Tullahoma's 70th Christmas Parade Has a Fourth-Grader's Theme. Here's the Rest of the Season Around It.

The 70th annual Tullahoma Christmas Parade rolls on Friday, Dec. 4, at 7 p.m., about halfway through the 2026 holiday calendar. The two biggest venue programs open on Friday, Nov. 20, when the Tullahoma Fine Arts Center opens its Christmas exhibit and marketplace and the South Jackson Performing Arts Center opens Trees of Christmas. They wind down on Friday, Dec. 18, when the art center's marketplace has its last day and South Jackson hosts its final listed holiday concert. Merchant open houses and markets start even earlier, in the first half of November.

Here's how those weeks fit together.

The theme came out of an elementary school classroom

This year's parade theme is "Stars, Stripes and Christmas Lights." As Tullahoma News reported on Sept. 30, a fourth-grade student at Bel-Aire Elementary submitted it, and Bel-Aire will get a complimentary float in the parade.

The theme came through a process the Tullahoma Area Chamber of Commerce has run since 2020. According to the same article, the Chamber brings Santa Claus to local elementary schools in August and invites students to enter a theme contest. A Christmas Parade Committee of business leaders, CEO Partners and Santa then reviews hundreds of entries and picks one.

Trent McNabb, who serves on the parade committee, tied this year's pick to the national calendar. Tullahoma News quoted him:

"Very clever theme. Great play on America's 250th."

The themes from recent years show how wide-ranging these student entries have been:

The 2026 theme is the first in this run that points to something outside the season itself. Expect floats this year to mix red, white and blue with the usual tinsel.

The parade itself, and the night before it

According to the Chamber's parade listing, Stan McNabb Automotive sponsors the parade. It starts at the Chamber office at 135 W. Lincoln St. and ends at Tullahoma High School. Float entries are due Monday, Nov. 30. This year the Chamber will email parade packets, so there's no in-person pickup.

The parade weekend starts a night early. On Thursday, Dec. 3, the community is invited to a Grand Marshal Reception at South Jackson Performing Arts Center to honor this year's grand marshal, Tullahoma News reported. Nominations closed Friday, Oct. 9. So the season's biggest night outdoors starts with a gathering indoors at South Jackson, the same building that carries much of the rest of the calendar.

Nov. 20 is when the two anchor programs open

Two events open on Friday, Nov. 20. The art center's show runs to Dec. 18, and South Jackson hasn't posted an end date for its trees yet.

At South Jackson Performing Arts Center, Trees of Christmas opens at noon. The venue's ticket listing calls it a chance to create a personalized Christmas tree and says visitors come "from all over" each year to stroll among the finished trees. The 2026 viewing schedule hasn't been posted yet. In 2025, businesses and individuals sponsored and decorated trees that stood for public judging Dec. 3 through 7, and admission was $5 a person with a $20 cap per family, Thunder Radio reported.

The Tullahoma Fine Arts Center at 401 S. Jackson St. opens Merry and Bright: All Things Christmas the same day. The show pairs a gallery exhibit of Christmas art in all media with a Christmas Marketplace of artisan crafters. According to the center's exhibits page, it's open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from Nov. 20 to Dec. 18, and closed Nov. 27 through 29.

Between them, those two openings give Tullahoma a home base for gifts and decorations about two weeks before the floats line up.

Weekend by weekend

The rest of the calendar fills in around those two anchors. Some of the merchant and market events below come from community event listings, so check with the host before you make a special trip.

1. Nov. 6 through 8. Yellow Tulip Design holds its Holiday Open House at 206 E. Lincoln St., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, according to an AllEvents listing.
2. Saturday, Nov. 14. Three events are listed on Tullahoma Voices for the same day. The 3rd Annual Santa on the Farm runs 4 to 7 p.m. at 1301 E. Carroll St. The Belles and Beaus vendor market runs 4 to 8 p.m. at 117 N. Jackson St. The 4th Annual Christmas Craft and Vendor Show runs 3 to 10 p.m. at 707 S. Polk St.
3. Nov. 20 through 22. Trees of Christmas and Merry and Bright open Friday. On Saturday morning, the Wobble Gobble 5K Run & Walk starts and finishes downtown at the Chamber office, 135 W. Lincoln St. Registration opens at 7 a.m. and the race starts at 8 a.m., on a course that uses Jackson and Atlantic streets, per the Chamber's race listing. That evening, South Jackson hosts Fire Lake, a Bob Seger tribute, at 7 p.m. On Sunday the venue holds a Young Musicians Showcase at 2:30 p.m. Also on Sunday, the Tullahoma Christmas Market runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Tim's Ford Event Center, 89 Blue Creek Road, with free admission and parking, food trucks, pictures with Santa and free hot cocoa, according to its event listing.
4. Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 27 through 29. The Fine Arts Center is closed. B&B Mercantile's 1st Annual Christmas Market opens at 322 S. Anderson St. on Friday, Nov. 27, and runs through Saturday, Dec. 5, per its listing. The listing shows a 5 p.m. start on the first day but no daily hours. That makes B&B Mercantile the in-town market option for the weekend the gallery takes off.
5. Dec. 3 and 4. The Grand Marshal Reception at South Jackson on Thursday, then the parade Friday at 7 p.m. B&B Mercantile's market is still open through Saturday.
6. Dec. 11 through 13. The Nutcracker comes to South Jackson for four performances, at 7 p.m. Friday, 2:30 and 7 p.m. Saturday, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. All ticket sales are final, there's no elevator access to the balcony, and video isn't allowed without the directors' approval.
7. Dec. 15 through 18. South Jackson screens It's A Wonderful Life on Tuesday, Dec. 15, at 7 p.m. On Friday, Dec. 18, at 7 p.m., the venue hosts A Married Little Christmas, a holiday concert with the touring piano and vocal duo Jason and Hayley Black. Dec. 18 is also the last day of Merry and Bright at the Fine Arts Center.

What the shape of the calendar means for planning

Laid out this way, the season has a clear rhythm. The Nov. 20 weekend is the busiest, with a 5K, a tribute concert, a student showcase, a Christmas market and two gallery and tree openings packed into three days. Thanksgiving weekend is quieter, with the art center closed. Parade week puts the reception and the parade on back-to-back nights. December then shifts toward ticketed evenings at South Jackson, ending on the same Friday the art center's marketplace closes.

Three dates are worth putting on the fridge now. Nov. 30 is the deadline to register a parade entry. Nov. 20 opens both the trees and the artisan marketplace. Dec. 11 is opening night of the Nutcracker, and because all ticket sales are final, settle your plans before you buy.

Anyone hoping to catch the Trees of Christmas display should watch South Jackson's ticket page for the 2026 viewing days. If the 2026 judging follows last year's timing, it would fall during parade week.

Since 1973, the family behind Ben Craig and Craig & Wheeler Realty & Auction has watched Southern Middle Tennessee's December calendars fill with parades, markets and hometown traditions like this one. If the holidays have you thinking about a family property, an estate or land around Tullahoma, Ben is glad to talk it through on your schedule. Request a Free Valuation & Consultation.