The Belgrade Holiday Light Park comes on with a countdown at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 24, at the park behind the Belgrade Senior Center, 92 East Cameron Avenue. Work on it starts eleven days earlier. On Friday, Nov. 13, volunteers test spools of lights and throw out the dead strings. Two days later, a crew in work gloves and boots sets the whole park up.
That order shows how Belgrade's holiday season works. No city department or single business produces it. The Belgrade Community Coalition, a nonprofit, runs it with whoever signs up. The park at its center was invented as a stopgap during the pandemic. It has kept growing partly because neighbors pay to hang the names of people they've lost inside it.
The stopgap that stayed
The Festival of Lights is older than the park. The Belgrade Chamber of Commerce founded it in 1996, which makes 2026 thirty years since it began. The run hasn't been unbroken, though. According to a 2022 Bozeman Daily Chronicle story, the Chamber stopped putting on the festival in 2016, "much to the disappointment of the town," and later handed it to the Coalition. The Coalition rebuilt it as a full day of events: the Jingle Jog, a pancake breakfast, Santa photos and gingerbread house contests.
Then the pandemic shut down most of those indoor, crowded formats. Tiffany Maierle, the Coalition's executive director, described the response to the Chronicle:
"When COVID hit, we weren't able to do any of that. We brainstormed to figure out what we could do to get people outside and spread out."
That brainstorm produced two ideas that the Chronicle says "quickly became tradition." One was the Light Park, laid out along the figure-eight walking path by the Senior Center. The other was a convoy of decorated big trucks. The setup that kept people apart during COVID is now where the season opens, and on most nights it's simply open. The park runs on a walking loop and can be visited at any time.
Eleven days before the switch
The Coalition's 2026 Light Park sign-up sheet calls the effort "Deck the Trees." It covers the park behind the Senior Center and the decorations downtown. Two shifts are posted for November:
- Light Check, Friday, Nov. 13, 5:30 to 7 p.m. Volunteers test spools of lights and remove bad strings before setup. The sheet asks people to note when they plan to arrive if they can only come for part of it.
- Light Park Set Up, Sunday, Nov. 15, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Meet in the park behind the Senior Center at 92 East Cameron Ave. Bring work gloves and wear warm boots if there's snow. If you can bring a ladder, leave a comment on the sheet saying so. The setup slot was posted with 35 spots.
Last year's crew shows how wide the volunteer base runs. Belgrade News reported that the 2025 installation drew Panther wrestlers, who had helped in earlier years too, along with members of Central Valley Fire, a NorthWestern Energy crew with boom trucks, and other residents. The lights came on that Tuesday after a weekend of installing. Families walked the displays that first night while a food truck parked nearby sold warm drinks.
The Light Park is one piece of a larger effort. In 2022, Maierle told the Chronicle that the whole festival takes thousands of hours of planning by board members and staff, more than 150 volunteers, and money from many sponsors. "Without them there is no way to do this," she said.
Why the tunnels keep getting longer
The Memorial Lights Tunnels are the park's centerpiece, and they also help pay for its growth. Through the Coalition's Memorial Lights program, anyone can buy an ornament in a loved one's name. Ornaments cost $20 per person, not per couple, in the first year someone is honored, and $10 in each year after. Each string of lights bought through the program gets an ornament carrying a name.
That money goes back into the park. In a Belgrade News preview from a past season, the Coalition said the memorial money "helps us build up the light Park each year." The same preview reported that two construction companies built the giant ornament that's now the park's photo stop. By 2025, the park had two Memorial Lights Tunnels.
The ornaments go up for Memorial Lights Night, Thursday, Dec. 17, at 6 p.m. A local pastor gives a message of hope and local choirs sing. After a moment of silence, everyone is invited to walk through the tunnels. The ornaments stay up from Dec. 17 through Jan. 8. The memorial page doesn't list a 2026 order deadline. If you want a name in the tunnels on the night of the ceremony, contact the Coalition early.
The rest of December, in relation to the park
Once the switch flips, Belgrade's other holiday dates fall around the park. Four of them land on one Saturday, Dec. 12.
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Tue, Nov. 24, 6 p.m. | Flip the Switch Night | Holiday Light Park, 92 East Cameron Ave. |
| Fri, Dec. 4 | Truck Village | Montana Convoy Foundation event |
| Sat, Dec. 5 | Christmas Truck Convoy | Montana Convoy Foundation event |
| Sat, Dec. 12, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. | Belgrade Holiday Market, 100+ vendors | 220 Spooner Road |
| Sat, Dec. 12, 10 a.m. | Jingle Jog 5K | Starts at 11 West Main |
| Sat, Dec. 12, 11:30 a.m. | Get Ugly Christmas Outfit Contest | Rhino Lounge, 11 West Main |
| Sat, Dec. 12, 5 to 7:30 p.m. | Holiday Hoopla | Main Street, downtown Belgrade |
| Thu, Dec. 17, 6 p.m. | Memorial Lights Night | Holiday Light Park |
Like the park, the Dec. 12 lineup has grown. On the Saturday of the 2022 festival, the Chronicle counted more than 80 vendors at the Holiday Market, selling wreaths, jewelry, beeswax products, art and crafts, and about 50 people and pets ran the Jingle Jog. The 2026 market listing promises more than 100 vendors. Jingle Jog runners are automatically entered in the outfit contest, so festive gear counts twice. Holiday Hoopla closes out the day as a walk down Main Street past downtown businesses, local vendors and organizations, with holiday music.
The truck convoy began alongside the park, but it has its own organizer now. Belgrade News reported that the Montana Convoy Foundation took over the convoy from the Coalition. The Foundation lists Truck Village on Friday, Dec. 4, 2026, and the convoy on Saturday, Dec. 5. In 2024, the Foundation held Truck Village at Gallatin Speedway. Check the Foundation's site for 2026 routes and start times. That puts the convoy the weekend before the downtown Saturday, so the season has two big weekends in a row.
A few details are worth confirming on belgreatmt.org before you go, because the Coalition's own pages disagree. The Light Park page gives the season as Nov. 24 to Jan. 8 in its header and as nightly Nov. 25 through Jan. 9 in its text. It lists hours of dusk to midnight and 6 a.m. to dawn, while the Memorial Lights page gives 5 to 11 p.m. and 5 to 8 a.m. One line on the schedule overview still puts Holiday Hoopla on Dec. 13, while the event listings say Dec. 12. Either way, the park is lit before dawn as well as after dark, so it's on during early dog walks and school drop-offs, not just evening outings.
Courtney King has watched Gallatin Valley traditions like this grow for decades, and Belgrade's December is one of the clearest examples of a town building its own season by hand. If you're thinking about how a Belgrade address fits into that kind of community, or what your current home is worth, Courtney King would be glad to talk it through. Schedule a consultation, then come find the lights after dark on Nov. 24.
