Dorothy B. Oven Park in Tallahassee, Florida

Oven Park is a City of Tallahassee park and rental house at 3205 Thomasville Road, set in more than six acres of North Florida garden.

The city's Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Affairs page describes gardens filled with azaleas, camellias, palms and other local flora, and a main house in the classic manor style with rare magnolia paneling, wooden floors, antique furniture and artwork, full kitchen facilities and a lanai. Posted park hours are 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., and the park is open during regular business hours for tours and lease. The city's mailing address for the park is 3205 Thomasville Road, Tallahassee, Florida 32308.

Leon County's tourism office, Visit Tallahassee, lists the same six acres of gardens and notes that the park's camellias are counted among the finest in the area; its listing gives the ZIP code as 32312, while the City of Tallahassee uses 32308. For most of the year the Thomasville Road park is a quiet garden, and for about five weeks each winter it becomes the city's holiday light display.

The park sits on land once in the Lafayette Land Grant, where a 1930s camellia nursery gave way to a Maclay-designed house that was donated to the City of Tallahassee in 1985.

According to the city's Dorothy B. Oven Park history and rental packet, the property was part of the Lafayette Land Grant awarded to the Marquis de Lafayette by the United States Congress in 1824. In the 1930s the Camellia Nursery on the site was replaced by the house, which was designed by Alfred Maclay and constructed in 1936. Maclay is the same designer whose own north Tallahassee gardens became Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park.

The property was donated to the City of Tallahassee in 1985 through a Tallahassee parks foundation, in what the city calls an unprecedented gesture of civic generosity, with the stipulation that it be developed as a city park retaining the integrity of the area. The city park page carries the same history and adds that the soil there nurtured the finest camellias in the area.

For 2026 the City of Tallahassee lists the Oven Park light display nightly from Thanksgiving evening, Thursday, November 26, through Friday, January 1, weather permitting.

The city's Winter Festival and Holiday Events page gives the hours below and says the display is free and open to the public; it urges motorists inside the park and on Thomasville Road near the park to drive with caution. The city's December 17, 2025 release put the display at over 150,000 lights and said visitors can drive through or walk the grounds every night except Elf Night. Visit Tallahassee's listing gives a higher count, more than 250,000 twinkling lights; the two government sources differ, and both figures are reported here.

Elf Night is the one evening each season when Oven Park on Thomasville Road closes to cars so families can visit Santa and Mrs. Claus on foot.

The City of Tallahassee lists Elf Night 2026 for Sunday, December 13, from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. Families check in on the front lawn to be assigned a ticket number to visit Santa and Mrs. Claus, ticket distribution closes once maximum capacity is reached, and hot cocoa and cookies are served while supplies last. Vehicles may not drive through or use the parking lot that night; parking is available next door at Thomasville Road Baptist Church, and the city's holiday line is 850-891-3555.

The 2025 event followed the same pattern. The city's 2025 release set Elf Night for Monday, December 22, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., with free public parking at Thomasville Road Baptist Church, 3131 Thomasville Road, and asked drivers who normally use Thomasville Road but were not attending to take an alternate route because of heavier than normal traffic.

The Oven Park lights are one part of a City of Tallahassee holiday calendar run by the Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Affairs Department from 1201 Myers Park Drive.

On the same 2026 holiday page, the city lists the 40th annual Winter Festival downtown on Saturday, December 5, 2026, from 3 to 10 p.m., with the lighting ceremony at 6 p.m. on South Monroe Street at Bloxham Park, the Capital Health Plan Jingle Bell Run and a nighttime holiday parade. Candy Cane Lane opens in McCarty Park the same day and stays open nightly through December 20, and the Holiday Stroll fills the trails of Cascades Park on Saturday, December 12, with about a dozen acts including the Smokey Hollow Commemoration. Soul Santa events at Walker-Ford and LeVerne Payne community centers follow on December 19.

The downtown festival draws large crowds: the city's December 5, 2024 release said the 38th annual Winter Festival was expected to draw more than 100,000 people to downtown Tallahassee. Of all these events, the Thomasville Road light display runs the longest, from Thanksgiving night to New Year's Day.

The City of Tallahassee rents the Oven Park house on Thomasville Road for weddings, receptions, seminars and meetings, with posted rates that include the 7.5 percent state sales tax.

The City of Tallahassee rental page lists the rates below. Refundable deposits are due at booking: $100 for 32 guests or fewer and $250 for 33 guests or more and for all weddings and receptions. Fees are due 90 days before the event, cancellations 90 days or more ahead receive a full refund, and holidays could exclude rental availability. Card payments carry a 2.6 percent convenience fee.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the City of Tallahassee's Oven Park page and rental packet, its 2026 Winter Festival and Holiday Events page, its 2024 and 2025 holiday releases, and the Visit Tallahassee listing for the park.