The tree at CCB Plaza gets lit at one moment, at 7 p.m. on Saturday, November 21. The season it opens takes up much more room. Over four days it spreads across twenty storefront windows, ten Art Walk venues from West Main to East Main, and a ballpark at the south end of downtown that stays lit until early January.
Most of it is free. Most of it sits within a stroll of Corcoran Street. The pieces are run by different organizations, though, so nobody hands you one schedule. Across all four days, the weekend is built for walking between places.
Twenty Windows, Up From Six
Start with Weird Windows, because it's the piece that stays longest. It's a project by Weird Productions that hands downtown storefronts to local artists, who turn them into offbeat holiday displays. Downtown Durham Inc. describes sci-fi robots, toy-like scrap-wood workshops and totem-like sculptures, and calls the stroll between them a scavenger hunt for holiday weirdness.
This is the project's second year, and it has grown a lot. Durham Magazine reported in August that Weird Productions wanted to go from six installations in 2025 to around 20 in 2026. Downtown Durham Inc.'s Third Friday page now lists 20 holiday art windows.
That growth changes what the windows are for. Six windows make a nice detour. Twenty make a route. The displays stay up from November's Third Friday through early January. Downtown Durham Inc. points people to a purple tent in CCB Plaza for a map, and suggests picking up a drink from the Bullpen social district to carry while you walk.
The windows open on Friday, November 20. Everything else that weekend happens along the streets they cover.
Saturday's Center Is CCB Plaza
Downtown Durham Inc.'s annual tree lighting runs from 4 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, November 21, at CCB Plaza, 201 N. Corcoran St. It's free and open to all ages. Pierce Freelon is DJ and MC for the evening, and the stage schedule fills the four hours like this:
Time | On the plaza |
|---|---|
4:00 p.m. | Nina School of Dance |
4:30 p.m. | Batala |
5:00 p.m. | Takiri |
5:30 p.m. | Al Strong Brass Band |
7:00 p.m. | Tree ceremony |
7:30 p.m. | Mayor Leo and honored guests |
The food and drink list reads like a small directory of downtown. Fullsteam brings roasted chestnuts and gingerbread, Parlour pours hot chocolate, and Montwood Cider, Lutra mini buns, Cheeni Chai, Dosirak, Rose's onigiri truck, 21C cookies, SelfHelp popcorn and Ashleigh Bakes cookies fill out the rest. The City is handling s'mores, and there are treats inside the Visitors' Center.
For children, the activities include Durham Parks and Recreation's Letters to Santa, free books from Book Harvest, holiday crafts with The Blaze, a Santa stage with elves, Mettlesome Theater, and a prize wheel. Adults will find the Wildly Inclusive German Market and ornament making with Fate & Folklore.
Fate & Folklore turns up again in the next section, and that's typical of the weekend. The same small businesses show up at more than one event, so the events start to feel connected.
The Art Walk Starts on Morris Street and Spreads Out
That same Saturday, the Durham Arts Council's Art Walk Holiday Market runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It comes back on Sunday, November 22, from 1 to 5 p.m. The market is free and set up indoors and outdoors. The Arts Council describes it as starting at its building and spreading across multiple downtown venues as "an easy stroll." This year's version follows at least three earlier editions, from 2023, 2024 and 2025.
The Arts Council itself, at 120 Morris St., hosts more than 50 artists in its indoor and outdoor markets. There's live music in the DAC Garden, a Kids Zone with free crafts, and an official Art Walk Passport to pick up before heading out. Nine more venues each run their own artists, demonstrations or activities:
Venue | Address |
|---|---|
Durham Arts Council | 120 Morris St. |
5 Points Gallery | 109 E. Chapel Hill St. |
Fate & Folklore | 123 Market St., Unit B |
Through This Lens | 303 E. Chapel Hill St. |
Artisan Market at 305 | 305 E. Chapel Hill St. |
Cecy's Gallery | 417 Foster St. |
Indio | 905 W. Main St., Suite 20G |
Delores Pottery | 1010 W. Main St. |
Boardinghouse Arts | 703 W. Trinity Ave. |
Super G Print Lab | 933 E. Main St. |
Look at the addresses and the route takes shape. East Chapel Hill Street holds three venues close together. Foster Street and West Trinity Avenue pull north. Indio and Delores Pottery sit out on West Main, and Super G Print Lab is on East Main. The Art Walk covers more of downtown than the tree lighting does, and it's open during the same Saturday hours that the new windows are on view.
The Lights at the South End Overlap the Tree
FestiBull of Lights opens first, on Thursday, November 19. It runs at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, 409 Blackwell St., through January 2, 2027, from 5:30 to 9 p.m. It's closed on November 26, November 30, December 7, December 14 and December 25. The Durham Bulls describe this season as a return. Its first run, listed by American Tobacco Campus, went from November 20, 2025, to January 3, 2026.
Inside the ballpark you'll find:
- synchronized light displays
- the NC by Train Holiday Express
- Santa and Wool E. Claus
- free crafts, a scavenger hunt and letters to Santa
- Christmas Tree Alley
- s'mores and firepits, a holiday slide, a heated lounge and a dance floor
- food and drinks
General admission is $12 in advance or $13 on the day. Everyone age three and up needs a ticket, and children two and under get in free. Add-ons include a $5 train ride, a $3 flex exchange option, a $200 private firepit for up to eight people, and a $400 igloo for eight.
On Saturday, the hours cause a problem. FestiBull opens at 5:30, while the brass band is still playing at CCB Plaza, and it closes at 9. The tree ceremony is at 7 and the mayor speaks at 7:30. If you stay for the whole tree lighting, you'll get about an hour at the ballpark. Sunday has no such overlap. The Art Walk ends at 5, FestiBull opens at 5:30, and Sunday, November 22, isn't one of its closed dates.
Two Ways to Spend the Weekend
Because the events overlap on Saturday and line up neatly on Sunday, the weekend works best split across both days:
- Saturday morning and midday: start at the Durham Arts Council on Morris Street for the passport and the 50-plus artists, then walk the East Chapel Hill Street cluster of 5 Points Gallery, Through This Lens and Artisan Market at 305.
- Saturday afternoon: stop at the purple tent in CCB Plaza for the Weird Windows map, pick up a Bullpen drink, and find the windows on the way to Fate & Folklore and Cecy's Gallery.
- Saturday evening: stay at CCB Plaza from the brass band through the 7 p.m. tree ceremony.
- Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m.: spend the Art Walk's shorter second day on the outer venues, meaning Indio and Delores Pottery on West Main, Boardinghouse Arts on West Trinity, and Super G Print Lab on East Main.
- Sunday, 5:30 p.m.: finish at the ballpark when FestiBull opens.
You can do it in one day if you shorten the plaza visit, but the hours make that harder than it needs to be.
The Week That Follows
The windows stay up after the weekend ends, and the calendar keeps going. FestiBull is closed on Thanksgiving, November 26. On Saturday, November 28, the Durham Craft Market holds Shop Small Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. under the pavilion at Durham Central Park, with makers, live music, baked goods and coffee. Cirque du Soleil's "'Twas the Night Before" runs at DPAC from November 25 through December 6. Then on December 2, American Tobacco Campus holds its Tower Lighting from 5 to 9 p.m. at 318 Blackwell St., just up the street from the ballpark that has been lit since November 19.
If a weekend among the porches and storefronts of in-town Durham has you thinking about which blocks you'd like to be closer to, Timothy Hock knows these streets from the plaza out to West Main. Schedule a Personalized Consultation and we'll talk through the parts of downtown you enjoy most.
