By Thanksgiving weekend, locally sourced trees will be fixed to posts along Brown Street, Main Street and West Main Street in Wickford. In past years, members of the Wickford Village Association provided and decorated those trees themselves. This year anyone in the community can adopt one and add a personalized dedication tag.
The association calls the change "an old tradition with a new twist." The 41st Festival of Lights runs Thursday, December 3 through Sunday, December 6, 2026. But the part of the season residents can actually join now begins earlier, and the first deadline is November 20.
More than sixty trees, and an open invitation
Here is how the Wickford Village Association describes the program:
"Each year, members of the Wickford Village Association come together providing and decorating beautiful, locally sourced trees placed throughout the Village, filling our community with holiday magic and festive cheer."
The association goes on to say that "this year, we're inviting the entire community to be part of this cherished holiday tradition."
An adoption costs $55. The association says that money helps offset the cost of buying and decorating more than 60 trees around the village. Decorations are provided. What the adopter adds is the personal part, a dedication tag with their own wording on it.
Trees that association members once provided and decorated on their own will now carry tags from anyone who adopts one. Because the trees line Brown, Main and West Main, the tags will be up on those streets through the festival weekend.
The season now runs on this calendar
The official opening is still the tree lighting, but for adopters the dates start earlier.
By November 20: sign up
Adopters have to register in advance, and sign-up closes November 20, 2026. The decorating party described below is only for people who adopted a tree, so registering by this date is how you get in.
Thanksgiving weekend: the trees go up
The association says it will secure the trees to posts throughout the village in time for Thanksgiving weekend.
Sunday, November 29, 10 a.m. to noon: decorate your tag
Adopters meet to decorate their dedication tags. The association will supply craft materials, sweet treats and what it calls "cozy drinks." Then everyone heads out into the village, with cocoa in hand, to find the tree they'll call their own. The trees stand along Brown Street, Main Street and West Main Street.
Thursday, December 3: the lighting at Updike Park
The festival officially opens with the lighting of the tree at Updike Park. Thousands of white lights go on along the streets, and storefront displays go up for the merchants' window competition.
December 4 through 6: Santa by water
Santa arrives by boat at the Town Dock on Brown Street on Friday evening and on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Caroling and a horse-drawn hayride through the village follow each arrival. The Elf Parade is on Saturday, and the association invites everyone to come in their "elfiest" costumes. Many shops stay open until 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
December 5 and 6: Holiday Open Studios at the Mill
The same weekend, The Mill at Shady Lea in North Kingstown opens its studios from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days.
Saturday, December 12: the Candy Cane Express
Cruise RI runs a one-hour Santa cruise aboard the Coastal Princess, leaving Wickford at 11 a.m. Its Wickford departure point is 170 Main Street, behind Gardner's Wharf Seafood. Tickets are sold through Cruise RI.
A festival made of local contributions
The tree adoption joins a weekend whose pieces already come from local businesses and groups. For real-time updates, the association points people to its "I Love Wickford Village" pages on Facebook and Instagram.
Take Santa's arrival. His boat comes in with Safe/Sea, a locally family-owned marine assistance company. Its main work is towing and salvage for recreational boaters, and it has served Rhode Island boaters since 1985. Safe/Sea is also the exclusive BoatUS towing provider in the state. So the company that tows recreational boaters for the rest of the year brings Santa in to the Town Dock, led by a group of kayakers dressed as reindeer.
The cocoa comes from the Boy Scouts. The window displays come from the shop owners. The competition has some history. WJAR reported in 2018 that Green Ink took third place with "Bringing Home the Tree," and that Beauty and the Bath, with "Merry Fizzmas," tied Different Drummer for second. All three shops are still listed in the association's shop directory.
Last year was the 40th festival. Julie Beebe of the Wickford Village Association told Hey Rhody that the tree lighting is "a beautiful, heartwarming tradition that brings people together year after year." Adoption turns that idea into something residents can sign up for. Anyone who wants their family's name on the trees can now get it there for $55 and a Sunday morning.
The Mill extends the weekend to the food pantry
The second big event of the festival weekend makes the same kind of ask. The Mill at Shady Lea, at 215 Shady Lea Road, is a historic mill with more than 40 studios for artists and artisans. Hey Rhody reports that more than 30 of those artists will open their workspaces for Holiday Open Studios. The work includes jewelry, blown glass, painting, photography, sculpture, pottery, rugs, fiber art and rare books. Admission and parking are free.
The same article says visitors are encouraged to bring an item for the North Kingstown Food Pantry, to help local families prepare holiday meals. The pantry has reopened in its renovated building on School Street. It is the historic "little red schoolhouse," now repainted its colonial red, with a new warehouse, a walk-in refrigerator and freezer, and a kitchen that pantry manager Kristin Jahne told The Independent will be used for cooking classes and demonstrations. Jahne said the $2.1 million project was paid for entirely from local sources, including individual donations and town budget allocations.
So on the first full weekend of December, the trees on Brown Street carry residents' names, and the canned goods dropped off at the Mill go to a pantry that residents themselves paid to rebuild.
Where the adopted trees will stand
All the trees are on Brown, Main and West Main, so finding your own after the November 29 party means walking past the village's daily stops.
- Brown Street: Shayna's Place at 45 Brown Street is run by the Olerio family and open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wickford on the Water at 85 Brown Street is open seven days a week. Wickford Social is at 24 Brown Street, with its entrance on Spink Street. The Town Dock, where Santa lands, is on Brown Street too.
- Main Street: Anchored Soul, a boutique that owner Alana Almonte opened in April 2025, is at 2 Main Street. The Candy Cane Express boards at 170 Main Street.
- West Main Street: Sweet Marie's Tea Cottage has been listed at 25 W. Main St.
- Just off the route: Seacoast Sweets is at 1 Phillips Street. Tavern By the Sea, Village Ice Cream and Soup, and El Tapatio are also on the association's dining list. The Clam, a thrift shop that The Providence Journal reported Makaila Desent opened in the village in summer 2025, sits inside her nail-salon space.
For the Friday and Saturday evenings of the festival, when many shops are open until 9 p.m., the association suggests a meal or snack at one of the village's restaurants. A tagged tree outside the door gives people a reason to stop.
Sign-up for a tree closes November 20 through the Wickford Village Association's adoption page, and the full festival schedule is on its Festival of Lights page.
At Robert Rutley, we follow how traditions like this one keep a harbor village's main streets busy in the dark months. If you own a home near Brown or Main Street and want to understand how the village's year-round life shows up in what your property is worth, we'd be glad to prepare a Concierge Home Valuation for you.
