Friday marked opening night for Fantasy of Lights at Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven, which is now marking 31 years as a Connecticut holiday tradition.

With all proceeds going towards Goodwill of Southern New England, this year's event features 59 different light displays.

"You'll see Santa, there's some lobsters, I mean, you'll see some elves," said Julia Gritzbach, event coordinator for Fantasy of Light. "There's a lot of things for everyone."

Many of the displays are right on the water. The event opens to the public nightly at 5 p.m.

"We've been waiting for it to get a little dark out, so, yeah, he's excited," said Leisa Gonzalez, of East Haven, pointing to her 3-year-old son in the back seat.

The whole thing takes about 15 minutes in the car.

"The kids are loving it," said Louis Church, of Killingworth. "I mean this is [my daughter's] first time - we had her up front in the seat, and she had a blast."

With the event now having run for over three decades, many of the attendees are children of people like Gonzalez, who say they used to come here every holiday season when they were little.

"It's bittersweet, time flies, and I'm excited to show him what I did as a child," she said.

To help add to the festive mood, the event has it set up so that if customers turn their radio to 87.9 FM, holiday music plays during the drive-thru as well.

"It's a good thing to do, and I think the world needs it in general, so to have this little part of the world with the people that come down here? Yeah, beautiful," said Danny Scarpellino, who was there with his grandchildren.

"This is great, I hope it never goes away," agreed Church.

Fantasy of Lights will be open every night - even Thanksgiving and Christmas - through Dec. 31.