This year's Royal Oak Holidays runs three weekends in a row, Friday, December 4 through Sunday, December 20. Last year's edition ran five weekends, from November 21 to December 21. The festival went from 31 days to 17. The Rink at Centennial Commons opens November 20 and stays open through February 16. The Detroit Zoo's Wild Lights runs 30 nights between November 21 and January 3. Downtown Royal Oak's holiday calendar is now one busy stretch of December, with longer-running attractions on either side that keep their own schedules.
The Weekend That Used to Live in February
You have to go back a year to see how this calendar took shape. For 20 years, Winter Blast was its own festival in early February. In September 2025, the Detroit Free Press reported that it would end as a standalone event and fold into Royal Oak Holidays. A city agenda item from April 2025 said the three-day February event was dropped because of "unpredictable winter weather and fluctuating attendance." The same document named Jonathan Witz & Associates as the festival's producer.
Both sides explained the merger when it was announced. Producer Jon Witz told The Oakland Press that spreading Winter Blast's favorites over several weekends would create "a bigger, more accessible celebration." Mayor Michael Fournier told the paper the new format was "a better investment for our city, creating more of 'a blast' over a longer period at a time when weather is more predictable and people are already out celebrating."
The opening night went well. C&G Newspapers reported that city community engagement specialist Judy Davids called the November 21 tree lighting "one of our biggest crowds yet," and Witz estimated the crowd at 4,000. Organizers haven't published a reason for cutting the 2026 festival to three weekends. The official site lists the shorter schedule and gives no explanation.
Where the Two Missing Weekends Went
Putting the two years side by side shows exactly which dates were cut.
| Weekend | 2025 edition | 2026 edition |
|---|---|---|
| Weekend before Thanksgiving | Nov. 21–23, Opening & Tree Lighting | Lighting of the Park only, Friday, Nov. 20, 4–9 p.m. |
| Thanksgiving weekend | Nov. 28–30, Thrill Weekend with zip line and Hungry Hippos | No festival events on the published schedule |
| First December weekend | Dec. 5–7, Shop & Sweets | Dec. 4–6, Hungry Hippos and Cookie Crawl |
| Second December weekend | Dec. 12–14, Giving & Gliding | Dec. 11–13, toy drive and free skating |
| Third December weekend | Dec. 19–21, Grinch & Games | Dec. 18–20, ice sculptures, Grinch, broomball |
Both cuts come before December. What used to be an opening weekend is now one Friday evening, November 20, 4 to 9 p.m. The ceremony takes place on the Royal Oak Public Library steps, and the evening includes the lighting of the Giant Oak Tree, live music, Santa and skating performances. Thanksgiving weekend, which held last year's free zip line and the first Hungry Hippos game, has nothing listed for downtown in 2026 apart from regular hours at The Rink.
What Made It Into December
Most of what Winter Blast handed over in 2025 is still on the schedule. It's just packed into fewer days.
The first weekend, December 4 to 6, now has Hungry Hippos, the life-size version of the board game played on the ice at The Rink. Teams of four ride tubes and have two minutes to scoop up as many plastic balls as they can. That same weekend, the Cookie Crawl runs Saturday, December 5, from noon to 4 p.m. Participants collect 18 handcrafted cookies at downtown businesses. Last year's crawl had 21 downtown stores taking part, according to a March 2026 retrospective in Acorn Newsmagazine.
On the second weekend, December 11 to 13, skating at The Rink is free all weekend. The Holiday Lodge also hosts a drive for The Bottomless Toy Chest. A new toy worth $10 or more goes to hospitalized pediatric patients in the area.
The third weekend, December 18 to 20, carries the most from Winter Blast. More than 50 ice sculptures go up in Centennial Commons and around downtown. Royal Oak Police and Fire play their Guns & Hoses broomball game on Friday, December 18, and it raises money for local nonprofits that serve people experiencing homelessness. The Grinch is around town Saturday and Sunday, December 19 and 20.
Last year's zip line and carnival rides, free once the merger happened, don't appear on the 2026 special-events page as of mid-October. Neither does the cornhole tournament. That only means they aren't listed yet. The organizer hasn't said they're cancelled.
All three weekends have Holiday Markets in Centennial Commons: Fridays 4 to 9 p.m., Saturdays noon to 9 p.m. and Sundays noon to 8 p.m. Organizers describe 20 local artisans and downtown businesses, but they haven't released the 2026 vendor list. Ahead of last year's festival, The Oakland Press described the market as having more than 15 local gift exhibitors.
The Rink Fills the Weeks Around It
Before the merger, Winter Blast was what drew people downtown in February. The Rink now fills that role. Its season runs from November 20 through February 16, and a city document counts it at 12.5 weeks. Posted hours are noon to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, noon to 11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.
Admission is $10 on weekdays before 6 p.m. and $12 from Friday at 6 p.m. through Sunday. Skate rental is $5, and skating in your own pair costs nothing extra. On the December 11 to 13 free weekend, a family of four with their own skates saves $48 compared with any other weekend of the season, at the $12 weekend rate. The 2026 festival covers 17 of The Rink's 89 days. For the other 72 days, the rink and the Giant Oak Tree lights are what keep downtown busy.
Wild Lights Covers the Nights Downtown Doesn't
On the other side of Royal Oak, the Detroit Zoo is going the opposite direction. Wild Lights runs November 21, 22 and 27 to 29, December 4 to 6, 10 to 23 and 26 to 31, and January 2 and 3. Hours are 5 to 10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 5 to 9 p.m. on other nights. That puts three Wild Lights nights on the Thanksgiving weekend downtown left empty, and eight more nights after Christmas, once the festival has ended.
The zoo is adding several new features for 2026. The Igloo is a 21+ lounge with fire pits, adult hot chocolate and live music on Fridays and Saturdays. The eastern section of the Fred & Barbara Erb Discovery Trails is lit for the first time, with a giant light bright wall, glowing swings and a light-up teeter-totter. Color, Fly, Butterfly at the Ford Education Center lets visitors color a butterfly and watch it animate. Wild Explorer VR adds holiday-themed virtual reality screenings. New illuminated sculptures include a snow leopard, an Asian elephant, an orangutan, two red pandas and a Bengal tiger. Wild Lights uses only the front half of the zoo, and the back half's habitats close for the evening. Online general admission is listed at $17 to $25, and parking is $8. The zoo is closed December 24, December 25 and January 1.
The Season in Order
Here's every date from now to the last day of skating:
- October 16–18 and 23–25: the last two weekends of Zoo Boo, 3 to 8:30 p.m. It opens an hour earlier this year, with the full zoo open until 6 p.m. Online admission is $21 to $25, or $27 at the gate.
- November 19–20: the Royal Oak Market: Art Fair Edition, now in its 11th year, held indoors at the Farmers Market, 316 E. 11 Mile Road, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., with 60 jury-selected artists.
- November 20: Lighting of the Park and the opening of The Rink, 4 to 9 p.m.
- November 21: Wild Lights opens.
- November 27–29: Thanksgiving weekend, with The Rink and Wild Lights open and no downtown festival events listed.
- December 4–6: Royal Oak Holidays begins, with Hungry Hippos, markets and the Cookie Crawl on the 5th.
- December 11–13: free skating and the toy drive.
- December 18–20: ice sculptures, broomball on the 18th, and the Grinch on the 19th and 20th.
- December 26–January 3: Wild Lights continues every night except January 1.
- February 16: The Rink's last day.
For more ideas on filling a downtown Saturday, see our guide to how locals spend a weekend in Royal Oak and our earlier look at Fifth Avenue's redesign.
If your home is a short walk from Centennial Commons, these weeks show off your location better than any listing photo can. At Paul Wolfert, we put that on camera, from the lit-up Giant Oak Tree to the skaters on The Rink, so buyers watching from out of state can see what winter evenings near your door look like. Before you plan a listing date, get a free home valuation and customized marketing plan on our Royal Oak neighborhood page.
