Two town squares in Miramar Beach each put out a December calendar this year, and the schedules barely overlap. Grand Boulevard has free holiday music in Grand Park every Tuesday evening. The Village of Baytowne Wharf, inside Sandestin, has free holiday concerts with Santa on Wednesday evenings and a light show every night of the month. Put the two together and most weeknights in early December have something free going on within a few minutes of home.
The one exception is the first weekend of December. On Friday, December 4, and Saturday, December 5, both calendars schedule their biggest events, and Emerald Coast Theatre Company opens its holiday show on Grand Boulevard the same weekend. Knowing that one weekend is crowded and the rest of the month is spread out is the most useful thing to have on your calendar before the season starts.
The Weekly Split
Grand Boulevard's Holiday Entertainment on The Boulevard runs four Tuesdays: December 1, 8, 15 and 22, each from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. in Grand Park. The center calls it a rotating lineup of local holiday performers. Individual names are still listed as "more details to follow."
Baytowne Wharf's Wednesday Night Concert Series switches to a Holiday Edition for three weeks, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., free, and every concert includes Visits with Santa. The lineup is all local school and community groups: the Niceville High School Chorus on December 2, the Destin High School Band, and the Fort Walton Beach Choir on December 16.
| Week of | Grand Boulevard, Tuesday 6–7 p.m. | Baytowne Wharf, Wednesday 6–8 p.m. |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 30 | Dec 1, Grand Park | Dec 2, Niceville High School Chorus + Santa |
| Dec 7 | Dec 8, Grand Park | Santa listed for Dec 9; Destin High School Band listed for Dec 10 |
| Dec 14 | Dec 15, Grand Park | Dec 16, Fort Walton Beach Choir + Santa |
| Dec 21 | Dec 22, Grand Park | No concert listed |
The second week has a mismatch on Baytowne's own page. The concert series is billed as every Wednesday, and Santa is listed for December 2, 9 and 16, but the Destin High School Band is listed for December 10, which is a Thursday. If that's the night you're planning around, check Baytowne's December calendar the week of.
The table also shows how the month ends. Grand Boulevard's Tuesdays keep going through December 22, and Baytowne's Wednesday concerts stop after December 16. That makes Grand Park the only one of the two weekly series with a show the week of Christmas.
How Each Square Opens the Season
Each square kicks off the season its own way, and both kickoffs fall in the same three days in November.
Grand Boulevard goes first, with the Hometown Holiday Parade on Friday, November 20, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. The lineup is local school bands, sports and dance teams, and Emerald Coast Theatre Company, among other guests. It's a hometown parade, and the people marching in it are local.
Two days later, on Sunday, November 22, the Sandestin Turkey Trot starts at Baytowne Marina. Packet pickup opens at 6:00 a.m. The 1-mile fun walk steps off at 7:00 and the 5K fun run at 7:30. Registration is $50 for adults and $40 for military or anyone 17 and under, and proceeds go to the Sandestin Foundation for Kids. The first 150 people to register get a T-shirt, and walk-up registrants get one only if extras remain.
From the start, the two squares split the holiday crowd. One takes Friday evening and the other takes Sunday morning, and that's how things stay until the first weekend of December.
The Weekend Both Calendars Land On
Here is how December 4 and 5 lays out across both squares and the theater, in order.
- Thursday, December 3, 7:00 p.m. Emerald Coast Theatre Company opens Million Dollar Quartet Christmas at 560 Grand Boulevard, Suite 200. The theater's entrance is on the south side of the building, facing Highway 98.
- Friday, December 4, 4:00 p.m. Festival of Trees opens in Grand Park. You can browse 16 trees decorated by local nonprofits from 4:00 to 6:30 and vote for the People's Choice Award. Judges also pick three cash-prize winners, all nonprofit organizations. Holiday Sip & Shop starts the same afternoon, with champagne tastings inside the shops and live music.
- Friday, December 4, 5:00 p.m. The Will Thompson Band starts its Candlelight Christmas Concert, which runs until 7:30.
- Friday, December 4, 7:00 p.m. The second performance of Million Dollar Quartet Christmas starts upstairs.
- Friday, December 4, 7:30 p.m. Festival of Trees winners are announced.
- Saturday, December 5, 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The Saturday farmers market becomes Holiday Market on the Blvd, on Grand Boulevard's North Lawn, with artisan vendors, gifts, jewelry, art, crafts and live music.
- Saturday, December 5, 5:00 p.m. The Lantern Parade winds through Baytowne Wharf, led by artist Chantelle Rytter and the Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons with a dozen giant lantern puppets.
- Saturday, December 5, 7:00 p.m. The theater's third evening show starts.
Some of this involves getting out of the audience. To be in the Lantern Parade, the only requirement is carrying a lantern. Decorated golf carts can ride too if they register by email with [email protected]. When the parade ends, the puppets gather by the Christmas tree for meet-and-greets. Baytowne still lists the 2026 parade details as coming soon, so the route and extras could change before December.
At Festival of Trees, your People's Choice vote helps decide which of the 16 local nonprofits takes home an award. The 2026 page hasn't named the participating groups yet, so check the event page closer to the date to see which local organizations you'd be voting for.
For a quieter visit to the Festival of Trees, go early, since browsing opens at 4:00 and the band doesn't start until 5:00. The farmers market is busiest Saturday morning and Baytowne is busiest Saturday evening, so both fit in one day if you start at Grand Boulevard and finish at the Village.
After the Collision, the Lights Carry the Month
Once the first weekend is over, December gets easier to plan, mostly because of one Baytowne event that never takes a night off. Nights of Lights runs every night from December 1 through 31, with free shows at 6:00, 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. on the Events Plaza Lawn. This year the shows are on a new Village tree. A show every hour means you can show up at almost any point in the early evening without much of a wait, on a quiet Monday or on Christmas week.
Baytowne puts a few more events on top of the lights in the second half of the month:
- Grinchmas, Fridays December 11 and 18, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Free photos with the Grinch, plus The Grinch (2018) on the big screen.
- Tuba Christmas, Saturday, December 12, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Free, with holiday classics played on tubas and another round of Visits with Santa.
- Baytowne New Year's Eve Countdown, Thursday, December 31, from 6:00 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. on January 1.
On the Grand Boulevard side, the theater keeps going for most of the month. Million Dollar Quartet Christmas plays through Sunday, December 20, and the later weeks include 1:00 p.m. weekday matinees on December 9, 16 and 17. The final Sunday has two shows, at 2:00 and 6:00 p.m. Tickets are sold through the Emerald Coast Theatre Company production page or at the box office, 850-684-0323, and a processing fee is added to ticket prices. The weekday matinees are the obvious pick if you'd rather skip the opening-weekend crowd.
So the shape of December is predictable. The first weekend is packed. After that, you have Tuesdays in Grand Park, Wednesdays at Baytowne through the 16th, Friday Grinch nights, and the hourly light shows filling the evenings in between.
Getting There, and the Weather Clause
At Baytowne, the public parking garage and auxiliary lots are free, and valet is first-come, first-served. The Sandestin tram runs from the Horseshoe Bayou parking facility to the Village. Baytowne's FAQ also lists a shuttle from the garage and auxiliary lots during summer and special events. Grand Boulevard confirms it has on-site visitor parking, but its FAQ doesn't say whether that parking is free or which lot to use.
Every outdoor event above depends on the weather. Grand Boulevard notes that its events are weather permitting and subject to change. This fall already showed what that means. The Market Shops called off its 11th Annual Bloody Mary Festival, set for October 10, because of the weather in the forecast, and told ticket holders to check their email for refund options. On a stormy evening, check the organizer's page before you head out.
Before any of this starts, Grand Boulevard hosts the 7th edition of the 30A BBQ Festival on Friday, November 6, from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. If you want to see how the town center has shifted toward year-round locals through the rest of the year, our earlier posts cover Grand Boulevard's summer nights and the October stretch. More on the area is on our Miramar Beach and Sandestin pages.
If you're trying to decide between living a short walk from Grand Park and being on the tram line to Baytowne, the Marie Babin team knows how each part of the corridor fits into a weekly routine, December included. Connect with our Coastal Experts, and we'll help you find a home close to the places you'll actually go.
