For many households in Napa, the holiday season starts with the Christmas Parade on Second, Brown and Third streets, set this year for Saturday, Dec. 5. By then the season will already have been running for more than two weeks. The 2026 calendar starts on Thursday, Nov. 19, when the outdoor ice rink opens on the Village Lawn at The Meritage Resort and Spa, 875 Bordeaux Way. The next day, the 52nd annual Gifts 'N Tyme Holiday Faire opens in Chardonnay Hall at the Napa Valley Expo.
So in 2026 the season opens away from downtown, at a resort lawn and a fairground hall. Here is the calendar, in the order it happens.
The opening weekend, Nov. 19 to 22
Four days before Thanksgiving week, three separate events start within about 72 hours of each other.
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Thu., Nov. 19 | Ice rink opens for the season | Village Lawn, The Meritage Resort and Spa, 875 Bordeaux Way |
| Fri., Nov. 20 | Santa's Workshop opens | Food & Wine Center, The Meritage Resort and Spa |
| Fri., Nov. 20 to Sun., Nov. 22 | Gifts 'N Tyme Holiday Faire, 52nd annual | Chardonnay Hall, Napa Valley Expo, 575 3rd St. |
| Sat., Nov. 21, 4 to 8 p.m. | Annual Merry Meritage Tree Lighting | The Village at The Meritage Resort and Spa |
Gifts 'N Tyme has been running long enough to count as a Napa institution, and its organizer, Eckerstrom Productions, lists Nov. 20, 21 and 22, 2026 for this year's faire. The organizer's page is the place to check for opening hours before you go.
Saturday, Nov. 21: the tree lighting at The Meritage
The Meritage's Annual Merry Meritage Tree Lighting is the biggest single event of the opening weekend. It runs from 4 to 8 p.m. It's free, but the resort asks for an RSVP. The resort lights a 40-foot tree in its holiday village under faux snowfall. Mercy and the Heartbeats play live, and there are performances by the Napa School of Music. Families will find:
- Letters to Santa and train rides
- A food truck, local vendors, holiday retail and photo booths
- Santa Claus and a group of costumed characters
- A toy drive for the Boys & Girls Club of Napa Valley
The toy drive ties into the rink. Bring a new toy to donate to the Boys & Girls Club of Napa Valley and you get 20% off ice skating. Kaiser Permanente is the title sponsor and Visit Napa Valley is the program sponsor. The resort offers free parking and a shuttle for the evening.
The rink runs on three schedules
The resort bills the rink as Napa Valley's largest outdoor ice skating rink. Its season lasts from Nov. 19 to Jan. 3, but the hours change twice along the way.
| Period | Days | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Nov. 19 to Dec. 17 | Monday to Thursday | 4 to 10 p.m. |
| Nov. 19 to Dec. 17 | Friday to Sunday | 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. |
| Thanksgiving, Nov. 26 | Thursday | 2 to 10 p.m. |
| Dec. 18 to Jan. 3 | Daily | 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. |
For the first four weeks, daytime skating is a weekend-only option, since Monday through Thursday sessions start at 4 p.m. From Dec. 18 the rink opens at 11 a.m. every day through Jan. 3. Thanksgiving gets its own afternoon schedule.
Sessions last 90 minutes and start at $20, with skate rental included. For beginners 12 and under, the resort has a limited number of skate helpers on site for $5 more. All sales are final, and tickets are refunded only if weather closes the rink. You can reserve on The Meritage's ice skating page.
Santa's Workshop, in the resort's Food & Wine Center, runs Nov. 20 to Dec. 23. Its hours follow the same split as the rink. Through Dec. 17 it's open 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, except the day after Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, when it opens at 11 a.m. From Dec. 18 to 23 it's open daily from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. A weekend afternoon in early December covers both the rink and the workshop. A Tuesday covers only the rink, and only after 4 p.m.
Downtown's turn: Saturday, Dec. 5
The Downtown Napa Association's listing for Napa's 61st annual Christmas Parade promises floats, live music, dancing horses and Santa. This year's theme is "Joy to the World and Peace on Earth." Participants start assembling at 3 p.m. and the parade starts at 5 p.m. The listing says the parade will be canceled if the weather is bad.
The route makes a loop:
- It starts at Second and School streets and heads east on Second.
- It turns right, heading south, onto Brown Street.
- It turns right again, heading west, onto Third Street and returns to School Street.
Judging takes place on Third near Coombs, so the floats are most finished on that stretch. If you're on the Second Street side, you'll see the parade first, as it starts out.
After the parade, Santa is at the Napa Valley Welcome Center at 1300 1st St. #313, in First Street Napa. The parade's 5 p.m. start comes 16 days after the rink opens. For two weeks, the season's two biggest family draws sit in different parts of the city.
Last year's parade was on Saturday, Dec. 6, according to the Downtown Napa Association's 2025 holiday guide. Both years it falls on the first Saturday of December, which is the date to block out each year.
Back to the Expo, Dec. 12 and 13
A week after the parade, the season returns to Chardonnay Hall. The Santa's Helpers 32nd annual Gift Faire runs Saturday, Dec. 12, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 13, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Napa Valley Expo, 575 3rd St. Admission and parking are both free.
Taken together, the two Expo faires frame the season. Gifts 'N Tyme opens the shopping weekend before Thanksgiving, and Santa's Helpers closes it two weekends before Christmas. Their two anniversaries, the 52nd and 32nd, add up to more than eight decades of holiday faires in the same hall. Either faire's weekend fits easily with a rink session at The Meritage.
The season at a glance
| Week of | What's on |
|---|---|
| Nov. 16 | Rink opens Nov. 19; Santa's Workshop opens Nov. 20; Gifts 'N Tyme Nov. 20 to 22; Meritage tree lighting Nov. 21 |
| Nov. 23 | Thanksgiving rink hours, 2 to 10 p.m., on Nov. 26 |
| Nov. 30 | Christmas Parade downtown, Saturday, Dec. 5, at 5 p.m. |
| Dec. 7 | Santa's Helpers Gift Faire, Dec. 12 and 13 |
| Dec. 14 | Rink switches to daily 11 a.m. hours on Dec. 18 |
| Dec. 21 | Santa's Workshop's last day, Dec. 23 |
| Dec. 28 | Rink's last day, Jan. 3 |
After Jan. 3, downtown takes over again
Once the rink closes, downtown is the main event. The Downtown Napa Association lists the free, walkable 2027 Napa Lighted Art Festival for Jan. 16 to Feb. 14. It features 11 lighted sculptures for five weeks, plus projection art on three downtown buildings from Jan. 16 to 24. There are 13 days between the rink's last session and the festival's opening night. The festival's projections run for its first nine days, so the weekends of Jan. 16 and Jan. 23 are when the full program is on view.
From the rink's opening on Nov. 19 to the festival's last night on Feb. 14, Napa's winter calendar runs almost three months. If you own a business or property tied to the valley's visitor seasons and want to talk through timing, Carmen Gray Team is glad to hear from you. Request a private consultation.
