Market Square switches on from 5pm on Sunday 22 November, and Burntwood has three more nights that week. The Victorian Market has not been announced for 2026.

Lichfield’s Christmas lights go on in Market Square on Sunday 22 November 2026, and Lichfield City Council’s own event listing puts the event from 5pm to 8pm. The district council’s 2026 events calendar carries the same date.

Burntwood then has three separate nights of its own in the following week, all published by Burntwood Town Council. Nothing in the district happens on the same evening as anything else, so you can reasonably do the lot.

The switch-on dates, in order

Date Where Time
Sun 15 Nov Lichfield Christmas Fayre, city centre 10am to 4pm
Sun 22 Nov Lichfield city centre, Market Square 5pm to 8pm
Mon 23 Nov Boney Hay, Bells Lane and Longfellow Road 6pm to 7pm
Thu 26 Nov Chasetown, Edwards Road and High Street 6pm to 8pm
Sat 28 Nov Burntwood Christmas Festival, Sankey’s Corner 4pm to 7pm

Lichfield city centre, Sunday 22 November

The city council’s event record gives the venue as Lichfield city centre, Market Street, WS13 6LH, and the times as 5pm to 8pm. That is the only detail the council has published so far.

What is not published yet: the entertainment line-up, the exact moment of the countdown, who does the honours, and whether any streets close. There was no road closure order for the event on the Public Notice Portal when we checked on 5 September. Orders for city centre events usually appear a few weeks out, and when one does we will add it here and to our Lichfield roadworks and travel page.

Do not use Visit Lichfield’s Christmas page for this. The council’s tourism site still has last year’s version live: it gives the city switch-on as “Sunday 23rd November”, lists Cinderella at the Garrick, and advertises the Victorian Market on 4 to 7 December 2025. The city council’s own calendar is the one to trust.

The Christmas Fayre comes first, on 15 November

A week before the lights, the Lichfield Christmas Fayre takes over the city centre on Sunday 15 November, 10am to 4pm. Lichfield Chamber of Trade and Commerce runs it across the Guildhall and The Hub at St Mary’s indoors, plus two outdoor zones in Market Square and the surrounding streets, with stalls, choirs, bands, Morris dancers and performers in elf costume. The district council’s 2026 events calendar lists it on the same date.

Burntwood’s three nights

Burntwood Town Council’s events page sets out all three, and it is worth noting the council only organises two of them:

  • Boney Hay, Monday 23 November, on the corner of Bells Lane and Longfellow Road, 6pm to 7pm. Organised by Burntwood Town Council.
  • Chasetown, Thursday 26 November, on the corner of Edwards Road and High Street, 6pm to 8pm. Not a town council event.
  • Christmas Festival, Saturday 28 November, Sankey’s Corner, 4pm to 7pm. Organised by Burntwood Town Council.

The town council has not published a line-up for any of the three yet. Burntwood Rotary has run a switch-on at Swan Island in past years and has not announced a 2026 date.

The Victorian Christmas Market has not been announced

This is the gap in the season. The Lichfield Victorian Christmas Market ran on 4 to 7 December 2025 in Market Place, but three sources point the same way for 2026:

  • It is absent from Lichfield District Council’s 2026 events calendar, which was accurate at the time of printing in January 2026 and does list the Fayre, the switch-on and Remembrance Sunday.
  • Organiser LSD Promotions’ own Christmas 2026 page lists seven markets, at Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford, Cardiff, Stourbridge, Sutton Coldfield and Wolverhampton. Lichfield is not one of them.
  • The market’s own site, lichfieldvictorianchristmasmarket.co.uk, is down to a “Thank you for attending!” holding page with no 2026 dates.

None of that is a formal cancellation, and nobody has said the market has gone. But if you were planning around it, plan around 15 November instead until an organiser says otherwise.

Two light shows worth booking now

Follow the Star, Lichfield Cathedral, 15 to 21 December

The Cathedral’s Christmas Light Show returns as Follow the Star, from 17:15 each evening, Tuesday 15 to Monday 21 December, with animation team Illuminos projecting onto the Bishop’s Palace and the West Front and, new for 2026, inside the Cathedral itself.

From the cathedral’s own FAQ document:

  • Family ticket, two adults plus two children aged 2 to 16: £36 to £47
  • Adults 16 and over: £12 to £15. Children 2 to 16: £8.50 to £11
  • Under-twos free, but they still need a free ticket for the capacity count
  • Entry is in 15-minute time slots, in and out via Dam Street only, on a one-way route round the Close. Allow about an hour
  • There are no other concessions, and tickets are non-refundable
  • Tickets may be sold on the night by contactless card only, subject to space

There is no parking and no drop-off on site. The nearest public car park with disabled bays is Bird Street. All areas take wheelchairs, pushchairs and mobility scooters, with limited seating inside the Cathedral, but the show involves loud sound, flashing images and dimly lit sections, and only assistance dogs are allowed in.

Illuminated, National Memorial Arboretum, 4 to 22 December

At Alrewas, the Arboretum’s Illuminated runs from 4 to 22 December, with entry every 30 minutes between 4.30pm and 6.30pm, extended to 7pm on peak evenings. Two things to diary: there are no tickets at all on 7 and 14 December, and advance prices only run until 30 September.

Peak evenings are 11 to 13 December and 18 to 22 December, at £22 advance or £27 standard for an adult and £13 or £16 for a child aged 5 to 15. Off-peak evenings, 4 to 6, 8 to 10 and 15 to 17 December, are £20 or £25 for an adult and £12 or £15 for a child. Under-fives and carers go free. Relaxed sessions run at 4.30pm on 9, 13 and 15 December. Standard Arboretum parking charges apply on top.

Parking

No 2026 Christmas parking offer has been published by the district council. Visit Lichfield’s festive parking section still advertises an offer starting “Friday 24 November”, a date that does not fall on a Friday this year, so treat it as out of date until the council reissues it. Our guide to parking in Lichfield has the current tariffs and the free car parks, including the Sunday trap that catches people out in the city centre.

Sources