Lighting of the Doves Is No Longer the Waterway's Only Fireworks Night
For years, fireworks over The Woodlands Waterway in the holiday season meant one Saturday in November. Will that still be true this year?
Not in 2026. Lighting of the Doves is still on November 21 at Town Green Park, and it still ends with the dove lighting and fireworks. A new series called Holiday Fireworks repeats that finale at Waterway Square on three Fridays in December. It comes the year after the Waterway lights had their biggest season yet, so for anyone in The Woodlands, the busiest night of the season now has three alternatives.
The Woodlands Township's figures show how fast the lights have grown. In an October 8, 2026 announcement published on Hello Woodlands, the Township said the main event corridor logged more than 209,000 pathway trips during the 2025–26 season, up nearly 74% from the year before. The free Town Center Trolley carried nearly 39,000 passenger trips over the same season.
That jump came in the first season after a planned expansion. In February 2025, Community Impact reported that the Township approved $217,700 to expand what was then called Waterway Wonderland. The plan called for six zones forming a family walking loop and a new interactive Christmas tree. By November 2025, the Township was describing a display of nearly 1.8 miles with glowing arches and light tunnels. The Township's numbers don't say how much of the growth came from the bigger footprint. They do show that the event got much larger in one season.
This year the event also has a new name. Beginning in 2026–27, it is called Holiday on The Waterway – Powered by Entergy, with Entergy Texas as presenting sponsor. Entergy will also support Lighting of the Doves. Township Chairman Brad Bailey, quoted in the same Hello Woodlands piece, framed the sponsorship as a way to keep growing the event:
"Their support allows us to continue growing Holiday on The Waterway and creating an experience that families can enjoy together year after year."
The lights are still free and self-guided. They run nightly from the Saturday before Thanksgiving through the first weekend of January. For 2026, that means November 21 through January 3, 2027.
The crowds of the 2025–26 season will meet a tight calendar. Between Thursday, November 19 and Saturday, November 21, Town Center opens nearly all of its holiday season at once:
On the Saturday, the festival has a lot going on. The Township lists international performances, snow play, children's activities and vendors. Visit The Woodlands adds live music on two stages, snow slides and crafts with The Woodlands Children's Museum. The 7 p.m. finale falls in the middle of the 6 to 8 p.m. window that the Holiday on The Waterway site lists as the trolley's busy period.
The new part of the calendar comes later. Visit The Woodlands lists Holiday Fireworks as new this year. It is a sister event to Lighting of the Doves, with live music and fireworks at Waterway Square on Fridays, December 4, 11 and 18. All three dates fall while the Waterway lights are running. So anyone who wants the lights and the fireworks together, without the opening Saturday, now has three nights to choose from.
Each of those Fridays has other events close by:
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, Dec. 4 | Holiday Fireworks with live music | Waterway Square |
| Saturday, Dec. 5 | Glow and Go 5K; Santa & S'mores | Township events |
| Thursday, Dec. 10 | The Sing Off, 6:30 p.m. | Market Street |
| Friday, Dec. 11 | Holiday Fireworks with live music | Waterway Square |
| Saturday, Dec. 12 | The Woodlands Winter Makers Market | Township event |
| Friday, Dec. 18 | Holiday Fireworks with live music | Waterway Square |
| Monday, Dec. 21 | Cookies for Santa; Gingerbread House Making | Township events |
December 11 sits in the busiest stretch. You can catch The Sing Off at Market Street on Thursday the 10th, fireworks on Friday the 11th and the Winter Makers Market on Saturday the 12th without leaving Town Center. December 18 is the last fireworks night before Christmas week.
The Township has not yet released the 2026 list of light installations or the nightly programming. It has said more schedule details will come closer to the season. Visit The Woodlands describes the displays as larger-than-life snowflakes, ornaments, gift boxes and light tunnels. You can walk the sidewalk, ride the trolley or rent a swan boat from Riva Row to see the lights from the water.
The crowds will still need somewhere to park, whichever night you pick. The Holiday on The Waterway site recommends three spots and says not to park at Market Street:
For Lighting of the Doves, the Township lists free parking in the green, orange, yellow, blue and white lots along Timberloch Place and Grogan's Mill Road. ADA parking is at 2101 Lake Robbins Drive. Town Center Garage shares its 2005 Lake Robbins Drive address with The Woodlands Ice Rink, next to The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Expect skaters and lights visitors to use the same garage from November 20 on.
The trolley's hours shape your plans more than any garage. The free Town Center Trolley runs a 4.1-mile route connecting The Woodlands Mall, Market Street, The Woodlands Waterway and Hughes Landing. Its standard hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday. It does not run on Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's Day. Rides are first come, first served. The operator says routes can change for traffic, construction or special events, and it offers a live tracker.
Under those standard hours, Friday has the longest evening service of the week, which helps on fireworks nights. Sunday is the reverse. The trolley stops at 7 p.m., so a Sunday visit to the lights after dark is mostly on foot from a garage.
The trolley loop also passes several of the season's other shows, so dinner can sit between two of them.
Market Street in Lights puts on a three-minute light show set to holiday music, centered on the 70-foot tree in Central Park. It runs every hour from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., every day of the season through December 31. At The Woodlands Mall, a 40-foot tree in The Courtyard has a synchronized light and music show every 30 minutes from sunset until the mall closes.
On the Waterway itself, the newest table this season is Bar Bludorn, which opened October 2 at 25 Waterway Ave. Community Impact reported that it is Bludorn Hospitality Group's fifth restaurant and its first outside Houston. The group calls it an upscale tavern with a private dining room and an outdoor patio. The menu is different from its sister location in Memorial, with oysters prepared four ways, steak tartare with potato rosti, branzino with salsa verde and black garlic za'atar, and bavette steak frites. A December Friday reservation there puts you a short walk from the fireworks at Waterway Square.
If you're weighing how close to Town Center you want to be when the lights, the trolley and these December Fridays are part of your routine, Uptown Real Estate Group can walk you through the Waterway-adjacent options in The Woodlands. Book a private real estate consultation.
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