Bridgton's one-night holiday tradition just got three days, and the town is asking neighbors to plan two of them. The winter celebration long known as Festival of Lights, held on the first Saturday in December, has a new name, Bridgton's Hometown Holidays. It now runs a full weekend, Friday, December 4 through Sunday, December 6, 2026. Saturday stays familiar. Bridgton Recreation is leaving Friday and Sunday open for local businesses, groups, artists and residents to fill. And Pleasant Mountain has put its proposed opening weekend on Saturday and Sunday of that same weekend. That gives Bridgton a new kind of start to winter, a stretch shared by Main Street and the mountain.
Saturday Stays the Way You Know It
Bridgton Recreation's announcement says the Saturday program carries over intact. These traditions all stay on Saturday, December 5:
- Mistletoe Market
- Merry Makers
- Visits with Santa
- The community Tree Lighting
- The Parade of Lights
If your December has always been built around the parade and the tree lighting, that night hasn't moved. The organizer's event listing gives the overall window as Friday at 4 p.m. through Sunday at 5 p.m., with events at locations around town. Things won't run nonstop through that window, and the Visit Sebago Lake listing points people to the official Facebook event for the full schedule.
Friday and Sunday Are an Open Invitation
The new part is the two days around Saturday, and the town wrote the call for help into the announcement itself. "This year, we're looking to make the celebration even bigger by introducing new activities and events throughout the weekend!" the Bridgton Recreation announcement reads. It goes on: "We want to work with local businesses, organizations, artists, community groups, and residents to make Hometown Holidays a truly community-wide celebration."
The town lists three ways in: hosting an activity, partnering on an event, or simply finding a way to help. The contact is Community Programs Coordinator Kat Harju at [email protected].
Saturday is the anchor. What happens on Friday evening and Sunday afternoon depends on who answers that email. A Main Street shop with late Friday hours, a church choir, a craft group, or a family with a good sledding idea could all end up on the 2026 program.
Pleasant Mountain Picked the Same Weekend
A few miles from the parade route, Pleasant Mountain's events calendar lists Opening Weekend for December 5 and 6, 2026, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., to kick off the 2026–27 ski season. The resort calls it a proposed opening date. It says it will post terrain, hours and pricing closer to the season. As in any Maine December, the weather has the final say.
If those dates hold, the first weekend of December in Bridgton looks like this:
| Day | In town | On the mountain | Nearby |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday, Dec. 4 | Hometown Holidays begins at 4 p.m., with new community-hosted events | Casco Public Library's Winter Wonderland of Trees Kids Night | |
| Saturday, Dec. 5 | Mistletoe Market, Merry Makers, Santa, Tree Lighting, Parade of Lights | Proposed opening day, 8:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m. | |
| Sunday, Dec. 6 | Hometown Holidays wraps at 5 p.m. | Opening weekend, day two | Winter Wonderland of Trees raffle drawings |
The Casco event is the 8th Annual Winter Wonderland of Trees at Casco Public Library, 5 Leach Hill Road. Its schedule overlaps both ends of the Bridgton weekend, so a family could do Kids Night on Friday, the parade on Saturday, and get to Casco for the raffle on Sunday.
For anyone weighing a season pass, an August report from the ski industry trade group SAM listed Pleasant Mountain among the partner mountains on the 2026–27 Snow Pass and Snow Triple Play lineups. Both give skiers options at more than one mountain.
Main Street Rebranded for Ski Season First
Main Street made its winter move earlier in the year. In May, Portland Food Map reported that Standard Gastropub had renamed itself The Last Chair. The owners said the restaurant had "always really been an Aprés ski bar at heart" and that the menu would stay the same. The restaurant's own site lists it at 233 Main Street.
In Bridgton, the holiday season and ski season now start together. The Last Chair sits on the same Main Street the Parade of Lights uses, which makes Hometown Holidays the first big test of that idea.
The Weeks Before the Lights
December 4 is still a few weeks away, and Loon Echo Land Trust's calendar fills most of the gap with outdoor, mostly Bridgton-based events. Here's what's left between now and the festival weekend:
- Thursday, Nov. 12, noon to 1 p.m. Community Walk at Pondicherry Park, off Depot Street in downtown Bridgton.
- Friday, Nov. 13. Preview party for Casco Public Library's Winter Wonderland of Trees, 5 Leach Hill Road.
- Saturday, Nov. 14, 9 a.m. to noon. Wood Bank Expansion Celebration.
- Tuesday, Nov. 17, and Saturday, Nov. 21, 9 a.m. to noon. Wood Bank volunteer workdays at 40 South High Street, Bridgton.
- Wednesday, Nov. 18, 10 a.m. to noon. Wednesday Wander at Peabody-Fitch Woods in Bridgton.
- Thursday, Nov. 19, 6:30 to 8 p.m. World Trails Film Festival at the Magic Lantern Theater, 9 Depot St.
- Wednesday, Dec. 2. Wednesday Wander at Raymond Community Forest.
The Wood Bank dates have the most to do with the season. The Lake Region Wood Bank is a volunteer effort that collects firewood and gives it to people who are without fuel oil, diesel or heating oil. WBZ's report, republished by iHeart, named veteran William Shuttleworth as a founder. It listed Loon Echo Land Trust, Bridgton First Congregational Church, The Opportunity Alliance, the Bridgton Community Center, local businesses and volunteers among its founders and supporters. A November morning stacking wood on South High Street fits the same idea as Hometown Holidays, where neighbors build the season themselves.
The Magic Lantern film night pairs well with a walk. Pondicherry Park and the theater share Depot Street, so you can walk the trails at dusk and then head inside for the 6:30 screenings.
One addition farther afield: in March, Loon Echo Land Trust announced that a family donation created Muddy River Forest in Naples. The 26-acre preserve protects nearly 1,300 feet of river frontage, and its existing riverside trail stays open to the public. It's a quiet late-fall walk for anyone on the Naples side of the lakes.
After Opening Weekend, the Mountain Fills December
Once the parade floats are put away, Pleasant Mountain's calendar picks up with family events through the rest of the month:
- Sunday, Dec. 20, noon to 2 p.m. Visit with Santa in The Great Room.
- Saturday, Dec. 26, 3:30 to 8 p.m. The first night of night skiing.
- Monday, Dec. 28, and every Monday after. Monday Night Madness, skiing or riding from 3:30 to 9 p.m. for $26.
- Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 29–30, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Adventure Camp for young skiers and riders at the Alpine Sugar Haus.
- Wednesday, Dec. 30, 8:30 p.m. The annual Winter Festival at the Main Lodge base area, with fireworks and a torchlight parade.
That gives Bridgton two parades in December, the Parade of Lights on Main Street on December 5 and the torchlight parade at the mountain on December 30.
If your family, shop or group answers Kat Harju's call and plans something for Hometown Holidays, we'd love to hear about it, and we're glad to help spread the word. The team at KW Lifestyle Properties works across the Lakes Region all year, and we follow Bridgton's calendar as closely as its market. Book an appointment whenever you want a local take on what's next for your home, whether that's this winter or after the last chair runs in spring.
