This season Cookeville lights two Christmas trees, eight days and a few blocks apart. The courthouse lawn tree comes on at 5 p.m. on Saturday, November 28, to close out the third annual Christmas on the Square. The tree at Dogwood Park comes on at the city's lighting ceremony on Sunday, December 6.
The Square lighting is a one-afternoon party. The Dogwood Park lighting starts a light show that keeps running every night of the season. If you're planning a December around grandparents, school nights, or a late shift, plan around the second tree.
The courthouse tree: one afternoon, built around Shop Small Saturday
Christmas on the Square lands on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and runs from 2 to 5 p.m. in downtown Cookeville. The event listing gives the address as 421 E Spring Street. Visit Cookeville's event listing says the event is free and pairs it with Shop Small Saturday, so the afternoon doubles as the first big local shopping day of the season around the square.
The listing names these activities:
- Christmas train rides
- Bounce houses
- Ornament-making stations
- Face painting
- Hot cocoa and snacks
- Photos with Santa, plus family photos
- Carolers
At 5 p.m. the courthouse lawn tree is lit and the square lights up with what the listing calls "thousands of twinkling lights," described as "the official start of the holiday season."
The event is still young. The Upper Cumberland Business Journal reported in November 2024 that Cookeville was holding its first Christmas on the Square that year, with the Cookeville-Putnam County Visitor's Bureau, Cookeville CityScape and Putnam County named as sponsors. This year is its third run. The 2026 listing gives the address as 421 E Spring Street, while last year's listing used 300 E Spring Street. Both put the event downtown, so check the address on the listing before you pick a parking spot.
Because everything happens in a single three-hour window, you have to be there that afternoon. The square's lights stay up after November 28, but the train rides, the carolers and the lighting moment are gone by suppertime.
The Dogwood Park tree keeps working after its lighting night
Eight days later, on Sunday, December 6, the city holds its annual Christmas Tree-Lighting and Celebration Service at Dogwood Park, 30 E Broad Street. The City of Cookeville's calendar lists it from 6 to 7:30 p.m. and describes the park's tree as "nearly 40-foot-tall," with a Christmas concert and holiday displays around the park.
After the tree is lit, a 15-minute light show set to holiday music plays. The city says that show "will continue nightly throughout the holiday season at the top of every hour from 5-9 p.m."
That gives Dogwood Park five shows a night, at 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 p.m., starting December 6. One crowded lighting ceremony turns into a standing appointment you can keep any night. You can catch the 5 o'clock show before dinner with small kids. The 9 o'clock show suits anyone getting off a late shift. When out-of-town relatives arrive on a weeknight in mid-December, you have somewhere to take them without checking an event calendar first.
One timing note before you go on December 6. The city's own calendar lists the ceremony from 6 to 7:30 p.m., and at least one other public listing shows an earlier hour. The city's events page is the one to check that week.
Between the two lightings, Broad Street fills in
The eight days between the two trees aren't empty, and most of what fills them sits on or near Broad Street, within a short walk of Dogwood Park. Here's how the calendar lines up from the Square lighting to mid-December:
| Date | Event | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Nov. 28 | Christmas on the Square and courthouse tree lighting | 421 E Spring St., downtown | 2 to 5 p.m., lighting at 5 |
| Sun., Nov. 29 | Cookeville Community Band holiday concert | Cookeville Performing Arts Center, 10 E Broad St. | 3 to 5 p.m. |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Cookeville Depot Christmas Open House | Cookeville Depot Museum, 116 W Broad St. | 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. |
| Sun., Dec. 6 | Dogwood Park Christmas Tree Lighting | Dogwood Park, 30 E Broad St. | 6 to 7:30 p.m., per the city |
| Nightly from Dec. 6 | Dogwood Park synchronized light show | Dogwood Park | Top of each hour, 5 to 9 p.m. |
| Wed., Dec. 9 | Bryan Symphony Orchestra, "A Jazzy Little Christmas" | Cookeville Performing Arts Center | 6 p.m. |
The day after the Square lighting, the Cookeville Community Band plays its annual holiday concert at the Cookeville Performing Arts Center on Sunday afternoon at 3.
The following Saturday, December 5, brings the Cookeville Depot Museum's annual Christmas Open House, with caroling, games, model trains and Santa from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. On the calendar, that open house leads into the Dogwood Park lighting the next evening, which makes the first weekend of December the busiest stretch on Broad Street.
Midweek, the Bryan Symphony Orchestra brings "A Jazzy Little Christmas" to CPAC on Wednesday, December 9, at 6 p.m. According to Visit Cookeville's listing, the program features the Tennessee Tech Faculty Jazz Ensemble and vocalist Emma Ledbetter. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for kids 12 and under. A 6 p.m. start on a Wednesday leaves time to walk down to Dogwood Park afterward for one of the later light shows.
The Cookeville History Museum at 40 E Broad Street sits right next to Dogwood Park and hosts the seventh annual Christmas Forest exhibit, a display of more than 30 Christmas trees decorated by community clubs and organizations. You can visit any time the museum is open, Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the city's calendar still lists the exhibit on January 2, 2027. It's a daytime companion to the park's evening show. You can see the trees at 3:30 and catch the lights at 5.
Two December traditions are still waiting on 2026 dates
A Cookeville December has two other fixtures that haven't posted their 2026 details yet.
The first is the Cookeville Christmas Parade. Its organizer, the Cookeville Christmas Parade Committee, runs the parade website at rememberthereasoncookeville.com, and the site still shows last year's schedule. In 2025 the parade stepped off on Friday, December 19, at 7 p.m. under the theme "Remember the Reason." Entries were due by noon on December 12, and Monday, December 22, was held as the rain date. The committee's 2025 announcement described the traditional downtown route, starting at 6th Street and North Washington Avenue and ending at Depot Street, with Santa closing the parade. If the 2026 parade follows a similar route, it will pass the Depot Museum and the Dogwood Park tree on its way down Broad, and both will already be lit by then. Groups thinking about entering a float should watch that site for this year's application deadline.
The second is the Merry & Bright Holiday Home Challenge, which Cookeville Leisure Services describes as an annual decorating contest held each December across Cookeville and Putnam County, with results announced later in the month. Last year the city said its Tour of Lights map would run in the Herald-Citizen and be available at city facilities. For 2025 that announcement came in mid-October through the city's news page, so the 2026 version is worth checking for in the weeks ahead. If you plan to decorate, that's where entry details are likely to show up.
Building a December around the hourly show
Put together, the two trees divide the season. The courthouse lawn lighting on November 28 is the season's kickoff party, and you have to be there on that one afternoon. The Dogwood Park tree, from December 6 on, is the part of the season you can use on any night.
Here's how that can look over three weeks:
- Thanksgiving weekend: Christmas on the Square on Saturday afternoon, then the Community Band at CPAC on Sunday at 3.
- First weekend of December: the Depot open house on Saturday, then the Dogwood Park lighting and first light show on Sunday evening.
- Any weeknight after that: a museum stop for the Christmas Forest before 4 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday, then the light show at the park on the hour, as late as 9.
- Mid-December: the Bryan Symphony Orchestra on December 9, followed by a later light show on the walk back to the car.
Everything on that list except Christmas on the Square sits along a short stretch of Broad Street, from the Depot at 116 W Broad to the History Museum at 40 E Broad, with CPAC and Dogwood Park in between. You can park once downtown and walk to most of the season.
Tammy and Lindsey are lifelong Upper Cumberland residents, and a December built around the courthouse lawn and the hourly lights at Dogwood Park is the kind of local plan we enjoy helping with. If family is coming to town this December and you'd like a few more local ideas, or you just want to talk through what's coming up in Cookeville, reach out to Lindsey Bruce at our Baxter office. Contact us anytime and we'll help you plan the season.
