The first Wake Forest holiday date to put on your calendar is a Monday morning. Registration for Pictures with Santa opens Monday, Nov. 9, at 10 a.m. The Town says slots are limited and advance registration is required. That comes four days after this post goes up, nearly four weeks before Santa shows up downtown, and twelve days before the season officially kicks off.
After that, the Town's 2026 schedule puts most of the season into one stretch. From 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, to 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5, there's a tree lighting, the downtown open house, an artisans market, Santa photos and the first night of the Joyner Park light walk. If you plan around those 28 hours and the two November dates before them, you've planned most of the Town's holiday season.
Nov. 9 at 10 a.m. is the one date you can't miss
Most events on the schedule are free and need no planning. Pictures with Santa works differently. The photos are taken at the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce, 350 S. White St., during the Downtown Holiday Open House on Saturday, Dec. 5. The Town set up reservations to cut down on waiting: each one gives you a time to arrive at the line, so you aren't standing in it all morning.
Here's how it runs, according to the Town's Pictures With Santa page:
- Registration opens Monday, Nov. 9, at 10 a.m., and slots are limited.
- Your reservation shows when to arrive at the line on Dec. 5.
- The photos are taken at the Chamber during the Open House.
- Pictures are available after 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 9.
If you plan to go, it helps to know your Dec. 5 schedule before Nov. 9, since your arrival time will decide how the rest of that Saturday goes.
Nov. 21 closes two downtown streets for nine hours
The Wake Forest Cares Holiday Kick-Off runs Saturday, Nov. 21, from noon to 4 p.m. downtown. It's free and open to everyone, with activities for families. It also starts the Town's annual Holiday Donation Drive.
The street closures run much longer than the event. East Owen Avenue and South White Street between Elm Avenue and Jones Avenue close at 9 a.m., and the Town expects them to reopen by 6 p.m. If you drive through that part of downtown on a Saturday for errands, coffee or a lunch reservation, you'll be detouring from mid-morning until after dark.
The Town has named six food and dessert vendors for this year:
- Golden K Dog
- La Katrina Tacos
- Not Just a Fry Guy
- The Tasty Turkey Que
- Mr. Cannoli
- Dusty Donuts
The donation drive supports six Town-sponsored programs: Helping Others by Providing Electricity, also called HOPE; the Northern Community Food Security Team; Shop with a Cop; the Wake Forest Center for Active Aging Scholarship Program; the Wake Forest Firefighters Foundation; and the Wake Forest Parks, Recreation & Cultural Resources Scholarship Program. You can give through the Town's online donation form, which is linked from the Kick-Off page.
For parking, the Kick-Off page sends people to free lots at the Wake Forest Center for Active Aging and to several lots on the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary campus. The Town says all of them are within a 15-minute walk of South White Street. The page also lists accessible parking in the Town Hall lot at 301 S. Brooks St. from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It warns that some lots that look public are private and meant only for business customers, so read the signs. The parking map linked on the page still carries 2025 labels, and the Town says the event map will be updated to the 2026 version soon. Check the page again the week of the event.
Gobbler's Run comes five days later, on Thanksgiving morning, Thursday, Nov. 26. It runs from 8 to 10:30 a.m. and starts and finishes at the Wake Forest Boys & Girls Club, 325 S. Wingate St.
The 28 hours from Dec. 4 to Dec. 5
This is the core of the season. Everything except the Joyner Park walk happens within a few blocks of Town Hall. On Saturday the events overlap, and the Joyner Park walk opens just as the downtown events end.
| When | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Fri., Dec. 4, 5–8 p.m. | Lighting of Wake Forest | Centennial Plaza, 301 S. Brooks St. |
| Fri., Dec. 4, about 6:15 p.m. | Town Christmas tree is lit | Centennial Plaza |
| Sat., Dec. 5, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. | Downtown Holiday Open House | Downtown Wake Forest |
| Sat., Dec. 5, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. | Holiday Artisans Market | Town Hall Centennial Plaza and visitor parking lot |
| Sat., Dec. 5, by reservation | Pictures with Santa | Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce, 350 S. White St. |
| Sat., Dec. 5, 6–9 p.m. | Evening Holiday Walk opens | E. Carroll Joyner Park, 701 Harris Road |
Friday night. The Lighting of Wake Forest runs three hours, but the main moment comes early. The Town says the tree is usually lit at about 6:15 p.m. The evening also includes choral performances from local groups, a visit from Santa and food vendors. If you have young children with an early bedtime, plan to arrive around 6.
Saturday daytime. The Open House is the Town's yearly push to send holiday shoppers to downtown's independent shops and restaurants, and it's free. The Holiday Artisans Market, presented by ARTS Wake Forest and the Wake Forest Guild of Artists, closes two hours before the Open House does. The Town says this year's market has more than 40 artists and artisans selling pottery, jewelry, painting and drawing, fabric art, photography, sculpture, woodworking, candles and soaps, glass art and home décor.
The market is in Town Hall's visitor parking lot, the same lot the Town listed for accessible parking on Kick-Off day. On Dec. 5 it holds vendor tents instead of cars, so plan on parking somewhere else that Saturday. The Town's Open House page says 2026 details are coming soon. The shop specials and pop-ups listed there now are from last year's event, so check back before Dec. 5.
Saturday night. The Open House ends at 6 p.m., and the Evening Holiday Walk at Joyner Park opens for its first night at 6 p.m. The walk is free. It covers the park's Walker Garden and Performance Garden, with lights on the crepe myrtles and shrubs and a Christmas tree nearly 20 feet tall on the Performance Garden stage. It runs 6 to 9 p.m. every night through Thursday, Dec. 31.
Opening night is one of 27. If Dec. 5 is already full, the walk is open every evening after that through New Year's Eve.
Where to eat between events
Downtown restaurants stay open around the events. According to Wake Forest Journal's breakfast and coffee guide, updated Oct. 12, 2026, these are the regular hours for some spots within walking distance of Centennial Plaza. They are standard hours, not holiday hours.
- Wake Forest Coffee Company, 156 S. White St., opens at 8 a.m. on weekends, two hours before the Open House starts, and stays open until 8 p.m.
- Black & White Coffee Roasters, 314 Brooks St., is open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
- The Lemon Tree, 415-C Brooks St., is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
- Norse Brewing Company, 203 Brooks St., is open until 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, so it's still open after Friday's tree lighting ends at 8.
- Sugar Magnolia Café, 219 S. White St., has varying hours and is closed Mondays.
The Town's downtown food and beverage map also lists Shorty's Famous Hot Dogs at 214 S. White St., White Street Brewing Co. at 218 S. White St., George's Pizzeria at 238 S. White St., and Lil Hombre Smoked Taco Joint and The Cardinal Bar, both at 535 S. White St. It also lists Las Mas Mexican Food & Cantina at 111 S. White St. Wake Forest Journal describes Las Mas as the downtown cantina that ran for 26 years as Las Margaritas.
The smaller December dates
After the first weekend in December, the Town's schedule slows down. It lists Calls from Santa on Thursday, Dec. 10, from 6 to 8 p.m., and the Snowball Dance on Friday, Dec. 11, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Joyner Park Community Center, 701 Harris Road.
The Town's 2026 holiday schedule doesn't list a Christmas parade. Wake Forest Journal says the main downtown gatherings this year are the Kick-Off on Nov. 21, the tree lighting on Dec. 4 and the Open House on Dec. 5, and it plans to add a parade if one is announced.
For the town's own calendar, that leaves three dates to plan around: Nov. 9 at 10 a.m. if you want Santa photos, Nov. 21 if you drive through downtown on a Saturday, and the Dec. 4–5 weekend for everything else. Joyner Park stays lit every night through Dec. 31.
I keep track of downtown Wake Forest's calendar because it affects how this town feels to the people who live here and to people thinking about moving here. If you're making a decision about Wake Forest this season, I'd love to hear from you. Call Tammy at Alexander Realty, and I'll share what I'm seeing downtown and in the neighborhoods around it.