Thirsk keeps Remembrance Sunday on 8 November, and the month ends with the Christmas lights going on across the Market Place on Friday 27th. In between there are two bonfire nights, three days of makers' stalls on the square and a Christmas cookery evening in the Town Hall.
We checked every date below against the organiser's own page on 31 October 2026, and say so where we could not. They are all on what's on in Thirsk, and we're at 87 Market Place, where every walk time below starts.
The month at a glance
| When | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Thu 5 Nov | Fireworks at the Farm | Monk Park Farm, Bagby |
| Sat 7 Nov | Bonfire and fireworks | Burtree Country House, York Road |
| Sat 7 and Sun 8 Nov | The Choral | The Ritz, Westgate |
| Sun 8 Nov | Remembrance Sunday | St Mary's to Sowerby War Memorial |
| Wed 11 Nov | Our Freedom and poppy workshop | Rural Arts, Westgate |
| Fri 13 to Sun 15 Nov | Christmas artisan market | Market Place |
| Sat 21 Nov | Taste of Yorkshire Christmas | Town Hall, Westgate |
| Fri 27 Nov | Christmas lights switch-on | Market Place |
The first week: bonfires and a gig
Thursday 5 November is Fireworks at the Farm at Monk Park Farm, near Bagby, from 5pm to 8pm, with low-bang fireworks set to Disney music for small children. Its tickets had sold out when we checked on 31 October. In town, Rural Arts at the Courthouse has Katie Spencer, a guitarist and songwriter from the edge of Hull, at 7.30pm.
Saturday 7 November brings the one bonfire in Thirsk itself: Burtree Country House on York Road lights its bonfire from 6pm and starts the fireworks at 7pm. It is ticketed, and cheaper booked online than on the gate. Our Bonfire Night guide has Bedale, Masham and Northallerton too.
Remembrance weekend
Thirsk's Remembrance Sunday is on 8 November, but nobody has published this year's times. Last year the parade left St Mary's Church on Kirkgate, six minutes' walk from the square, with the Thirsk Royal British Legion Band, for the two minutes' silence at 11am at the Sowerby War Memorial.
The Ritz on Westgate shows The Choral on the Saturday and Sunday evenings at 7.30pm, a film about a Yorkshire choral society in 1916 whose men have gone to war, with a fifteen-minute short, Wilfred, before it. The two-part De Gaulle runs from Monday 9 to Thursday 12 November.
On Wednesday 11 November, Armistice Day, Rural Arts screens the half-hour film Our Freedom and follows it with a poppy-making workshop, 2pm to 4pm.
Mid-month: makers on the square
Little Bird Made brings its Christmas artisan market to the Market Place for three days, Friday 13 to Sunday 15 November, 10am to 3pm. It is makers selling their own work, and our Christmas shopping post fits a day around it.
Thirsk Library on Chapel Street runs a scrap-fabric Christmas decorations session on Tuesday 17 November, 1.30pm to 3.15pm. Rural Arts has its GnT's and Tote Bags evening, printing book quotes onto a cotton bag, on Friday 20 November from 7pm to 9pm.
The last ten days
Saturday 21 November is the busy night. Taste of Yorkshire Christmas puts Stephanie Moon and Sandy Docherty on stage in the Town Hall on Westgate for live Christmas cookery, 7.30pm to 9.30pm. The Mowbray Singers give their autumn concert the same evening at 7.30pm, usually at St Oswald's Church in Sowerby.
Friday 27 November is the Christmas lights switch-on, listed for 5pm entertainment and a 6.30pm switch-on, with the Christmas Fair in the Town Hall that day and the next. David Ford plays his songbook evening at Rural Arts at 7.30pm the same night.
On the square all month
The market sets up on the square every Monday and Saturday. North Yorkshire Council is repaving the footway on the southern side, between the Three Tuns and Castlegate, in sections between 7.30am and 4pm until 27 November, then stopping for Christmas. Every shop stays reachable on foot. Our getting-around guide has the other car parks.
Worth knowing
By the end of the month the sun sets before four, and every evening event above starts after we close. Two of the biggest dates, Remembrance Sunday and the lights, are still waiting on their organisers' own announcements. We will update our What's On page when they post, but check the morning of if you are travelling in.
Where we fit
We close at 4, or 3 on Sundays, so we are the daytime half of most of these, and our visit page has the full hours. The menu has soup and hot chocolate for a cold market morning, and afternoon tea runs any half hour from 12: book a time a day ahead.
