Palmer's Holiday Season This Year: What's Back, What's Changed, and the Dates to Know
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
For the past two Decembers, an evening at the Alaska State Fairgrounds could mean a carousel ride, a bonfire, live holiday music and a cup of mulled wine. In 2024 the Fair launched the Yuletide Festival with The Christmas Factory. It offered carnival rides, food trucks, drinks and live music, plus a bonfire, and the Fair pitched it as a way to tie its Christmas events together. It came back in 2025 with beer, hot spiced cider and mocktails, along with carousel and slide rides.
This year the Fair's Bright Up the Night page says it in one line: "Please note the Yuletide Festival is not happening 2026."
That one change reshapes Palmer's December. The Fairgrounds' evening offering goes back to a drive-through light show, and the walk-around part of the season moves downtown to Colony Christmas, held again on the second weekend of December. The weekend to plan around is Dec. 10–13. Here's how the calendar fits together, starting with the part that changed most.
Bright Up the Night is back. The Fair calls it Alaska's largest drive-through holiday light display, with more than 70 light installations and a holiday radio station to tune in while you drive the loop. A standard vehicle costs $22, and online purchases carry convenience fees.
The schedule has shifted a bit from 2025:
| 2025 season | 2026 season | |
|---|---|---|
| Opening stretch | Thanksgiving weekend, then Fridays through Sundays until Dec. 7 | Nov. 26 to Dec. 6, Thursdays through Sundays |
| Nightly stretch | Daily from Dec. 11 through year-end | Daily from Dec. 10 through Jan. 2 |
| Hours | 5 to 9 p.m. | |
| Yuletide add-on | Three date blocks in December | Not happening |
The 2025 dates come from the Mat-Su Sentinel's Thanksgiving weekend roundup, and the 2026 dates come from the Fair's page, updated Sept. 30. This year's version adds Thursdays to the early weeks, starts nightly operation a day earlier, and runs two days into January. Opening night lands on Thanksgiving itself, Nov. 26.
The Fair hasn't said why Yuletide is off, and it hasn't announced anything to replace it. One practical note: the ticket link and route map on the Fair's page still carry 2025 labels, so check with the Fair before you buy.
Last year Colony Christmas ran Friday through Sunday, Dec. 12–14. In 2026 it runs Friday, Dec. 11 through Sunday, Dec. 13. The vendor market is open these hours:
The Parade of Lights is set for Saturday, Dec. 12 at 5 p.m., and this year's theme is "Generations of Christmas Joy." MEA is listed as the parade sponsor.
The Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce lists these activities for the weekend: town hayrides, a Gingerbread Contest, a Cornhole Tournament, Cookie Contests, the parade, fireworks and several craft fairs. The sponsorship menu names two market locations, the Borough Gym Vendor Market and the Train Depot Vendor Market. The Chamber describes the event as one that draws thousands of residents and visitors downtown.
The Chamber hasn't released event-by-event times yet, and part of its page still says details "will be announced soon." For reference, last year's fireworks started at 7 p.m., right after the parade. They launched from the Palmer Public Library parking lot and could be seen from anywhere downtown. Santa and reindeer visited Borough Gym and the Palmer Depot building on Saturday and Sunday. Those are 2025 details. The 2026 schedule may differ.
Put the two schedules next to each other and they overlap. Bright Up the Night goes nightly on Thursday, Dec. 10. Colony Christmas opens downtown the next morning. Saturday, Dec. 12 holds the busiest stack of the season: market hours until 8 p.m., the Parade of Lights at 5 p.m., and the Fairgrounds lights running 5 to 9 p.m. a short drive away.
In 2025 these events ran on separate tracks. Yuletide had its own Friday-to-Sunday blocks at the Fairgrounds, Dec. 5–7, Dec. 12–14 and Dec. 19–23, from 5 to 10 p.m. This year that whole block of Fairgrounds evenings is gone. The festival-style programming in December, meaning markets, food, contests, a parade and fireworks, now sits on Colony Christmas weekend. If you've got guests coming in December and want them to see the full Palmer holiday lineup, Dec. 11–13 is the weekend to book them.
If you follow downtown, you may remember last year's tree scramble. Palmer's community Christmas tree, a roughly 15-foot tree planted next to the library in 2013 in partnership with Matanuska Valley Federal Credit Union, the Chamber and the city, was found to be diseased and was removed during the library demolition in July 2025.
The Mat-Su Sentinel reported how the replacement came together. Jacobson's Greenhouse in Wasilla donated a temporary tree of about 10 feet, and the Chamber coordinated it. Chamber Director Kelly Shoemake told the paper, "We have the lights all pulled out — white and Palmer blue." The city helped supply power for the lights after Community Development Director Nathanial Outzs learned the Chamber already had a tree lined up. A separate water tower lighting was scheduled just before the Dec. 13 parade.
Plans for a tree in 2026 haven't been announced. At the time of that article, construction of the new public library was expected to start in early 2026 and finish in early 2027. That would make this December the second holiday season with the library site in transition. Fireworks launched from the library lot in 2025, so this year's fireworks location is one more detail to watch for when the Chamber posts its schedule.
With the December events concentrated into one weekend, the fall calendar holds most of the season's other outings. Here's what's on, in order.
The second Vintage Market weekend lines up with Bright Up the Night's opening stretch. Starting Thanksgiving night, the lights run Thursday through Sunday, so on Nov. 27–29 the Fairgrounds hosts the market and the light show on the same days. That makes the Friday after Thanksgiving an easy day to pair market shopping with a drive through the lights.
Oct. 10 is the other busy date. The studio tour and the first Holiday Bazaar weekend fall on the same Saturday, which is six days from now.
Calendars like this one are part of what makes Palmer feel like home, whether you've been here for decades or you're planning a move from the Lower 48 and want a feel for the Valley's year. If you have questions about Palmer or anywhere in the Mat-Su, Tanya Lieberman is always happy to talk, with early-morning hours for clients on East Coast time. Let's Connect.
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