November 5, 2026
Last December, Biloxi's holiday season ran for 17 days. The Lighthouse switched to red and green on Thursday, Dec. 4, boats paraded past Point Cadet on Sunday, Dec. 7, and Howard Avenue's trees came on during Christmas on the Avenue, Dec. 18 through 20. This year those three events land between Dec. 3 and Dec. 12, according to the holiday release Coastal Mississippi published Oct. 27.
The Lighthouse and the boats are where they usually are. Christmas on the Avenue moved, coming a week earlier in only its second year, and that one change makes the first half of December the busiest stretch of the season.
| Event | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Biloxi Lighthouse Lighting | Thursday, Dec. 4, 5:30–7 p.m. | Thursday, Dec. 3 |
| Christmas on the Water Boat Parade & Fireworks | Sunday, Dec. 7, 6 p.m. | Sunday, Dec. 6, per the release; Saturday, Dec. 5, per the event page |
| Christmas on the Avenue | Dec. 18–20 | Dec. 11–12, 3–11 p.m. |
| First event to last | 17 days | 10 days |
The 2025 times come from the City of Biloxi's December list. Start times for the 2026 Lighthouse Lighting and boat parade haven't been published yet.
The season starts where it always does. The Biloxi Lighthouse Lighting is set for Thursday, Dec. 3, at the Biloxi Visitors Center, where the lighthouse turns red and green and Santa, hot chocolate and cookies are on hand.
Last year the city's notice described Mayor Andrew "FoFo" Gilich flipping the switch, with the ceremony running from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and the Visitors Center selling its Christmas shirts and ornaments. Those are last year's details. They give a good sense of the evening, but no 2026 time has been announced.
Christmas on the Water reaches its 41st year in 2026. The theme is "Disco Glow Christmas." The parade has opened the Coast's holiday season since 1986. Decorated boats leave from south of the Biloxi Lighthouse, travel east to Point Cadet at the tip of the peninsula, and fireworks over the Sound close the night.
The date needs a second look. Coastal Mississippi's Oct. 27 release lists Sunday, Dec. 6. Coastal Mississippi's own event page lists Saturday, Dec. 5, and tells readers to check with the event host for the time. Last year's parade was on a Sunday at 6 p.m. The event line on the listing is (228) 617-3112.
Where you watch from won't change, whichever night it turns out to be. The event page puts the best viewing between the Biloxi Lighthouse and Point Cadet, with most of the action between the Biloxi Small Craft Harbor and Oak Street. In 2025 the city centered the festivities at the Point Cadet Marina and recommended Beach Boulevard between the Small Craft Harbor and Casino Row for watching from shore.
Christmas on the Avenue returns Friday and Saturday, Dec. 11 and 12, from 3 to 11 p.m. The listing gives the address as 814 Howard Ave. The release promises more than 150 lit trees along Howard Avenue, a grand lighting, a Santa parade, and a weekend built for families and pets.
Beyond the earlier dates, the 2026 version is also a day shorter. The 2025 event ran three nights, Thursday through Saturday. The 2026 listing shows two days.
The first year was the model, and WLOX laid out that schedule three days before it began. Serenity Now ran yoga in an igloo on Thursday. Friday was the big night, with artificial snow starting at 6 p.m., the grand lighting, Santa, live entertainment and a parade. Saturday brought a pub crawl and a business crawl, and the Humane Society of South Mississippi held pet adoptions from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. along with a toy drive for shelter pets. Broussard's Barber Shop offered a free scalp treatment to anyone who brought a toy to donate. Lauren Broussard summed up the plan to WLOX this way:
"We have the whole show for you."
WLOX's later coverage named Joel Davis as a co-chair of that first event. His email is the contact on the 2026 listing. Organizers haven't posted a day-by-day program for 2026 yet. The listing says the event builds on the 2025 celebration, with decorated trees, live entertainment, snowfall and Santa sightings, and invites people to visit the shops, restaurants and bars along the avenue.
In 2025, Christmas on the Avenue closed the city's December calendar. It shared the week of Dec. 13 through 20 with most of Biloxi's neighborhood events:
The city posted that full list on Dec. 3, 2025, the day before the Lighthouse Lighting. The 2026 dates for those smaller events haven't been announced yet. Now that Howard Avenue's weekend is Dec. 11–12, the large waterfront and downtown events are packed into the first part of the month, and the second half of December is open for whatever the city's list holds this year.
With December this full, November weekends are the quieter stretch before it, and the beachfront has two new businesses since late summer.
Shaggy's Crab House opened at 1763–1775 Beach Blvd. in time for Cruisin' the Coast, according to the Sun Herald. Co-owners Ron Ladner and Rimmer Covington Jr. bought the restaurant next door to the original Shaggy's Biloxi. They connected the two with an elevated boardwalk that runs parallel to the city's boardwalk and passes Shaggy's Sweet Tooth, a gift shop and a small stage inside a shipping container. The menu has 10 crab boils, from $23.99 for a shrimp boil up to $279.99 for The Full Royal Treatment, plus she-crab soup and a $19.99 surf and turf burger. Covington told the Sun Herald that larger music events will spill into the parking lot, and that the goal is for people to stay longer than a one-hour meal. The complex has an air-conditioned dining room for chillier evenings and an elevator that makes the boardwalk accessible.
At the other end of the parade route, Fawkes Party Boat held its ribbon cutting at Point Cadet Marina in October with the Biloxi Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, WLOX reported. The boat takes up to six passengers on custom cruises anywhere from Old Fort Bayou to Big Lake. Owner Captain Fawkes told WLOX that she and her husband are avid sailors and scuba divers who wanted to share time on the water with people who may never have been on a boat. The Fawkes Party Boat website lists afternoon, sunset, movie-night and game-day cruises, priced from $400 to $600.
Point Cadet is where the boats finish on parade night. A month earlier, it's also where the newest boat on the Biloxi waterfront is docked.
At HL Raymond Properties, we love capturing coastal evenings like these on camera, from the Lighthouse in red and green to the last firework over Point Cadet. Mark Dec. 3 through Dec. 12 on your calendar, call the event line about the boat parade date, and come out and Discover Gulf Coast Living with your neighbors this December.
At HL Raymond Properties, your goals are our priority. Whether buying or selling, we bring strategy, care, and professionalism to every step of the process.