Seaside's Holiday Season Happens on the Day After Thanksgiving: How the Day Runs, Block by Block

On the evening of Friday, November 27, Santa will be on Broadway outside the Seaside Carousel Mall. There will be caroling and refreshments, and the town's tree will be lit at Downing Park, at the corner of N. Downing and Broadway. The parade will have come through downtown half an hour before that. The handmade-gift market at the Convention Center will have closed two hours before the parade. The first afternoon tea at the Butterfield Cottage will have seated at 1:30.

All four of those happen on the same day. The Seaside Chamber of Commerce calls its holiday celebration Yuletide in Seaside, and it lists the dates as November 27–28, 2026. Most of the Chamber's celebration happens in one Friday afternoon and evening downtown. After that, December's dated holiday events are mostly at a single building on First Avenue. If you plan around that Friday, you've planned the center of the season.

Friday, November 27, From Lunch to Lights

Each of these is posted on its own page, so you won't find the day laid out in one place. Here it is in order:

1. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.: Holiday Festival & Market at the Seaside Civic & Convention Center, 415 1st Ave. The Chamber describes it as handmade-gift shopping with family activities.
2. 1:30 p.m.: Holiday Tea at the Butterfield Cottage, hosted by the Seaside Museum & Historical Society. The seating for this day is sold out.
3. 7 p.m.: Parade of Lights, which loops around downtown. It's free.
4. 7:30 p.m.: Community Tree Lighting at Downing Park, N. Downing and Broadway, just west of the Carousel Mall. Expect caroling, refreshments and Santa. It's also free.

The gaps between the events are what shape the day. The market closes at 5, and the parade starts two hours later. That leaves time for an early dinner downtown, or a trip home to pick up warmer layers and the rest of the family. The tree lighting begins 30 minutes after the parade does, at the corner where the route comes back to Broadway. Anyone who stays put after the last float can walk straight over to the tree.

The Parade Has a Soundtrack This Year

The 2026 theme is "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." On its Yuletide page, the Chamber tells float builders to "incorporate musical elements into your parade entry!" The parade listing promises "twinkling floats, festive music, and holiday cheer."

The Chamber's page still has a parade sign-up for groups that want to enter. A business, club or group of neighbors that wants to roll on November 27 should start there.

The Seat to Book Before Thanksgiving

Everything that Friday is free except the tea. The tea is the one event with a limited number of seats.

At the Seaside Museum & Historical Society, the Holiday Tea at the Butterfield Cottage costs $35 per person, and reservations are required. Seating begins at 1:30 p.m. on both Friday, November 27, and Saturday, November 28, and the museum has already marked Friday's seating sold out. The museum describes the afternoon as sweets and savories served as a tea in the historic cottage. Tickets are sold through the museum's online store.

That makes Saturday the day for anyone who missed Friday. It also suits a household hosting relatives over Thanksgiving weekend: guests can see the parade on Friday night and sit down to tea on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday Is the Quieter Half of the Same Weekend

There's no parade or tree lighting on Saturday, November 28, and the lights are already lit. The Holiday Festival & Market reopens at the Convention Center at 10 a.m., an hour earlier than Friday, and closes again at 5 p.m. The Butterfield Cottage seats its second tea at 1:30.

On Saturday, the extra morning hour and the open tea seating both belong to anyone who'd rather shop without Friday's evening program. A morning at the market and an afternoon at the cottage fit into the same day.

December Moves Indoors to 415 First Avenue

After that weekend, the Chamber doesn't list a second holiday weekend. Several of December's dated events are at the Seaside Civic & Convention Center, the same building at 415 First Avenue that hosts the Thanksgiving-weekend market. The Convention Center's December schedule, as posted:

The Festival of Trees Has Two Doors

The Festival of Trees listing describes two separate events on Saturday, December 5. The afternoon is a community open house. The evening is a gala, and the foundation handles tickets for it directly. The open house is the one families who've just shopped the November market can walk into. The gala requires planning ahead.

A Thursday Worth Marking

The Encore Toy Drive & Recital falls on Thursday, December 10. It runs eight hours, from noon to 8 p.m. It's the only weekday date on the Convention Center's December list, and it's the easiest one for a household to bring a donated toy to between other errands.

The weekend after that, December 11–13, the Convention Center hosts Battle at the Beach, a cheer competition, and the building is booked from Friday to Sunday. If you're planning anything near First Avenue that weekend, check the building's calendar first.

The Chamber Program That Runs All Month

Yuletide in Seaside doesn't end on November 28. Throughout December, the Chamber runs its Coast Coins program: holiday shoppers get a $5 Coast Coin that "can be spent like cash at participating local businesses throughout Seaside." The Yuletide page names it as one of the celebration's four parts, next to the market, the parade and the tree lighting. It's the only part of the Chamber's celebration that lasts past Thanksgiving weekend, and the only part that sends shoppers to local businesses one at a time through December rather than to a single downtown site on a single day.

We live and work on this coast, and Thanksgiving weekend in Seaside is one of the dates on our own calendars. If family will be with you that Friday, or if you're thinking about how a home near downtown fits the way you spend the holidays, the team at Andrea Mace is glad to talk it through. Schedule your concierge consultation.