Tyngsborough's Festival of Trees Is Decorated by Neighbors, and There's Still Time to Add Yours

Who made the "MOO-ey Christmas" tree at last December's Festival of Trees? The Town Clerk's office did. A few entries away, the Inspectional Department had a display called "POLAR PLUNGE." The Tyngsborough Police Department entered one, and so did the Council on Aging, with a tree titled "A loved one is close by!"

Town offices and local businesses decorate the trees, wreaths and displays that fill three historic buildings, along with churches, dance studios and families. Every entry becomes a raffle prize. The festival returns for 2026 on November 27–29 and December 3–5, open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and general admission is free. Requests to have the festival's designer decorate your entry are open until this Sunday, November 1.

Town Hall Enters Its Own Festival

In plenty of towns, local government runs the holiday event and stays behind the scenes. Here, the town departments compete for floor space with everyone else. In the 2025 festival program, Town Hall Administration's entry was "The Candy Command Center." It came in at number three, ahead of nearly every business on the list. These are a few of the civic and community entries from that program:

• Town Hall Administration: "The Candy Command Center"
• Town Clerk: "MOO-ey Christmas"
• Tyngsborough Public Library: "Poinsettias Paradise"
• Tyngsborough Garden Club: "Woodland Christmas"
• Tyngsborough Land Trust: "Nature Needs Nurturing"
• Tyngsborough Scholarship Trust: "Class of 2026 Scholarship Tree"
• Tyngsborough Elementary School: "Winslow HOMEr for The Holidays!"
• Inspectional Department: "POLAR PLUNGE"

The Town credits the Tyngsborough Recreation Department and "its countless volunteers" with putting on the festival. In its November 2025 announcement, it called that year's schedule "bigger than ever." The Town's own offices decorating trees is the same idea on a small scale. The people who run the town show up as participants.

The Rest of the Floor Is the Local Business List

Keep reading the 2025 entry list and it starts to look like a list of the companies that work on local homes and care for local families. Fox Landscaping Construction holds entry number one with "Tis the Gnome." MillTown Plumbing, Heating, Cooling and Electrical entered "How the Grinch Stole Xmas." M&A Carpentry Corp decorated "A Christmas under Construction," and Livingstone Renovations and Roofing and Corporate Electric and Alarms also entered.

The dance studios came out in force. 5,6,7,8 Dance Studio entered "Keep It Fierce," DNE School of Dance entered "Tappin' Tinsel," and Centerstage Dance Academy entered "Ocean Adventures." University Music brought "Merry Melodies," and Pediatrics West went with "Disco Holiday." The Holy Rood Collaborative and the Evangelical Congregational Church of Tyngsborough each entered as well.

The raffle turns this into something more personal than a display. Under the 2025 format, visitors bought tickets at the Meeting House and Old Town Hall for $10 per 25 tickets. They dropped tickets into the collection jar for whichever tree, wreath or raffle item they wanted to win, and winners were drawn at the close of the final day. Everything displayed with a tree goes home with the winner as one complete prize. So the tree in your living room in mid-December may have been built by the plumber who fixed your water heater or the studio your daughter dances at. The festival hasn't posted 2026 ticket pricing yet, so treat last year's format as a guide until the committee confirms it.

The list has grown, too. The 2023 results list numbered its entries up to 131. The 2025 program ran to 173. Both counts mix trees, wreaths, displays and donated raffle items, so each total covers all the prizes on the floor rather than trees alone.

Where the Money Goes

A festival made by the town also pays back into the town. A 2024 listing for the event on Macaroni KID Lowell described it as a benefit that funds "the many youth programs supported by the Tyngsborough Recreation Committee." Businesses that sponsor the festival can direct their support to the festival itself or to the Block Party. Sponsorship requests for 2026 closed on October 14.

Getting Your Own Entry on the Floor

Sponsorship has closed, but donor registration for trees, wreaths, displays and raffle items is still open for the 2026 season. The donor page sets out the ground rules:

1. Trees, wreaths and displays must be artificial and brand new, never used.
2. Trees need a stand and a skirt.
3. Every ornament has to be wired on, with hooks twisted around the branches so nothing falls off in transport.
4. The whole display must fit within a 7-foot-wide by 7-foot-deep area.
5. Everything you display goes to the raffle winner as one complete prize.

If you would like the festival's designer to decorate your entry instead, the request deadline is November 1, 2026, which is this Sunday. Families had their own entries alongside the businesses last year, and the festival designer contributed one too. In the donor page's words, "The more creative the entry, the more attention it draws from viewers."

Walking the Route

The festival takes up the center of town, starting at Old Town Hall, 10 Kendall Road, near Exit 90 off Route 3. The three buildings span a century and a half. Old Town Hall was built in 1834, the 216 Meeting House was originally built in 1755, and the Littlefield Library dates to 1905.

The trees, wreaths and displays fill Old Town Hall and the Meeting House. From there, the festival's site describes a walk across the footbridge to more trees, the Candy Cane Café, and the Sparkling Light Show around Santa's Throne. You then head up Winslow Road into Winslow Wonderland, where you can vote for your favorite painted snowman or tree cutout, and on to the Holiday Market Boutique. In 2025, the café was on the Meeting House's lower level and the boutique sold handcrafted artisan goods inside the Littlefield Library at 252 Middlesex Road. The light show ran at dusk and after dark. Last year's program also hid 50 snowmen around the Town Common and Veterans Memorial for visitors to find. Before you leave, children can write a letter to Santa and mail it in the Santa's Express Mailbox on the library's front stoop.

The festival has posted these 2026 dates so far. Its full daily schedule is still marked as coming soon.

Laser show tickets go through the Recreation Department's ticketing page.

Family Fun Day, December 5

The final Saturday packs the most into one afternoon at 216 Middlesex Road. The plan includes Travelin' Tom's coffee and cocoa truck, make-your-own s'mores, cookie decorating, over 120 raffle items, holiday characters, and a dance party with DJ Steve from Metro Mass Entertainment. The Tyngsborough High School Concert Band, directed by Adam Consentino, is scheduled to play in the Meeting House at 4:15 p.m., followed by a holiday set from the THS Choir. Then, around 5:30 p.m., Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive on a Tyngsborough Fire Department truck. Families line the sidewalks along the driveway behind the Meeting House, and photos are free. No registration is required.

Parking

Free parking is at 216 Middlesex Road and 252 Middlesex Road, with more spaces in the municipal lot across from the Tyngsborough Fire Department. Special event times may vary, so check the daily schedule before you head over.

At The St. Martin Team, we enjoy seeing how much of Tyngsborough turns up in those three old buildings every December, from the Town Clerk's office to the trades on Middlesex Road. If you're curious what your own Tyngsborough home is worth as the year winds down, request your complimentary home valuation, and we'll put together a clear, local picture for you before the festival opens.