Burbank Holiday Events 2026: Your Nov. 20–21 Weekend Guide

Last November, Magnolia Boulevard had a Ferris wheel over one block and a classic car show on another. Krampus walked the street, and families waited in a line that wrapped around the block for caramel apples and free photos with Santa. Real snow was part of it too. The next evening, snow fell again, this time downtown on San Fernando Boulevard, to close the Winter Wine Walk.

That pairing happens again this year, on the same two nights of the week. Holiday in the Park takes over Magnolia Boulevard on Friday, November 20, from 4 to 10 p.m. Downtown Burbank's free Holiday Street Fair and the Winter Wine Walk fill North San Fernando Boulevard on Saturday, November 21, from noon to 8 p.m. Count from the first booth on Magnolia to the last snowfall downtown and you get 28 hours. That window holds Burbank's two largest holiday street events, and it closes five days before Thanksgiving.

Twenty-eight hours, two boulevards

The two events come from different organizations, run on different clocks and charge for different things. Laid side by side, the weekend looks like this:

Friday is a free evening street festival that lasts until 10. Saturday is mostly a daytime fair, with a ticketed tasting in the late afternoon and a snowfall to close it.

Friday on Magnolia, a merchants' open house that kept growing

Holiday in the Park did not begin as a street closure. myBurbank's 2025 retrospective traces it to a holiday open house where Magnolia Park shops served hot cocoa, handed out cookies and stayed open late. 2025 was its 35th year. After the Magnolia Park Merchants Association formed, the event added a little each year: first a street closure, then stages, food trucks, the car show, vendors, a kids zone, real snow and the Ferris wheel. The same retrospective puts the crowd at more than 40,000 residents and visitors.

The current organizer came from a storefront on the boulevard. Jeff Ferguson of Run Out Groove Records took over in 2023, and myBurbank reported that his second year added blocks, storefronts, vendors and two more stages, along with new seating areas so people could sit down and eat. The Burbank Leader described the 2025 festival as ten blocks long, running from North Hollywood Way to North Buena Vista Street. Two years earlier, the City's own listing described nine blocks ending at Florence Street. The footprint has moved east.

How the event is paid for explains how fragile it is. The merchants association is a nonprofit that relies on donations, merchant dues, sponsorships and help from the City of Burbank. Last year event insurance costs jumped sharply, and the committee asked the community for help. Donations came in, and the festival went ahead.

For the 2026 edition, the event site says this much:

• Admission is free, and a full visitor guide with entertainment and arrival details is still to come.
• Applications for the Art Block, Main Stage and Community Stage are closed, and juries are reviewing submissions.
• The car show is open to all makes, models and car clubs at $40 per vehicle once approved, if space allows.
• Food truck spaces are sold out. Restaurants can still apply for food booths.
• Vendor and exhibitor applications are due November 15.
• It is a rain-or-shine event. Organizers say it has never been canceled or washed out in more than 30 years.

Last year's weather was close. myBurbank reported a full week of rain before the event that worried vendors, and the skies cleared on the morning of the festival.

Saturday downtown, a free fair with ticketed pours at four

The next day's event runs on a different schedule. Downtown Burbank's Holiday Street Fair opens at noon on North San Fernando Boulevard between East Magnolia Boulevard and East Angeleno Avenue. It is free, open to all ages and doesn't require a Wine Walk ticket.

The ticketed part is short and has firm rules. Wine tasting runs from 4 to 7 p.m. at more than 40 stations around the district. Check-in is from 3 to 6 p.m., and late arrivals are turned away. Wine tasting is 21 and over. On the official ticket page, general admission is $65 plus a $7.15 booking fee. VIP is $109 plus an $11.99 fee and adds a VIP Holiday Lounge with exclusive pours and catered plates. From 7 to 8 p.m., snow falls near the main stage. The event page lists the route as wheelchair accessible.

Parking downtown is easier than on Magnolia. Downtown Burbank advertises more than 5,000 parking spaces, with free public structures that have time limits. Structure A is at 133 E. Orange Grove Avenue and Structure G is at 250 E. Orange Grove Avenue. Downtown Burbank Station, which serves the Antelope Valley and Ventura County Metrolink lines, is within walking distance of the fair.

Why the business districts set the calendar

Both weekend events come from business districts. Holiday in the Park belongs to the Magnolia Park merchants. Downtown's programming comes from the Downtown Burbank Partnership, the nonprofit that manages the downtown property-based business improvement district and lists marketing, promotions and events among its duties. Shopping districts have good reasons to start the season early. A festival the Friday and Saturday before Thanksgiving puts people on the sidewalk in front of shops before the holiday shopping weeks begin. The Magnolia event started that way, as shops staying open late with cocoa.

The City's own holiday events are smaller and come later. The Mayor's Tree Lighting is Saturday, December 5, on the steps of City Hall at 275 E. Olive Avenue. It is free, with live performances and a visit from Santa, and it runs from 6 to 6:30 p.m. That is 30 minutes. Holiday in the Park runs six hours. On Saturday, December 12, the City holds Breakfast with Santa from 8 to 10 a.m. in the Level 1 food court at Burbank Town Center, 201 E. Magnolia Boulevard. Tickets are $17 per person and include breakfast, music, crafts and storytime.

Downtown then hosts the second big weekend. The Winter Arts Festival brings more than 170 artisan booths to San Fernando Boulevard between Magnolia Boulevard and Angeleno Avenue on December 12 and 13, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. Admission is free. Breakfast with Santa ends at 10 a.m. and the arts festival opens an hour later a few blocks away, so one morning can cover both.

The stretch, in order

1. Sunday, November 15. Vendor and exhibitor applications for Holiday in the Park are due.
2. Friday, November 20, 4–10 p.m. Holiday in the Park on Magnolia Boulevard. Free, rain or shine.
3. Saturday, November 21, noon–8 p.m. Holiday Street Fair downtown. Wine Walk check-in is 3–6 p.m., tasting is 4–7 p.m., and the snowfall is 7–8 p.m.
4. Saturday, December 5, 6–6:30 p.m. Mayor's Tree Lighting at City Hall. Free.
5. Saturday, December 12, 8–10 a.m. Breakfast with Santa at Burbank Town Center. $17 per person.
6. December 12–13, 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Winter Arts Festival on San Fernando Boulevard. Free.

That makes two dense weekends, three weeks apart, with a half-hour tree lighting in between. November 20 and 21 hold the most in the least time. December 12 comes next, since the city's breakfast and downtown's arts festival share that morning.

Both Magnolia Park and Downtown Burbank depend on local merchants who keep their doors open late and on a community that turns out, and that matters on our side of the Valley too. When the holidays get your household talking about next year, Craig Strong and the Craig Strong Group are glad to sit down with you. Request a confidential market consultation and we'll go over your plans with the same attention to local detail.