This December, the iron fence along Addison Road will carry a curtain of lights. Lit trees will run along Quorum Road and around Addison Circle, with more décor added across Addison Circle Park. In past years, that park got one big holiday night. This year the Town is lighting it for the month of December.
At its September 22 meeting, the Addison City Council approved a one-year agreement with Premier Christmas, a commercial lighting vendor, for up to $225,000. The money comes from the Fiscal Year 2027 budget. Premier Christmas handles installation, takedown, transportation and storage, and the Town says the lights will be ready for a December 5 holiday event.
Under the line items, this is a decision to give Addison two December lights destinations instead of one. Vitruvian Park has been that place for years. Now the Town is building a second one on the other side of the Tollway, and in its first season the two parks share a date.
The tree lighting used to be one night
Over the last two years, the Addison Circle holiday program has worked the same way. There was a month of smaller happenings with a single evening at the center.
In 2024, the Town billed "Rockin' Around the Circle" as a district-wide program from December 1 to December 29. Its anchor was the Addison Holiday Tree Lighting on Friday, December 6, from 6 to 8 p.m. According to the Town's December 6, 2024 newsletter, that night included the Emerald City All Stars, paid carriage rides, Santa photos, s'mores and cocoa, a floating-lantern wish release and a DART Stuff-a-Bus donation drive.
In 2025, the Addison Circle Holiday Tree Lighting ran on Friday, December 5, from 6 to 9 p.m. It featured The Ones, carriage rides, a floating-lantern release, tree lights synced to music, cocoa, treats and free Santa photos. The Town's wider 2025 holiday season ran from November 28 to December 31 and included nearly three dozen seasonal events and performances.
The tree got lit, and then the park went back to being a park. Everything else around Addison Circle came in pieces. In 2024, Council directed staff to hold the ceremony, run carriage rides on select nights and add uplights in medians where the street trees weren't wrapped.
What the Town says it's buying
Staff first pitched the change at the August 8, 2026 budget workshop. The September 22 staff report puts the goal plainly:
"...expand the holiday offering from a Tree Lighting to a park lighting to drive visitors to Addison Circle Park for the month of December. The project would start in December 2026 as the beginning phase to build upon. The park lighting would complement the activity at Vitruvian Lights to drive Addison Circle Park as a holiday destination."
That passage includes three phrases. "For the month of December" means the display runs all month instead of one night. "Beginning phase to build upon" means 2026 is the first version, not the finished one. "Complement the activity at Vitruvian Lights" names the model the Town is working from. Vitruvian Park already shows how an Addison park can draw people for a whole season, and Addison Circle Park is now being set up to do the same.
Vitruvian already runs on a season-long calendar
Vitruvian Lights is sponsored by UDR and the Town of Addison. Its 2026 dates are set on the Vitruvian Park event calendar:
- Saturday, November 28, 6 p.m.: The lights switch on. The Emerald City party band Limelight plays from 6 to 10 p.m., and the night includes food trucks and vendors, free Santa photos, holiday characters, an elf balloon artist, Letters to Santa with Mrs. Claus, and a walk-through gift box lit with LEDs.
- From November 29: The organizer says the tree lights run daily, with evening hours from 5 to 11 p.m.
- Saturday, December 5, 6 to 10 p.m.: A second special evening with the Latin orchestra HavanaNRG.
- Friday, January 1, 2027: Last day of the run.
Event parking costs $15, cash only, at the Bella Lane and Ponte Avenue lots in Vitruvian Park and at the Alfred J. Loos Sports Complex, 3815 Spring Valley Road. Event parking isn't allowed at Addison Apartments at the Park, Fiori, The Villas at Fiori, Savoye, Savoye2, Vitruvian West or Brookhaven Shopping Center. Signs on Bella Lane, Spring Valley Road and Vitruvian Way point drivers to the designated lots. Bad weather can cancel the event, and parking is non-refundable.
Vitruvian has the model the Town described: a switch-on night, a few big evenings and five weeks of lights in between. Through 2025, Addison Circle had only the big evening.
December 5 now has two events
December 5, 2026 falls on a Saturday. That's the night Vitruvian Park has booked HavanaNRG, and it's also the date the Town gave for the holiday event that debuts the new Addison Circle Park lights.
For residents, this mostly means more options. Since the Addison Circle display is meant to stay up through December, missing the opening night there no longer means missing the lights. That's the practical change from 2025, when the tree-lighting evening was the main event.
As of the September 28 announcement, the Town had not released the event's name, start time, program or parking and transit plan. It said more details would come closer to the date. Visit Addison's holiday page still says to check back. The 2024 and 2025 programs show what the evening has looked like before, but they don't confirm what's planned for 2026.
The two parks side by side
| Addison Circle Park | Vitruvian Park | |
|---|---|---|
| Address | 4970 Addison Circle | 3966 Vitruvian Way |
| 2026 run | December, ready for a December 5 event, with the Town's stated aim of drawing visitors all month | November 28, 2026 to January 1, 2027 |
| Opening night | December 5, details pending | November 28, 6 p.m., with Limelight |
| Other big night | Not yet announced | December 5, 6 to 10 p.m., with HavanaNRG |
| Lights | Trees on Quorum Road and Addison Circle, light curtain on the Addison Road fence, extra décor | Park-wide tree lights, nightly from 5 to 11 p.m. starting November 29 |
| Event parking | Not yet announced | $15 cash at Bella Lane and Ponte Avenue lots and Alfred J. Loos Sports Complex |
| Rail access | Silver Line, Addison Station at 4925 Arapaho Road | Not served by the Silver Line |
The rail row is the newest piece. DART's Silver Line started passenger service on October 25, 2025, running daily from 4 a.m. to 1 a.m. DART describes the area around Addison Station as walkable to restaurants, parks and entertainment, with bus and GoLink connections at the Addison Transit Center next door. That makes 2026 the first year the Addison Circle lights run for the whole month with a rail stop already in place. DART hasn't published holiday-specific train service for Addison. Its Silver Line FAQ says extra special-event trains are possible when DART and the host city plan them ahead of time.
Where dinner fits around each park
A month-long display changes how dinner works. When the lights stay up all December, a weeknight dinner on the Circle can end with a walk past the Addison Road fence, and you don't have to fight the opening-night crowd.
Around Addison Circle Park
- Java & Hopps Café, 4970 Addison Circle, shares the park's address.
- Antonio Ristorante, 4985 Addison Circle, takes reservations through OpenTable and lists a 2025 Wine Spectator Award of Excellence.
- The Lion & Crown, 5001 Addison Circle, keeps an active event calendar.
- El Rincon Mexican Kitchen & Tequila Bar, 5004 Addison Circle, offers pickup and reservations.
- The Mucky Duck Bar, 5064 Addison Circle.
- Astoria Caffe & Wine Bar, 15701 Quorum Drive, on the same road as some of the new tree lighting.
At Vitruvian Park
- Vitruvian Park Tavern, 3870 Ponte Avenue, Suite 150, has food, a bar and online ordering.
- Addison Ice House, 3875 Ponte Avenue, Suite 250, has a patio overlooking Vitruvian Park.
Both Vitruvian spots sit on Ponte Avenue, which is also home to one of the $15 event lots. If you're driving to the November 28 or December 5 evenings, plan dinner and parking together.
What's still unannounced
As of mid-October, the Town still hasn't released the name and start time of the December 5 Addison Circle event, its parking plan or the nightly hours for the new park lighting. Expect those details to show up first on the Town's news page and Visit Addison. The staff report calls this year a first phase to build on, so the Addison Road light curtain and the Quorum Road trees are the starting point.
Whether you've lived near the Circle for years or you're thinking about how close you'd want to be to a park that's now lit all December, Chris Holmes-Hill knows how Addison's blocks change from season to season. Let's connect.
