Fishers Lights Its Tree the Day After Thanksgiving This Year. Here's How the Rest of the Season Lines Up.

In 2025, Fishers started the holidays all at once. The Night Lights tree lighting and the first night of Jingle Bell Junction both landed on Friday, Dec. 5, at the Nickel Plate District Amphitheater, and the Jingle Bell Junction events ran every night through Dec. 14.

The 2026 calendar has been taken apart and spread out. The tree lighting moves to Friday, Nov. 27, the day after Thanksgiving. Jingle Bell Junction no longer opens the same night. Its events now run Tuesday, Dec. 8 through Sunday, Dec. 13. Fishers District's big holiday day lands on a weekend of its own in between. Instead of one crowded ten-day run in December, Fishers gets three separate holiday stretches, and the first one falls while Thanksgiving guests are still in town.

Last year's ten days, this year's three stretches

Here's the City of Fishers' 2025 holiday lineup next to this year's dates from the city's Night Lights listing, the Fishers Parks Jingle Bell Junction schedule and the Fishers Arts Council.

Every row moved. Together, the changes take a season that ran as one stretch of consecutive nights and give each part its own weekend. Here is how those weekends go, in order.

Thanksgiving weekend now has a downtown event

Night Lights runs from 5 to 7 p.m. on Nov. 27 at the Nickel Plate District Amphitheater, 6 Municipal Drive. Santa and Mayor Scott Fadness light the tree on the AMP stage at 6:30 p.m., and the city listing says the lighting starts "promptly." The event is free and open to all ages, with no registration. GBC Bank presents it, and the city lists live music, fire pits, igloo seating, live ice carving, reindeer and animals from the Fishers AgriPark, food trucks, photo spots and holiday light displays through downtown.

The new date matters most to households hosting family. In 2025, anyone who visited for Thanksgiving had gone home a week before the tree lighting. This year it's on the Friday after the holiday, when many of those visitors are still around.

The same weekend has a second option on the north side. Conner Prairie's A Merry Prairie Holiday, presented by Everwise Credit Union, opens Friday and Saturday, Nov. 27 and 28, at 13400 Allisonville Road. It's ticketed, unlike the city event, and tickets went on sale to the public Oct. 13. The two fit in one day: Conner Prairie earlier, then downtown for the 6:30 lighting.

Thanksgiving week also has a few new places for feeding a full house:

• Flower Child is open at 9344 Union Place Drive in The Union at Fishers, serving 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily but closed on Thanksgiving Day, so plan on it for Friday or the weekend. Current in Fishers reported that the restaurant planned an Oct. 27 opening. The City of Fishers notes that Flower Child is owned by Fox Restaurant Concepts, a subsidiary of The Cheesecake Factory.
• Meijer Grocery opened its 75,000-square-foot store at 15700 Southeastern Parkway on Sept. 30, so this is its first holiday season.

The first December weekend centers on The Yard

With Night Lights moved to November, the next weekend is no longer the city's. It goes to Fishers District and Conner Prairie.

It starts on Thursday, Dec. 3, the first of three Fishers Arts Council Winter Art Markets at Peace Water Winery, 11547 Yard Street, Suite 830. The markets run 6 to 9 p.m. this year, half an hour later than last year's 8:30 p.m. close, and repeat Dec. 10 and 17. Conner Prairie's holiday event is open that Friday through Sunday, Dec. 4 to 6, and then every Friday through Sunday until Dec. 20.

Sunday, Dec. 6 is the biggest change on the Fishers District side. Last year The Yard held a Holiday Open House every week, with Santa, carolers and crafts. This year Fishers District has folded that into one day, which its event page calls a "newly reimagined holiday celebration." Merry & Bright takes place in a heated tent at The Yard and includes:

• Hot cocoa and classic holiday caroling
• Train rides around The Yard and a life-sized snow globe for photos
• Crafts for kids
• A Makers Market on Sun King's second level, hosted by the Fishers Arts Council
• Hand-painted watercolor family portraits
• Photos with Santa

Pet owners need to come early. Pet photos with Santa run only from 11 a.m. to noon, with a paw print ornament station during that hour, and the event opens to the public at noon. Last year, missing a Saturday open house meant waiting a week for the next one. Merry & Bright has no second date, so anyone who wants Santa photos at The Yard needs Dec. 6 on the calendar.

Jingle Bell Junction is now a week of its own

Jingle Bell Junction used to open on tree-lighting night. Now it starts on a Tuesday, almost two weeks after the lights go on, and runs six days at 10 Municipal Drive. Most nights are free with no registration. Two events charge, and the Fishers resident price is lower on both.

1. Tuesday, Dec. 8, Santa's Workshop, 4 to 8 p.m. Drop-in woodshop projects for all ages, led by Fishers Parks' Maker Playground staff.
2. Wednesday, Dec. 9, DIY Gift Supplies and Karoling Karaoke, 5 to 9 p.m. Make your own wrapping paper, gift bags and cards, with all supplies provided, while holiday karaoke runs.
3. Thursday, Dec. 10, Reindeer Games, 5 to 10 p.m. Kids' bingo from 5 to 7 p.m., then holiday movie trivia with Hambones Trivia in two sessions, 7:30 to 8:30 and 9 to 10 p.m.
4. Friday, Dec. 11, Community Jazz Improv and Jazz Lounge, 6 to 10 p.m. An open improv session led by Brandon Meeks from 6:30 to 8 p.m., then a professional jazz set from 8:30 to 10 p.m. A full bar is open all night.
5. Saturday, Dec. 12, two events. Cookies With Characters runs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and costs $10 per person for residents or $15 for non-residents. Everyone has to register, including adults and children 2 and under, who get in free. That evening, the Winter Market and Mixology Class runs 6 to 10 p.m. with Mixo Indy. Entry is free, and the mixology classes at 6 and 8 p.m. cost $40 for residents or $60 for non-residents.
6. Sunday, Dec. 13, Holiday Thrift-A-Thon, noon to 5 p.m. Free entry. Vintage, second-hand and handmade goods from local vendors and resellers.

The Thrift-A-Thon is new to the holiday schedule. Fishers Parks has held it during the summer Fishers Farmers Market season and is now putting a holiday version on the December calendar. Vendor applications for the Saturday Winter Market closed Nov. 1. Thursday, Dec. 10 also has the second Winter Art Market at Peace Water Winery, so the art market and trivia night fall on the same evening.

Allisonville Road runs through all three stretches

Conner Prairie is open on all three of these weekends. It's on Allisonville Road, and that corridor is also where Fishers' next restaurant openings are coming.

Current in Fishers reported that Jeff's Bagel Run picked 11745 Allisonville Road, just north of 116th Street, for its first Indiana franchise, with a spokesperson expecting it to open "by the end of this year." Close by, Sahm's Hospitality Group is bringing Mamacita, a taco and cocktail bar, to the former Rockstone Pizza and Big Lug Taproom building. Eddie Sahm told IndyStar dining reporter Bradley Hohulin, in reporting summarized by LarryInFishers, that it is a come-as-you-are spot, with fresh-pressed tortillas made from Indiana corn and cocktails overseen by beverage director Steve Simon.

So the season has two centers. Night Lights, Jingle Bell Junction, Merry & Bright and the art markets cluster around the Municipal Complex and The Yard. Conner Prairie sits up Allisonville Road on its own schedule, which fills the gaps between the downtown events.

If this year's calendar has you thinking about how your home fits the way you use Fishers, whether that's walking to the AMP or driving up Allisonville to Conner Prairie, Estansion Group by BLP is glad to talk it through over a free consultation, with no pressure and a principal on the call.