Only two dates for Midland's 2026 holiday season are on the calendar so far. The tree lighting and market at Centennial Park fall on Tuesday, Dec. 1, and the Christmas Parade follows on Saturday, Dec. 12, at 6:30 p.m. All the other events on the official Midland's Merry Lights schedule say "Dates TBA." That covers the Downtown Holiday Market, Hot Chocolate Nights, carriage rides, MDFM @ Night and Jingle Jump.
In 2025, those unscheduled events made up most of the season. The city held twelve scheduled evenings for Merry Lights, and only the opening tree lighting came before Dec. 12. The other eleven ran from Dec. 12 through Dec. 30, and the lights stayed on into January. If you plan your December around Dec. 1, you're planning around the one night the season looks least like itself.
The Two Fixed Nights
Tuesday, Dec. 1. This is the fourth annual Market at Midland's Merry Lights. The City of Midland and the Midland Downtown Park Conservancy co-host it at Centennial Park, and the program includes a shopping market, food trucks, live performances, Santa photos and the tree lighting. The listed start time depends on which page you read. The park's market page says festivities begin at 5 p.m. and end at 8:30 p.m. The festive market page on the city's event site lists 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The tree lighting page still shows the ceremony time as TBA.
The park's planning numbers show how full that one night is meant to be. Centennial Park planned 34 tent spaces, up to 25 street vendors and up to 15 food trucks, and it projected 10,000 attendees. Vendor applications closed at 5 p.m. on Sept. 30, and approved vendors are supposed to hear back by Oct. 14. No vendor names have been published yet.
Saturday, Dec. 12, 6:30 p.m. The parade page confirms the date and time and lists the route as TBA.
Where Last Year's Parade Went
The 2026 route hasn't been published, but the 2025 parade shows where the parade night moves away from Centennial Park. The City's 2025 registration form gave the route as "A" Street from Windlands Park to Midland High School, with entries checking in at Windlands Park. The City Parks & Recreation Division handled registration.
Permian Press described the route in more detail. It started at the corner of Venture Avenue and North A Street, ran south and ended on Illinois Avenue, and it usually wrapped up between 8 and 8:30 p.m. The parade has run since 2009. The 2025 field had more than 80 entries, including H-E-B, the Midland RockHounds and Lone Star Sanctuary for Animals.
Wadley-Barron Park was the center of that night, not Centennial Park. The judges' stage, the live performances and a vendor village with food trucks were set up there, and after the last float passed, Santa took free photos at the Wadley-Barron Park gazebo. The City's November 2025 release also put the parade on "A" Street past Wadley-Barron Park.
If the 2026 route follows the 2025 one, the parade's busiest stretch will be about a mile up A Street from the tree at Centennial Park. That would make the parade the only big Merry Lights night with its center away from Wall Street. Nobody has confirmed that yet.
The Back Half of December, as It Ran in 2025
This is the part of the season still marked TBA. Here is what each event looked like last year. Treat every row as a 2025 fact, not a 2026 schedule.
| 2025 event | Date and time | Where | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot Chocolate Night | Fri., Dec. 12, 6 to 8 p.m. | 200 W. Wall St. | Free |
| Christmas Parade | Sat., Dec. 13, 6:30 p.m. | "A" Street | Not listed |
| Carriage rides | Dec. 14, 19, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, from 6 p.m. | Pickup at Loraine Street and Texas Avenue | $150 per carriage, or $20 per person on the wagon |
| Downtown Holiday Market | Fri., Dec. 19, 6 to 10 p.m. | 200 W. Wall St., across from Centennial Park | Not listed |
| MDFM night market | Sat., Dec. 20, 6 to 9 p.m. | 404 N. Colorado St. | Not listed |
| Jingle Jump Night | Tue., Dec. 30, 6 to 8 p.m. | Near Texas Avenue and Lorraine Street | Free |
Some details for each:
- Hot Chocolate Night was sponsored by ConocoPhillips. It offered cocoa, popcorn, music, children's activities and Santa. ConocoPhillips is the only sponsor named on the 2026 Merry Lights site so far.
- Carriage rides lasted 30 minutes and were first come, first served, paid in cash or Venmo. A 4 to 6 person carriage was a flat $150. The 12 to 14 person wagon was $20 per person, or a flat $200 for groups over 10. The 2026 carriage page currently shows last season's schedule and says 2026 details are coming.
- The Downtown Holiday Market listed more than 80 local vendors.
- The MDFM night market was the first after-dark market for the Midland Downtown Farmers Market. Coverage mentioned local vendors but didn't publish a list.
- Jingle Jump Night was hosted by the City, beside Centennial Park, with free admission.
The busiest stretch was Dec. 19 through Dec. 23. The holiday market, the night market and four carriage evenings fell within five days. In 2025, that week before Christmas had more going on downtown than opening night did.
The Lights Kept Going After the Events Stopped
After Jingle Jump, the Centennial Park display stayed lit every night from dusk to 10:30 p.m. through Jan. 6, according to the City. A YourBasin report on the Dec. 2, 2025 opening noted that the lights were free to visit after the event. That meant about five weeks of free evening walks around a display, built around twelve scheduled nights.
The City planned for the 2025 display to reach beyond the park. Its November release said it expected the lighted features to extend north from Centennial Park into the lot used by the Downtown Farmers' Market, and it previewed a projection show on East Wall Tower for opening night, sponsored by Community National Bank. The 2026 site describes illuminated pathways, interactive installations, music, photo spots, seasonal treats and specials at downtown businesses, but it doesn't say which of those are new this year.
The City's own explanation for the long run is economic. Its 2025 release said local restaurants reported about 30% more business during the 2024 Merry Lights season. Restaurants see that kind of increase across weeks of evenings, not from one Tuesday market.
Parking for Every Night of the Season
The parking page lists free downtown parking in two garages and two surface lots, plus street parking on Big Spring and Wall and ADA spaces. The garages are Main Street Garage at 411 S Main St and Baird Street Garage at 107 N Baird St. Those garages sit near Centennial Park. If the parade goes back to the A Street route, people watching from Wadley-Barron Park would be parking for a different part of town than on market night.
What to Watch for Before December
Several open items will decide how the 2026 season looks, and each one will show up on the official events page when it's set:
- The tree lighting time and which start time applies on Dec. 1, 5 p.m. or 5:30 p.m.
- The Dec. 12 parade route, and whether Wadley-Barron Park is the main viewing spot again.
- Dates for Hot Chocolate Nights, the Downtown Holiday Market and MDFM @ Night.
- The 2026 carriage schedule and prices, which may differ from the 2025 rates listed above.
- The Jingle Jump date and how long the lights stay up into January.
The City said in 2025 that lights were already on downtown before the official opening. For 2026, the events page still lists the late-December nights as TBA, and that's where the dates will appear as each one is set.
I watch which downtown Midland blocks stay busy after dark in December, because the same activity shows up in which addresses hold their value over the long run. If you'd like that on-the-ground read on downtown or the A Street corridor before the season starts, Taylor Dickerson is easy to reach. Let's Connect.
