Loveland's Holiday Lights Now Turn On in Two Places, a Week Apart

This year Loveland's holiday lights come on twice. Centerra flips its switch at Chapungu Sculpture Park on Friday, Nov. 13. One week later, on Friday, Nov. 20, downtown lights Fourth Street for the Festival of Lights. That will be the first one held on the street since the reconstruction crews pulled out. Neither night replaces the other, and the rest of the season fills in around them.

The Park That Used to Be the Whole Show

For eight years, Loveland's best-known holiday light display was Winter Wonderlights at Chapungu Sculpture Park. In August 2025, Visit Loveland announced that the festival would not return. It pointed people to a spread of other events: the 12 Days of Christmas display at Dwayne Webster Veterans Park, the downtown Festival of Lights, holiday events at Centerra, and Christmas Walk in the Woods.

That list is still the shape of the season this year. The lights didn't leave Chapungu. They're now part of a tour. Centerra's All Is Bright Tour runs daily from Nov. 13 through Jan. 1. Its stops are spread across Centerra and include Chapungu Illuminated and the ice rink, and an interactive Google Map links them together. Chapungu still gets lit up. You just walk or drive a route now, where Wonderlights was one ticketed place.

Friday, Nov. 13: Three Things on One Night

Centerra's Flip the Switch Ceremony runs from 5 to 7 p.m. at Chapungu Sculpture Park. It comes with carolers, cocoa, photo spots, and a community member who gets the title "Honorary Light of the Community" and flips the switch. The window is a little longer this year. Centerra's 2025 listing ran 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 14.

The same night, downtown is holding its monthly Night on the Town from 6 to 8 p.m. Night on the Town is a self-guided art walk held on the second Friday of every month for more than 20 years. Galleries hold opening receptions, restaurants and bars run seasonal specials, and shops stay open late. The ceremony at Chapungu ends at 7 and the art walk runs until 8, so the overlap is an hour. You can catch one, then the other.

The third event that weekend is about gear, not lights. The City of Loveland's Ski & Sports Swap runs Nov. 13 and 14 at Chilson Recreation Center, 700 E. Fourth St. The money raised supports Parks & Recreation events and youth scholarships. New this year, consignors keep 75% of their sale price with no volunteer shift, 80% with one shift, or 85% with two. If the garage has outgrown snowboards or skates that you'd like to sell before December, those two volunteer shifts earn you 10 more points on everything you sell.

Friday, Nov. 20: The First Festival on the Finished Street

Here's how the Loveland Downtown District describes this year's Festival of Lights:

"The Festival of Lights will be located on the newly completed 4th Street this year!"

The festival runs from 5 to 8 p.m. It has a tree lighting, live music, live reindeer, carriage rides, a holiday market, and visits with Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Floats on Fourth is back for a third year as a stationary parade. Floats park along both sides of Fourth Street between Lincoln and Washington avenues, the center of the street stays open for walking, and marching bands, dancers and other performers move through the crowd. The District puts last year's attendance at about 8,000 to 10,000 people. Last year's festival was on Nov. 21, 2025, while the street was still being rebuilt.

"Newly completed" is the goal for Nov. 20, and crews are working toward it. The city's Heart Improvement Plan covers five blocks of Fourth Street between Garfield and Washington avenues, and the Loveland Downtown District has said it is on track to wrap up in November 2026. The city's weekly project update for Oct. 12 through 18 described a street that was close to done but not finished:

• Block 4, from Cleveland to Railroad, was still closed to cars, with businesses open to people on foot and crews working through punch-list items.
• The BNSF railroad crossing at Fourth Street was fully closed to vehicles, with paving at the west Railroad Avenue intersection and the parking lots next to it.
• Permanent sculptures were going in on Blocks 1, 2, 3 and 5, which could close a few parking spaces for short stretches.
• Separately from the street project, Painter's Alley was closed in both directions for conduit trenching.

Weather permitting, the crews work Monday through Friday, 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. If you plan to drive in on the 20th, check the most recent weekly update that week. Parking near the railroad crossing is where things were still changing in late October.

December Is Built Around Saturdays

After the two Fridays in November, most events move to Saturdays and go back and forth between Centerra and downtown.

Santa's North Pole Playground, hosted by Visit Loveland, is the old holiday market under a new name. It has Loveland vendors, photos with Santa, a tubing slide and giveaways. It's also two days earlier than last year's Loveland Holiday Market, which was held Dec. 7, 2025. The Sleigh Bell Shuffle is a one-mile run or walk that ends at Chapungu after dark, the same park whose lights came on Nov. 13. Photos with Santa at the Promenade Shops run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on both Dec. 12 and Dec. 19. Centerra lists Breakfast with Santa as ticketed but hasn't posted a price on its holiday page yet.

Saturday, Dec. 12 is the busiest day of the season. One family could fit in breakfast with Santa, an afternoon on the ice, a one-mile shuffle at Chapungu, and the opening night of Christmas Walk in the Woods on Savage Road, all in one day. The Christmas Walk runs nightly from Dec. 12 through 31, 5 to 8 p.m., and is closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Lights-only admission is $7, and children 5 and under get in free. Caroler and Santa nights on Dec. 12, 21, 22 and 23, and tuba and Santa nights on Dec. 19 and 20, are priced separately.

One display from last year doesn't have 2026 dates yet. In 2025, the 12 Days of Christmas display at Dwayne Webster Veterans Park, 401 W. 13th St., ran Nov. 21 through Jan. 1, from 5 to 9 p.m., and was free. According to the Loveland Reporter-Herald, Visit Loveland installed it and the Winter Holiday Council sponsored it. Keep an eye on Visit Loveland in early November for this year's run.

Downtown Is Lit, and the New Storefronts Come Next

The rebuilt street will host its first holiday crowd before several of the businesses announced for it are open. In its July 1 downtown column, the Reporter-Herald reported that the Dug and Firkin, a planned brewpub at 243 E. Fourth St., was expected to open "later this year." In April, BizWest reported that Sky Bear Brewery and Pub planned a move to 209 E. Fourth St. and that Echo Brewing and Pizzeria had signed a lease at 409 N. Railroad Ave. Rio Grande announced a location at 225 Fourth St., with an opening target of early 2027, according to BizWest. The city's October update listed a sidewalk closure at 225 E. Fourth St. for work outside the street project.

That means the first Festival of Lights on the new street, Nov. 20, will happen while some of these planned openings are still a few months away. If you walk Floats on Fourth between Lincoln and Washington on the 20th, you'll pass several of the addresses where those openings are planned.

The season runs straight into the next Loveland tradition. The Loveland Chamber of Commerce says drop boxes for the 81st Valentine Re-mailing Program are scheduled for Jan. 8 through Feb. 8, 2027.

When you're deciding where to spend a Friday night in November, it's good to know which parts of town are still settling in and which are ready for a crowd. At Catherine Montgomery, we follow Loveland's calendar the way our neighbors do, from Chapungu to the last finished block of Fourth Street. If a lights tour has you curious about a particular part of town, we're glad to show you around it.