Santa Monica Pier Ferris Wheel is Lit Up as a Turkey All Thanksgiving

The Pier is open, Pacific Park is closed. And the Ferris wheel is displaying a turkey design for Thanksgiving.

"Pacific Park will be "Talkin' Turkey" on it 90-feet tall Ferris wheel while featuring Fall leaves, colors, patterns and transitions for the Thanksgiving Holiday Week," writes Pier communications manager Cameron Andrews in a press release. He noted that the Pier is now open 24 hours.

So while you cannot ride the ferris wheel, you certainly may want to look at it.

The press release continues:

"Thanksgiving is an annual holiday celebrated on the 4th Thursday in November in the United States. This harvest festival is a time for people to give thanks for the bounty of the season. Thanksgiving is celebrated in several other New World countries including Canada and Brazil. In the U.S., Thanksgiving is traditionally celebrated with a large meal of turkey or ham and many seasonally harvested vegetables such as corn, yams, and cranberries."

"The Pacific Wheel’s 174,000 LED lights are mounted on the Ferris wheel’s structure including the 40 spokes and two hubs. The world’s only solar-powered Ferris wheel’s lighting system features 16.7 million color value combinations while the programming and display software presents imaging up to 24 frames per second to display dynamic, custom, computer-generated lighting entertainment. The eco-friendly, enhanced LED lighting provides 81 percent greater energy savings than most Ferris wheel’s traditional incandescent bulbs."