The first set piece of the Natchitoches Christmas Festival in Louisiana was a six-foot "Star of the East," credited to Max Burgdorf, the city's superintendent of utilities, who bought enough 10-watt bulbs to string along Front Street and make a set piece for the riverbank. The festival was first presented in 1927. This season, Natchitoches is billing it as the 100th Natchitoches Christmas Festival.
Here is how we picked them. Each town hosts a recurring public holiday lights event in which the lights themselves are the main draw. Each tradition has a documented beginning, a start year or decade published by the organizer, the town, or a reputable news or history source. And each has published dates for the 2026 holiday season. We list them by when the tradition began, oldest first.
Natchitoches, Louisiana
More than 100 set pieces are displayed along the east side of Cane River Lake, and more than 300,000 lights come on every night at dusk. The season begins on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and ends on January 6, the Epiphany. In 2026 that means November 21, 2026, to January 6, 2027. Fireworks joined the festival in 1936, and the shows now run every Saturday from the Saturday before Thanksgiving until New Year's Eve. Food vendors along the riverbank sell the Natchitoches meat pie.
McAdenville, North Carolina
In 1956 the McAdenville Men's Club and W. J. Pharr used red, white and green lights to decorate the trees around the McAdenville Community Center. The town now gets approximately half a million visitors between December 1 and 26 each year. In 2026 the lights shine December 1 to 26, from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. each night, and the Tree Lighting Ceremony, where children usher in the season, is December 1 at 5:30 p.m. at Dynamo 31, 102 Main Street. You can walk or drive through downtown to see the lights. The Yule Log Parade, which began in 1949, is December 10; the town suggests arriving early at 100 Main Street, near the Yule Log on the vintage sled.
Leavenworth, Washington
Leavenworth made its transition to a Bavarian-themed village in the early 1960s and celebrated its first Christmas Lighting Festival in 1966. The town no longer flips the switch at a set time on weekends. Instead, it keeps the lights on: over half a million of them, from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, every day from Thanksgiving through the end of February. The town says you can come any day of the week during that roughly three-month stretch to see them. The 2026 Christmastown festivities run November 27 to December 24. The schedule lists Christmas carolers roaming downtown from 5:00 to 7:00 PM, December 1 through 23. The Christmastown FAQ says December is very busy and weekend parking tends to fill fast. The free Link Bus runs from its park and ride location behind Safeway into town from about 11 in the morning to 7 at night, seven days a week.
The Woodlands, Texas
The Lighting of the Doves ceremony was established in 1982, initially in Grogan's Mill with the illumination of three large doves symbolizing peace and goodwill. The 2026 Lighting of the Doves Festival is Saturday, November 21, from 3 to 8 p.m. at Town Green Park, 2099 Lake Robbins Drive. The festival has snow play areas, vendor booths, children's activities and strolling entertainment, and it culminates with Santa Claus arriving by sleigh. Holiday on The Waterway, with more than one million lights along The Woodlands Waterway at 31 Waterway Square Place, runs November 21 to January 3 and is free.
Wheeling, West Virginia
The Festival of Lights began at Oglebay Park in 1985 and soon spread throughout the city of Wheeling. In its first year, displays and landscape lighting covered 125 acres over a three-mile drive. The show now covers more than 300 acres over a six-mile drive through the park. The 2026 festival runs November 5, 2026, to January 3, 2027, and the drive-through show is lit nightly from dusk to midnight, holidays included. Oglebay says car wait times are shorter Monday through Wednesday. Take that advice.
St. Augustine, Florida
Nights of Lights began in 1993 as a way to boost tourism in the winter months, inspired by the Spanish practice of placing a single white candle in the window during the Christmas season. More than three million white lights now decorate Historic Downtown St. Augustine, including the Bridge of Lions. The 2026 season runs from Saturday, November 21, 2026, through Monday, January 18, 2027, and it starts on November 21 with a lighting ceremony in the Plaza de la Constitucion that begins at 4 p.m.; the lights go on around 6:30 p.m. Nights of Lights is free, with no ticket required.
Wheeling's festival opens on November 5. Natchitoches, The Woodlands and St. Augustine each start their 2026 season on November 21. If December is your only window, McAdenville's lights shine December 1 to 26, and Leavenworth's stay up through the end of February. Where You LIVE.