Hastings to host first Christmas festival in 50 years as Nights of Lights planning ramps up
Nights of Lights is still nine weeks away, but planning and preparations are well underway. And this year, with help from the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce, the holiday tradition is heading west to Hastings.
Jena Dennis, founder and board chair of Hastings Main Street, Inc., made the announcement Thursday morning at the Chamber's Tourism & Hospitality Council event. Hastings has not held a Christmas festival in more than 50 years.
"Christmas is something very, very important for Hastings," Dennis said. "To say we were over the moon excited would be an understatement."
This December, through a partnership with the Chamber and the Tourist Development Council, the community will host its very own Hastings Nights of Lights.
"Without the Chamber and the TDC, none of this would have been possible," Dennis said. "It was their idea to us last year, and like everything else, we just took it and ran with it."
The lights are already going up. Through a Tourist Development Council grant secured through the Chamber, Hastings is installing permanent lighting on most of the commercial buildings along its main street. The lights will be white for the holidays, and they can be changed for other events throughout the year.
"For small mom-and-pop type businesses, this is a big deal," Dennis said. "We'll be able to do Fourth of July events with red, white and blue lights. We'll be able to do St. Patrick's Day, or whatever our heart's desire."
Hastings Main Street also bought the full inventory of a Jacksonville festival company that was going out of business, which came with 80 Christmas trees, two snow machines, a Santa's sleigh and a 30-foot tree. Dennis said the goal is to give Hastings businesses a holiday season of their own while protecting the community's small, rural character.
"When things get a little too hectic downtown through that season, please do stop out and see us," Dennis said. "It's a different way of life, and we are excited to welcome you."
Hastings Nights of Lights will take place the second weekend of December. It will begin Friday night with a tree lighting ceremony and continue Saturday with a morning parade, followed by an evening of horse-drawn carriage rides and trolley rides through the neighborhood to see the decorations.
Dennis was one of three speakers at Thursday's event. St. Augustine City Manager David Birchim laid out what it takes to manage the crowds downtown each season, and Old Town Trolley Tours & Attractions general manager Dave Chatterton shared the story behind the trolley tour and what is new this year.
Managing the crowds in St. Augustine
For the city, the season lasts far longer than 58 days. Birchim said setup starts two months before opening night and teardown takes another month, so the city's work stretches across about five and a half months.
"I like to say that the city's also in the tourism and hospitality industry," Birchim said. "It is a big deal for us."
The 2024 season changed how the city approaches it. A sheriff's helicopter with an infrared camera showed cars backed up toward Interstate 95, and the historic district was so packed with people that it registered on screen as one white blob.
"It paralyzed our downtown area. It paralyzed all of the major roadways coming into and out of town," Birchim said. "There were literally tens of thousands of people at any given time downtown."
The city responded with residents-only parking zones, workforce parking lots, a $40 garage rate for visitors with a $3 rate for county residents, expanded shuttles and officers directing traffic at downtown intersections.
"We weren't trying to hurt the visitors," Birchim said. "We were trying to encourage them to park in our shuttle lots rather than coming downtown, because there's only so much capacity we have for parking downtown."
Last season about 372,000 people attended, 280,000 of them from outside St. Johns County. The parking garage handled about 130,000 cars and filled to capacity 77 times. Shuttles carried more than 69,000 passengers, and a new beach circulator from St. Augustine Beach hotels to the Bridge of Lions has since become a permanent route. Law enforcement logged 1,492 hours of overtime. The city also placed 75 portable restrooms downtown to supplement the 69 public stalls in the historic district.
All told, the season cost $1,384,000 to manage, with $875,000 coming from county bed tax revenue through the Tourist Development Council. For the coming season, the county has committed $800,000 and the city expects to spend about $400,000.
"We are refining our program and we continue to do that," Birchim said. "We're open to suggestions and advice."
History of fun with Old Town Trolley
Chatterton opened by thanking the city crews who hang the lights and keep the streets clean through the season.
"There would be no Nights of Lights event if it wasn't for the city," Chatterton said.
The trolley tour started as a Chamber of Commerce shopping trolley that ran a closed downtown loop with recorded advertising playing on cassette tapes. That early version carried about 5,000 riders in a season. Today the trolley carries about that many in a night.
"What you might not know is how this thing started," Chatterton said. "It actually started with the Chamber of Commerce. My goodness, this event has grown."
Tours run 30 to 45 minutes on a route designed with the city to show the most lights while staying out of residential neighborhoods. Riders sing carols on the open-air trolleys, get hot apple cider and cookies at the end, and leave with the tour's signature glasses, which carry more than $100 in coupons from downtown businesses.
"I'm down there every night. My shoulder hurts from people walking up and tapping me on the shoulder, because this has become such a holiday tradition for so many St. Johns County families," Chatterton said.
New this year is a Nights of Lights VIP experience, a ticket good for one chosen day and up to four people, with front-of-the-line boarding, seat choice and a keepsake gift. The 14th annual lighting contest, presented in partnership with the Chamber and the Visitors and Convention Bureau, also returns, with a residential category open to homes anywhere in the county.
Historic Tours of America also donates $15,000 a year in scholarships so school bands, jazz ensembles and musical theater groups can perform on the Visitor Information Center porches.
"Our kids here in St. Johns County are so talented," Chatterton said. "Every group that comes up just seems to be even better than the previous group."
Plan your visit
Nights of Lights in St. Augustine runs Nov. 21, 2026, through Jan. 18, 2027, a 58-day season that opens the Saturday before Thanksgiving and ends on
Make the most of your visit by downloading the Nights of Lights app. The app provides everything you need at your fingertips, including:
- Parking information and shuttle details
- Interactive maps
- Event schedules
- Tips for exploring downtown safely and easily
Thank you to our sponsors
The Tourism & Hospitality Council event was made possible by the support of Jacksonville Aviation Authority, SouthState Bank and RockIT Solutions, LLC.