Holiday Season Events — Sebastian, Florida

Sebastian's holiday season runs from mid November to early January, when the City of Sebastian lists Holiday Light Displays city-wide, and it peaks on the first weekend of December with Light Up Night and the Christmas Parade.

The city's Signature Events list for the 2025 to 2026 fiscal year carries the light displays as a single season-long entry, Mid November to Early January, Holiday Light Displays, City-wide (City of Sebastian Signature Events). Around that backdrop, the holiday calendar is a chain of short, separately organized events: a Chamber of Commerce business open house, a city parade, Santa's House afternoons at Riverview Park, a police movie night on the Twin Piers, a craft show, two veterans observances and a high school concert.

All of the city entries above come from the December 2025 and January 2026 pages of the City of Sebastian calendar. The PRISM dates come from Sebastian Daily. As of October 10, 2026, the city calendar for November and December 2026 listed only meetings and City Hall closures, so the 2026 holiday event dates had not yet been posted.

Light Up Night, the Sebastian River Area Chamber of Commerce open house on the first Friday evening of December, is billed as the official kick-off of the holiday season in Sebastian.

Sebastian Daily, previewing the December 6, 2024 edition, wrote that Light Up Night was created to encourage supporting local businesses and is the official kick-off of the Holiday Season, with participating locations offering discounts, door prizes, complimentary refreshments and family-fun activities (Sebastian Daily, Nov. 29, 2024). The 2025 edition ran Friday, December 5, from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. throughout Sebastian and surrounding areas, with businesses staying open late (Sebastian Daily, Nov. 25, 2025).

The time slot has not moved in a decade. A 2016 Sebastian Daily preview put that year's Light Up Night on December 2 from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. and described businesses opening their doors to residents and visitors along U.S. Highway 1 (Sebastian Daily, 2016). City calendars show the same evening hours on December 1, 2023, December 6, 2024 and December 5, 2025 (City of Sebastian calendar, December 2023; December 2024).

For 2026 the season starts earlier for one Sebastian tradition. Sebastian River High School moved its PRISM concert to November 19 to 22, 2026, at the school's Performing Arts Center on Shark Boulevard, so the band can travel to Hawaii in December for the 85th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor (Sebastian Daily, Oct. 7, 2026). The 2025 concert, the 31st, had run December 11 to 14 (Sebastian Daily, 2025).

The City of Sebastian Christmas tree and Santa's House stand in Riverview Park on the Indian River Lagoon, where the tree is lit on parade night and Santa's House opens on December Saturday afternoons.

The evening parade travels south on Indian River Drive from Main Street and finishes at Riverview Park. Sebastian Daily's 2025 holiday roundup said that at the park Santa will meet attendees and the city's Christmas tree will be lit (Sebastian Daily, 2025). The full history and route of the parade are covered on its own page.

After parade night, Santa keeps short hours. The December 2025 city calendar lists Santa's House open in Riverview Park on Saturday, December 13, and Saturday, December 20, 2025, each from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. (City of Sebastian calendar). Those two afternoons are the main chance for Sebastian families to visit after the crowd of the first weekend has gone.

The park tree has hosted Christmas Eve gatherings before. Vero News reported in December 2009 that a model train system would be set up around the City of Sebastian's Christmas Tree at Riverview Park on Christmas Eve, that Santa's Florida home would be open for tours and photos, and that the city would set up bleachers for a 6 p.m. reading of the Christmas story (Vero News, Dec. 23, 2009). No Christmas Eve event appears on the 2024 or 2025 city calendars.

Beyond the parade weekend, Sebastian's December riverfront calendar adds a Sebastian Police Department movie night, Craft Club shows, Wreaths Across America and the Pearl Harbor Day observance at the Veterans Memorial.

The Sebastian Police Department has made a movie night part of the season. The 2024 calendar listed the Sebastian PD Christmas Movie Night on December 20, 2024, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Riverview Park, 600 U.S. Highway 1 (City of Sebastian calendar, December 2024); in 2025 it moved earlier, to December 12 at 5:30 p.m. at the Twin Piers in Riverview Park.

Veterans events run alongside the festive ones. In 2025 Wreaths Across America placed wreaths at Sebastian Municipal Cemetery at 11:00 a.m. on December 13 and held its ceremony at the Veterans Memorial at noon, and the Pearl Harbor Day Observance at the Veterans Memorial was at 12:30 p.m. on December 7. The 2023 calendar shows the Wreaths Across America ceremony at the Veterans Memorial at Riverview Park on December 16, 2023.

Shopping is handmade and local. The Craft Club of Sebastian set up in Riverview Park on December 13 and 14, 2025, and on December 14 and 15, 2024, when Sebastian Daily described jewelry, crochet, resin art, baked goods, food vendors and live music at the US 1 and 512 corner. On December 6, 2025, a Holiday Market and Breakfast with Santa ran at North County Charter School and a Christmas craft fair at St. Luke Catholic Church (Sebastian Daily, Dec. 2025). The North Indian River County Library held a free Grinch meet and greet with a story and craft on December 16, 2025.

One December stood apart. On December 8, 2024, the day after that year's parade, the city held its Centennial Celebration at Riverview Park from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., an event listed on the same calendar page as the parade and the Light Up Night of that year.

The Sebastian season tapers off in early January, when the city light displays come down, City Hall reopens after New Year's Day and the riverfront calendar turns to winter festivals and concerts.

City Hall at 1225 Main Street closes for the holidays on a set pattern. The January 2026 calendar lists City Hall Closed, New Years Day Observance on January 1, 2026 (City of Sebastian calendar, January 2026), and the 2026 calendars list City Hall closed November 26 to 27, 2026 for Thanksgiving (November 2026) and December 24 to 25, 2026 for Christmas (December 2026).

Winter conditions show up on the January city calendar too. The Splash Pad on Harrison Street was listed as closed from January 5 to February 27, 2026, and a Star Gaze event planned for the Riverview Park Twin Piers on January 31, 2026 was canceled due to cold weather and expected high winds. By mid January the lawn has turned over to the Sebastian Fine Art and Music Festival, held January 17 and 18, 2026, and the Chamber's first Concert in the Park of 2026 followed on January 23.