Jupiter's Tree Lighting Settles on the Town Green. Here's How the Holiday Calendar Fills In Around It.

Where will Jupiter's holiday tree be lit this year? In 2023 and 2024 you could find it by following the snow machines to Abacoa Community Park. Last December it moved to the municipal campus on Military Trail. This year it stays on that campus, at a spot the Town calls the ceremony's "new home."

The Town of Jupiter's October 16 announcement says the Annual Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony is "now taking place at its new home on the Town Green following recent construction at the Jupiter Municipal Campus." The ceremony is Friday, December 4, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Jupiter Town Green, 210 Military Trail. "There's Snow Place Like Jupiter" stays at Abacoa Community Park on Saturday, December 12.

This is the second year the tree lighting and the snow have run as separate events, and the first year the tree has its own address on the Green. The rest of November and December now falls around a Friday on Military Trail and a weekend at Abacoa eight days later.

Three Years, Two Venues, One Pattern

The Town's own calendars show where the tree lighting has gone.

The 2023 listing told families they could watch the tree lighting at the snow event. The 2024 listing described the tree lighting as part of the night. Both years, one Friday evening at Abacoa carried both traditions.

The December 2025 calendar separated them. It listed a Friday tree lighting "at the Jupiter Municipal Complex," held at the Jupiter Community Center with choirs and holiday performances, and moved the snow to a Saturday afternoon at Abacoa the following weekend. The 2026 calendar keeps that rhythm. The tree stays on the same campus, moving from 200 to 210 Military Trail.

The snow event has grown into a full afternoon of its own. For 2026 the Town lists 32 tons of real snow, a Winter Village, a meet and greet with Santa and Mrs. Claus, an Anna and Elsa meet and greet, bounce houses, a live DJ and food vendors at Abacoa Community Park, 1501 W. Frederick Small Road.

The New Home Has a Back Story at 210 Military Trail

The Town Green's address carries some history. Jupiter has had three town halls. According to The Palm Beach Post, the first, now called "Old Town Hall," was a 2,000-square-foot building at Old Town Hall Park, and it received local historic site designation in September 2023. The Town worked there from 1952 to the early 1980s. Then it moved to its second home at 210 Military Trail, which it shared with the Police Department until the department got a new building in 2020.

The third Town Hall opened to the public on January 2, 2024, just northwest of the old building. It cost $24.7 million, has 42,000 square feet and is built to withstand Category 4 hurricane-force winds. At the time, the Post reported the plan for the second building: it would "eventually be torn down, with the land added to the Town Green at the complex."

So the tree's new address is the old Town Hall's address. The Town has described the Green only as the ceremony's "new home," following "recent construction." The Jupiter Community Center at 200 Military Trail, where last year's ceremony was held, stays busy through December with Toddler Open Gym, Kids Night and Teen Night.

December 4 Now Has Room for Two Stops

A 5:30 to 7 p.m. ceremony ends early in the evening, and on this Friday that matters. Downtown Abacoa holds its Golf Cart Night on December 4 from 6 to 10 p.m. In 2023 and 2024, a December Friday at Abacoa meant snow and the tree in one place. This year, the first Friday of December starts on Military Trail and can carry on at Downtown Abacoa after the tree is lit.

November follows the same pattern on the same Abacoa schedule. Golf Cart Night falls on November 6, and Food Truck Friday on November 13 from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Those first-Friday and second-Friday nights repeat in December. That repetition is why the Dec. 11 and 12 weekend fills up the way it does, as the next sections show.

November Fills In From the Coast

Before the tree lighting, the season's first weeks happen mostly along the water. Here is the November lineup in date order:

1. Friday, Nov. 6: Golf Cart Night at Downtown Abacoa, 6 to 10 p.m.
2. Friday, Nov. 13: Food Truck Friday at Downtown Abacoa, 5:30 to 10:30 p.m.
3. Saturday, Nov. 14: A Friends of Jupiter Beach beach cleanup at Ocean Cay Park, 8 to 10 a.m.
4. Also Saturday, Nov. 14: "Rendezvous at the Light," the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse & Museum benefit billed as "The Best Taste of Jupiter."
5. Sunday, Nov. 15: Coco Market returns to Seabreeze Amphitheater in Carlin Park, 400 S. State Road A1A, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
6. Saturday, Nov. 28: The Friends of Jupiter Beach 1st Annual Holiday Market at Ocean Cay Park, 2 to 6 p.m.

Two of those deserve a closer look.

Coco Market is back after five months away. The Town's November calendar describes a four-month season of Sunday mornings by the ocean, with small, local, independent businesses filling the amphitheater alongside free yoga, sound healing and live music. Admission is free and no ticket is needed. The Town lists another Sunday on December 20, also 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Carlin Park. That makes it the one recurring event that runs straight through the holidays.

Ocean Cay Park hosts Friends of Jupiter Beach twice in two weeks. The park sits at the southeast corner of U.S. Highway 1 at 2188 Marcinski Road, north of Donald Ross Road. The November 14 cleanup is a morning work session. The November 28 Holiday Market is the group's first, and it takes the Saturday after Thanksgiving. That gives Jupiter a holiday shopping afternoon nearly a week before the tree is lit.

December 11 and 12 Become the Season's Busiest Stretch

December 12 puts the snow event on the most crowded weekend of the season. Here is what the calendars show for those two days:

• Friday, Dec. 11: Food Truck Friday at Downtown Abacoa, 5:30 to 10:30 p.m., plus the first of the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse & Museum's Luminary Nights.
• Saturday, Dec. 12: There's Snow Place Like Jupiter at Abacoa Community Park, 4 to 7 p.m., and the second Luminary Night at the Lighthouse.

Luminary Nights runs on two weekends, December 11 and 12 and then December 18 and 19, and tickets are sold through the Lighthouse. If you want the Lighthouse on a quieter weekend than the snow, December 18 and 19 is the other option. Teen Night at the Jupiter Community Center falls on December 19 from 6 to 9 p.m.

This year's snow event runs 4 to 7 p.m., an hour later than the 3 to 6 p.m. slot in 2025. With the tree lit eight days earlier on Military Trail, as it was last year, December 12 belongs to the snow, Santa and Mrs. Claus, and the Winter Village.

Planning the Season Weekend by Weekend

With the tree and the snow on separate dates, most Jupiter holiday events cluster into a handful of weekends:

• The Nov. 14 and 15 weekend opens the season on the coast. It has the Ocean Cay cleanup, Rendezvous at the Light and Coco Market's return to Carlin Park, back to back.
• Saturday, Nov. 28 brings the first Friends of Jupiter Beach Holiday Market at Ocean Cay Park.
• Friday, Dec. 4 is the Tree Lighting at the Town Green from 5:30 to 7 p.m., with Golf Cart Night at Downtown Abacoa running until 10.
• The Dec. 11 and 12 weekend has Food Truck Friday, two Luminary Nights and the snow at Abacoa Community Park.
• The Dec. 18 to 20 weekend has the second set of Luminary Nights, Teen Night and a Coco Market Sunday at Seabreeze Amphitheater.

So far, the Town has posted the date, time and place for the 2026 Tree Lighting. Last year's listing promised choirs and holiday performances. Watch the Town's event page for this year's lineup as December 4 gets closer.

If you're hosting family in Jupiter this season and you also have questions about your own home or a move you're considering, Gina Villanell is happy to talk it through over coffee, maybe before or after an evening at the Town Green. Let's Connect.