How we check dates

Of the 128 markets listed, 108 have official 2026 dates and 20 are waiting on the organizer. Last full check: October 22, 2026.

Where dates come from

• The market organizer's own website comes first. If the organizer only posts elsewhere, we use the city, park district or official tourism board page.
• We do not take dates from review sites, social media reposts or other "best markets" lists. Those are where stale dates spread.
• Every listing shows the page we used and the day we checked it.

What "not announced yet" means

If the organizer hasn't published 2026 dates, we don't estimate them, even when a market opens on the same weekend every year. You'll see "2026 dates not announced yet" and, where the organizer's own records show them, last year's dates labeled with the year.

How listings stay current

A script re-opens every source page on a schedule, compares it with what we stored, and flags any market whose page changed, lost its dates or started mentioning 2026. Our AI research agents then re-read the flagged page and update the listing against the official source, with automated checks and a second, independent check before anything goes live. The site owner also spot-checks listings by hand every week. The script respects each site's robots.txt, waits between requests and only reads public pages.

Dates and prices can change

Everything we list comes from what each organizer or farm publishes, on its own website or on a city, tourism, county, state agriculture, university extension or growers' association page, and every listing links the page we used. Those pages are the source, and they are not always current: some still show last season's prices or hours, and plans change for weather, sell-outs or private events.

• Every listing names the page we used and the day we last checked it.
• For tree farms, we show a price as this season's only when the farm ties it to 2026. Older prices are marked with their year, and a price with no year says so.
• When a source gives dates without printing the year, we count them as 2026 only when the page is marked for 2026 or the weekdays it gives match 2026, and the listing says so.
• If a detail isn't on the source, we say we haven't confirmed it rather than guess.

The organizer or farm always has the final word. Check its website or call before you go, especially for prices, hours and opening days. If you spot something out of date, tell us and we will re-check the source.

"Open this weekend"

This list uses only official 2026 dates and, where the organizer states them, the days of the week the market opens. It can't know about one-off closures for weather, holidays or private events, so check the official site before you go.

Which markets get their own page

A market gets a separate page only when we have more to say than fits in the list: a venue, dates (this year's or last year's) and at least two sourced details worth knowing before you go. The rest appear in the state lists with their source link.

Christmas light displays

The same rules apply to the 189 light displays: dates, hours and prices come from the display's own website, the city or park department, or the zoo or garden that runs it. "Drive-through" and "walk-through" are what the organizer says, not our guess from photos. The "open Christmas Eve" and "open Christmas Day" filters are ticked only when the official schedule says so (or says the display runs nightly through those dates with no closures listed), and "wheelchair accessible" only when the organizer states it. A blank means the source didn't say, not "no". Each state page lists every display we have there. A display with posted 2026 dates also gets a page of its own; one still waiting on dates gets one only in a state with at least 3 dated displays, and until then its full details sit on the state page.

Christmas tree farms

For the 357 tree farms, season dates, hours, prices, tree types, extras such as wagon rides or cocoa, and pet rules come from the farm's own website. For 132 farms without a readable site of their own, we used a listing the farm supplies to a state association, agriculture department or tourism bureau, and the listing says so. Until a farm posts its 2026 opening day, the listing says the season is not posted yet. When a farm gives an opening day but no closing day, we show it as open from that day and say the closing day isn't published. Each state page lists every farm we have there. A farm with posted 2026 dates also gets a page of its own; one still waiting on dates gets one only in a state with at least 3 dated farms, and until then its full details sit on the state page.