This year the town's main holiday events fall between Friday, December 4 and Wednesday, December 9. Nearly every one of them comes with a cause attached: kindergarten programs at two elementary schools, bell ringers, toy drives. If you plan the week well, you can tour five homes, build a gingerbread house with your children and walk under more than a million lights in six days. You'll know who benefits from each of those mornings and evenings, too.
Six days, laid out
| Date | Event | Where | Who benefits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri., Dec. 4 | ABPA Homes for the Holidays Home Tour, 9:30 a.m.–1 p.m. | Five Highland Park homes | Kindergarten and first-grade programs at Armstrong and Bradfield elementary schools |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Gingerbread House Workshop, 10–11 a.m. | Town Hall, 4700 Drexel Dr., second floor | A Town program for families |
| Wed., Dec. 9 | Highland Park Village Christmas Lights Celebration and Shopping Stroll, 4–7 p.m. | 47 Highland Park Village | The Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary and a Community Partners of Dallas toy drive |
The Town's own Holiday Tree Lighting has also landed in this window recently. In 2025 it was held on Thursday, December 4, from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Landmark Pecan Tree at 4202 Armstrong Parkway. It had Santa and Mrs. Claus, warm drinks, sweet treats and a toy drive. For 2026, check the Town of Highland Park calendar for the date. If it lands on a similar weeknight, it will fall right in the middle of the week shown above.
Friday morning belongs to the kindergarten classes
The week opens with the Armstrong Bradfield Preschool Association's 27th annual Homes for the Holidays Home Tour. It runs Friday, December 4, from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and features five homes in Highland Park. The Market Home stays open until 3 p.m. That gives anyone with a busy morning a second chance to catch part of the tour after lunch. Tickets are sold through the association's Givebutter page.
Every ticket is a school donation. ABPA says the tour has raised more than $1 million over the past 20-plus years for the kindergarten and first-grade classes at Armstrong and Bradfield. About 97% of everything raised goes to those two schools. In 2024, the schools received $200,000, and each school used its half to support programming for those two grades. Spread over two decades, $1 million works out to about $50,000 a year on average, so 2024's $200,000 suggests the tour now raises far more than it did in its early years.
ABPA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports current and future families through social, community outreach and fundraising programs. The homeowners who open their doors are lending the town their living rooms for a morning. The ticket price goes to the next class of five- and six-year-olds.
Saturday is the Town's own morning
Less than 24 hours later, the Town of Highland Park hosts its Gingerbread House Workshop on Saturday, December 5, from 10 to 11 a.m. It's on the second floor of Town Hall at 4700 Drexel Drive.
The format is simple. Each registration reserves one table for up to four people, with one gingerbread-house kit per table. Because spots are reserved by the table, a family of four takes one registration, and grandparents visiting for the weekend take another. Registration and questions go through 214-559-9345. It's a one-hour event in a municipal building, and it sits between a Friday home tour and the Village's big evening. That makes it the easiest event of the week to add to a calendar that's already full.
If music is your Saturday plan, Highland Park Presbyterian Church holds its Highlander Concert: Classical Christmas that same day at 5 p.m., with the Highland Park Chorale and Orchestra. A gingerbread morning and a classical evening fit into the same Saturday.
Wednesday night is the Village's turn
The week ends at Highland Park Village's Christmas Lights Celebration and Shopping Stroll, which PaperCity lists for Wednesday, December 9, 2026, from 4 to 7 p.m. The program includes:
- Strolling Christmas carolers and musical acts
- Face painting and balloon art
- Kids' crafts with Camp Crafty
- Family photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus
- Promotions, holiday treats, refreshments, gifts with purchase and in-store experiences at select boutiques
The giving runs alongside the shopping. The Salvation Army Women's Auxiliary will collect donations with its bell ringers, and Community Partners of Dallas will host a holiday toy drive. If you're shopping for gifts that evening anyway, buying one extra toy for the drive takes little effort.
PaperCity's listing describes the backdrop as a display of more than 1.5 million Christmas lights. The timing follows a pattern. The Village held last year's celebration on Wednesday, December 10, 2025, also from 4 to 7 p.m., so the event has stayed on a midweek evening in the second week of December. A 4 p.m. start on a Wednesday lets families come straight from school pickup. A 7 p.m. finish gets everyone home on a school night.
After the week, the season spreads out
Once December 9 has passed, Highland Park's holiday season moves from scheduled events to the streets themselves. In its Dallas Christmas lights guide, updated October 2026, Visit Dallas suggests starting a Highland Park lights drive at Armstrong Parkway and Preston Road and continuing through the neighborhood from there. That starting point puts the Landmark Pecan Tree at 4202 Armstrong Parkway near the beginning of the route.
To see the lights without driving, Threejays Carriages advertises holiday carriage rides through Highland Park's light displays.
Highland Park Presbyterian Church's Advent and Christmas schedule fills in the rest of the month for families who want music or services.
- Wednesday, December 2: Advent Family Experience, 6–7:30 p.m., Elliott Hall
- Saturday, December 12: Highlander Concert: Family Christmas, 5 p.m., with the Chancel Choir and Orchestra performing carol arrangements in the decorated Sanctuary
- Sunday, December 13: Lessons & Carols in worship services
- Saturday, December 19: Highlander Concert: Messiah, 5 p.m.
- Thursday, December 24: Christmas Eve services at 10 a.m., noon, 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m.
The concerts land on Saturdays at 5 p.m. That leaves room to drive the lights afterward, when Armstrong Parkway is fully dark.
Planning the week in practice
Most of Highland Park's holiday plans fall on three dates, so a little advance work goes a long way.
- Buy home tour tickets early. The tour runs on a Friday morning, so it's easier to take the morning off if you plan ahead. Tickets are on Givebutter.
- Call Town Hall for the gingerbread table. Registration is by table, up to four people per table, through 214-559-9345.
- Bring cash or a wrapped toy on December 9. The Salvation Army bell ringers and the Community Partners of Dallas toy drive will both be at the Village that evening.
- Watch the Town calendar for the tree lighting. Last year it was a Thursday evening at the Landmark Pecan Tree, and it included its own toy drive.
If walking through the five homes on the December 4 tour gets you thinking about your own, Richard Noon is glad to have a calm, private conversation about what that might mean for you in the new year. Let's Connect.
