquatic Center goes dark for the rest of the rink season.

Lap swimmers lose more than those three weeks. The pool calendar shows full-day closures on November 11 for Veterans Day and on November 26 and 27 for Thanksgiving. It closes at 11 a.m. on November 28 and 29, and at 3 p.m. on November 30 for West Hollywood Day. The Aquatic Center has two pools on the roof: a 10-lane, 25-yard competition pool and a recreation pool that runs from 3 feet 6 inches to 7 feet deep. Both look out toward Downtown Los Angeles and the Hollywood Hills. Swimmers need to register in advance through the City's ActiveNet system.

Rink hours against everything else on the block

Skating comes in 90-minute sessions, and the rink opens at different times on different days. Sessions run from 4 to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 2 to 9:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and noon to 9:30 p.m. on weekends. The rest of the park and the boulevard keep their own hours, and the overlaps decide what a skate session can be combined with.

On a weekday afternoon, a visit to the Library can lead straight into skating. Its two current exhibitions stay up into 2027: one through late January and the other through late June. The table also shows that The PickUp is not running on Thursdays. Its Thursday service runs from March through October only, so this winter the free Santa Monica Boulevard ride covers Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons and evenings. Its route between La Brea and Robertson includes stops at San Vicente and at La Peer/Robertson, both close to the park.

On weeknights, the City's free Cityline service fills part of the gap. Cityline Commuter runs Monday through Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m. at about 20-minute intervals, and Cityline Local runs Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at about 30-minute intervals.

Tickets cost $15 to $20 per session for ages 3 to 15 and $20 to $25 for ages 16 and older. Skate rental is included. Sessions are booked through wehoicerink.com, and groups of 10 or more can arrange private events or group sales with the rink operator.

What a session costs to park

The West Hollywood Park structure at 625 N. San Vicente Boulevard is open from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. The first hour is free, then it costs $1 per 15 minutes up to a $12 maximum. A 90-minute session runs past the free hour on its own. Here is how it adds up:

• One session with time to lace up, about two hours in the garage: $4.
• A session plus an hour at the Winter Market or dinner nearby, about three hours: $8.
• Four hours or more: $12, the daily maximum.

Those figures only matter for drivers. For anyone within walking distance, the stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard around the park offers more to do before and after a session than the garage math suggests.

Before the ice and after it, along Santa Monica Boulevard

The newest daytime stop on the boulevard is The Front Porch, a coffee shop opened by the Men's Health Foundation in the former Coffee Bean space at 8735 Santa Monica Boulevard, at Hancock Avenue. It soft-opened on September 30, and WEHO Times reported that it would be open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dr. Anthony Mills told the paper he wanted "a space where people can congregate and meet, not necessarily to go and dance, but a place that you would go to meet your friends and share a coffee." On Thursday and Friday, a 2 p.m. session ends before the café's reported 5 p.m. close, so coffee can come after the skate. On Monday through Wednesday, sessions start at 4, so coffee comes first.

For after-skate dinner, WEHO Times reported in September that First Of All, at 8200 Santa Monica Boulevard, had added dinner and bar service Wednesday through Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m. That leaves time for dinner after the last session ends at 9:30 p.m. on those nights.

Closer to the park, Mattie's WeHo sits at Santa Monica and N. San Vicente boulevards. According to WEHO Times, the former Rocco's space swapped its old neon for Mattie's signage this spring, and the restaurant, lounge and nightclub serves Italian- and Greek-inspired food with indoor-outdoor seating near the rainbow crosswalk. For something sweet, White Label Cookies opened on June 19 at 8714 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 110, selling its oversized cookies in the Rainbow District. A few blocks east, Erewhon opened at 8550 Santa Monica Boulevard in February with a café, its Tonic Bar and a patio, as Beverly Press reported.

The holidays, when the City's calendars stop matching

The rink stays open on the holidays. It is open from 2 to 9:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Several services around it close on those days:

• The Library closes on holidays.
• Cityline does not run on Christmas Day or New Year's Day.
• The PickUp is the exception, with special service on New Year's Eve.
• The pool remains closed through January 3, including a holiday closure on January 1.

On Christmas Day and New Year's Day, the rink is the only one of these that operates, along with the garage, which runs 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. The City says all skating sessions, special events, dates and times are subject to change, so check the rink site before a holiday visit.

One more park weekend before the lawn turns to ice

There is one event before the rink arrives. The free Next Chapter Writers' Summit & Book Fair takes place Saturday, November 14, across the Library, the Aquatic and Recreation Center and the park. After that, the park has about four weeks of its usual routine before the Great Lawn becomes a rink and the roof pool closes for the holidays.

At The Carrabba Group, we follow West Hollywood's calendar as closely as its market, and we're happy to share what we know about the blocks around West Hollywood Park whenever it helps. If you'd like to talk about life near the park, reach out and work with us.