Light Up the Season

Light Up the Season returns to Piedmont Park on Sunday, November 22, 2026, for its second year. It's the annual holiday kickoff from the Piedmont Park Conservancy, which they describe as a season of light, community and connection in Atlanta's Green Heart. The day starts at Greystone with a lantern-making workshop at 3:30 PM, and from there it moves into the Holiday Lantern Parade, which circles Lake Clara Meer. The parade is led by the Seed & Feed Marching Abominable, a volunteer community street band founded here in 1974, known for high-energy brass and whimsical costumes. They hit their 50th anniversary in 2024 and run a 501(c)(3) endowment that funds music-education grants.

After the parade, the celebration moves to the Meadow for the lighting of the park's 50-foot Great Tree, along with a Menorah and a Kinara. The three are lit together, and the whole thing is free and open to the public, though there's a $25 suggested donation. The lighting is just the start: the season runs from November 22 through January 4, 2027.

There's a bit of history behind why this exists. The Conservancy launched Light Up the Season in November 2025 as a new tradition, and this is its second annual gathering. Before that, the park didn't have a unified multi-faith holiday lighting. It stepped into a void left when the city's 74-year-old Great Tree Lighting tradition ended in December 2023. The parade route follows Lake Clara Meer, an 11.5-acre artificial lake created for Atlanta's 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition. The 189-acre park is run through a partnership with the nonprofit Conservancy, which was founded in 1989.

If you're planning to go, the workshop is at 3:30 PM at Greystone, followed by the parade and the lighting in the Meadow. It's free and open to the public, with a $25 suggested donation.