Hilliard's holiday season officially kicks off on December 6, when the city's annual Tree Lighting spreads across downtown, Hilliard's Station Park and Weaver Park from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. The event is free, with no tickets or preregistration required, and organizers are promising horse and carriage rides alongside stilt walkers and balloon twisters.
The celebration is organized by the City of Hilliard, Ohio - Government, which posted details of the event on Facebook. According to a listing on allevents.in, Hilliard's Station Park sits at 4021 Main St., and festivities will stretch from there through Downtown Hilliard and into Weaver Park. The same listing confirms the free, no-registration format, noting plainly that “all City of Hilliard events are free” with no tickets needed.
What's Planned for the Evening
Hilliard's own event page describes an evening packed with free, festive activity, including horse and carriage rides, stilt walkers, balloon twisters “and more,” according to hilliardohio.gov. The city's event page offers fewer specifics beyond that description, so exact timing for individual activities within the 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. window has not been detailed.
This isn't a new tradition for Hilliard. The city's own recap of last year's gathering, titled “Holiday Cheer Shines Bright in Hilliard,” described a similar free celebration spread across Hilliard's Station Park, Downtown Hilliard and the Historical Village at Weaver Park, per the city's site. That continuity suggests the 2026 edition is shaping up as a repeat of a now-familiar seasonal layout, even as some specifics for this year's event remain thin in available listings.
Who's Sponsoring This Year's Event
Sponsor details for the 2026 Tree Lighting are not entirely consistent across sources. The allevents.in listing credits Amazon, Thai Orthodontics and Hilliard Christian Assembly as sponsors. Separately, information tied to the City of Hilliard's Facebook post names a broader list of backers — Raising Cane's, CU of Ohio, Sage Family Orthodontics, Oppidan Investment Company, Alchemy, Capital City Orthodontics and Amazon. Both versions list Amazon among the sponsors, but the remaining names do not match between the two sources, and no single authoritative list has been confirmed.
Whatever the final sponsor roster turns out to be, the core details of the event are consistent across available listings: a free, family-oriented gathering spanning three of Hilliard's most recognizable public spaces. Residents looking for specifics on parking, additional performances or a full activity schedule may want to watch the city's official channels as the date approaches, since some elements mentioned in early listings have not been independently verified for this year's event.
