Thirsk's Christmas lights are listed to go on from the Market Place on Friday 27 November, with entertainment from 5pm and the switch-on at 6.30pm. The Christmas Fair fills Thirsk and Sowerby Town Hall the same Friday and the Saturday after.
It is all on what's on in Thirsk, and it happens on the square outside our door at 87 Market Place, where every walk time below starts.
What we know, and what we are waiting for
The date and the times come from Thirsk Tourist Information's bulletin of 31 October, which lists entertainment from 5pm, the lights at 6.30pm and the fair across 27 and 28 November. The 27 November date was also reported in April, and the 2024 switch-on was set for 6.30pm too.
Christmas in Thirsk, the volunteer committee that runs it, had not posted the 2026 times on its own Facebook page when we checked on 31 October. On 2 October it said the last few stalls for the fair were going. We will move the date from listed to confirmed on our What's On page when the committee posts it.
The lights themselves
The switch-on is paid for by the committee's sponsors and Thirsk Town Council, and the council has been working on the lights since the summer. Its July minutes record a contractor, Dressers, putting a plan together and North Yorkshire Council being asked where the power points are. At the September meeting, Councillor Robinson said she was waiting on a quote from Christmas Plus, and that the cost was expected to pass 20,000 pounds.
The minutes do not say what the scheme covers or whether it is in place for this Christmas.
The fair in the Town Hall
The Christmas Fair is stalls run by local makers and businesses, in Thirsk and Sowerby Town Hall on Westgate, on the Friday and the Saturday. The committee has not published its opening hours, so check its page before you go. On the Saturday the market is on the square too.
If you want Christmas shopping before the lights, Little Bird Made's artisan market is on the square from Friday 13 to Sunday 15 November, and our Christmas shopping post builds a day around it.
The evening, hour by hour
Afternoon. The Christmas Fair is in the Town Hall on Westgate, a few minutes from the square; its hours are on the committee's page once they are out.
4pm. We close, so this is the time to have eaten.
5pm. The entertainment starts on the Market Place.
6.30pm. The lights go on. In 2024 Father Christmas came too.
After. Rural Arts at the Courthouse, on Westgate, has David Ford's songbook evening at 7.30pm, ticketed through Rural Arts.
Saturday 28 November
The fair carries on in the Town Hall, and Saturday is a market day, so the market is on the square as usual. We open at half past eight. Christmas in and around Thirsk has the rest of the season.
Getting there and parking
The Market Place is parking on days without a market, and nobody has said yet whether it closes for the evening. Our getting-around guide has the other car parks, the trains and the taxi rank. Thirsk station is about a mile and a half from the square.
North Yorkshire Council is repaving the footway on the southern side of the square, between the Three Tuns and Castlegate, until 27 November, when the site is cleared and made safe for Christmas. The work starts again in the new year.
Worth knowing before you go
It is outdoors, after dark, at the end of November. Wrap up, and bring a torch if you are walking back to a car off the square. And 6.30pm is the listed time until the committee confirms it.
Where we fit
We close at four on the Friday. Afternoon tea can start any half hour up to 3pm on a weekday: book a time and come out onto the square fed. The menu has real hot chocolate for anyone who needs warming up first.
