Morrisville's Festival of Lights Starts After Dark This Year

Last December, Morrisville's Festival of Lights ran from morning to midafternoon. The Saturday program on December 13, 2025 had Santa photos, cookie decorating, wagon rides and a "Nutcracker" preview. Once it got dark, the plan was to drive around town and vote in the holiday lights contest.

The 2026 festival has its biggest event after dark. It opens Friday, December 11, with a glow run on the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail at 5:30 p.m. and a parade at 6, and the evening ends with a tree lighting at Oxbow Park. That's the same week the town's lit displays come on each night at 5:30. Most of this year's festival takes place after the sun goes down.

The Evening Is Back at the Center

The festival had evening events before. For the 18th annual festival, the Morrisville Alliance for Culture and Commerce, known as MACC, listed a 4 p.m. holiday parade from Peoples Academy to Oxbow Park, followed by a tree lighting and a Fire Amusement show, according to News & Citizen's schedule. The 20th annual festival started its parade at 4:30. Carols around the tree were led by the Hyde Park Elementary School chorus, News & Citizen reported.

In both of those years the parade came at the end of a long Saturday, when the light was already fading. Last year's 25th festival listed a daytime program that ended at 3 p.m. This year it gets its own evening and its own theme, "Winter Wonder Around the World." MACC describes the theme as a look at how cultures around the world celebrate the season "through music, stories, traditions, food, and, of course, lights."

Friday, December 11, in Order

The 5K and the parade are timed half an hour apart. Here's how the evening runs:

1. 4:30 p.m. Race-day bib pickup opens at the Town Offices in the Tegu Building, 43 Portland St.
2. 5:30 p.m. The Festival of Lights 5K starts at the top of Portland Street.
3. 6:00 p.m. The parade steps off.
4. After the parade Oxbow Park has the 5K finish, community songs and the tree lighting. MACC's town listing runs the evening to 8 p.m.

Runners and parade-goers end up in the same place. The race finishes at Oxbow Riverfront Park, and that's also where the parade crowd gathers for the tree. The race page says shops and restaurants downtown will be open that night and suggests making a whole evening of it.

The Race That Lights Up the Rail Trail

The 5K is the newest part of the festival. It was created by Shelby, a local ultrarunner who finished fourth at the Vermont 100. It's hosted by Big Cat Running and produced in partnership with MACC. On the race's registration page, she explains why she started it:

"I've always thought it deserved a night where the whole town comes out to enjoy it."

She's talking about the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail, and she calls the race her "small attempt to spice up the running scene in Morrisville and give us all a reason to be outside together in December."

The course is 3.11 miles out and back. It goes down Portland Street, turns right onto the rail trail, follows the river east to a turnaround and comes back to finish at Oxbow Park. The route map shows a 24-foot climb and a 64-foot drop, so it's about as flat as a December course in Lamoille County gets. Organizers will put lights and luminaries along the trail. Headlamps are required, and glowsticks are strongly encouraged.

The race page says the trail is usually packed snow in December, so bring traction if you like it. It also says the race goes on "rain, snow, or shine." At the finish there's s'mores, hot cocoa, music and awards. The top three male and female finishers get prize bags, and the winners of each age group, from 19 and under to 70 and over, get goodies.

The date works with the trail calendar too. The state's rail trail page opens the snowmobile season on December 16, five days after the race. Snowshoers, Nordic skiers and dog sledders already use the trail in winter.

Eleven Nights at the Same Hour

The Holiday Lights Contest is what links the Friday program to the rest of December. Under the town's 2026 contest rules, registered homes and businesses keep their displays lit every day from December 10 through 20, 5:30 to 9 p.m. That's the same hour the 5K starts. The official Holiday Lights Map and community voting go live December 10. Voting closes at midnight on December 20, and winners are announced December 21 on Facebook and the town website.

So on festival Friday, the second night of the contest, the map is up and the displays are on when the parade starts. The 2026 categories are based on the festival theme and on America's 250th anniversary. The town's registration page asks for entries by December 6 at midnight.

Last year's results show what kinds of displays did well. Charlmont Restaurant at 116 VT Route 15 won both business categories, "Hometown for the Holidays" and "Most Festive Window or Business Front Display." Union Bank at 20 Lower Main St. and Rogue Herbalist at 34 Pleasant St. were close behind. On the residential side, a display on Washington Highway won the overall theme category. A Golf Course Road display won the Clark Griswold Award, which goes to the most lights, the biggest display and the "boldest holiday enthusiasm." One of the 2025 winners was on Fitch Hill Road in Hyde Park. The town accepted that entry because the rules didn't limit the contest to Morristown addresses.

Saturday Keeps the Daylight Program

The festival's second day runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 12. It has horse-wagon rides, ballet performances, s'mores, family activities, and winter traditions from other countries to go with the theme. Several of these have been part of the festival for years. Horse rides at Oxbow Park were on the 18th and 20th annual schedules, and so were dance performances. Saturday also ends an hour later than last year's 3 p.m. finish. Families who come back after the Friday tree lighting have time to stay into dusk, and the lit displays come back on at 5:30.

River Arts at 74 Pleasant St. has two holiday classes scheduled around the festival weekend. "Handmade for the Holidays: DIY Gift Packaging" with Kristen Murphy runs Wednesday, December 2, 4 to 6 p.m., for $45. "Season's Greetings I Handmade Cards" meets on Sundays, December 6 and 13, noon to 1:30 p.m., for $45 for both sessions. The second session is the day after the festival ends.

MACC's Festival of Lights page is the place to check for parade lineup and the Saturday activity locations as they're posted. If your house is going on the map this year, it'll need to be lit by 5:30 p.m. on December 10.

At Grant Wieler, we pay attention to the town calendar as well as the market. Whether you're running Portland Street with a headlamp on December 11 or plugging in the porch lights for the contest, we'd love to see you at Oxbow Park for the tree lighting.