Downtown Royal Oak Shortened Its Holiday Season on Purpose. Here's How to Plan Around It.
November 5, 2026
November 5, 2026
What happens in downtown Royal Oak on the weekend after Thanksgiving this year?
Last year that weekend was called Thrill Weekend. It had free zip line rides, a life-size Hungry Hungry Hippos game and horse-drawn carriage rides in and around Centennial Commons. This year, Thanksgiving weekend has no featured Royal Oak Holidays events. The Lighting of the Park comes on Friday, Nov. 20, and the weekend program doesn't start until Dec. 4. The Rink is open every day in between, and the Detroit Zoo's Wild Lights opens on Nov. 21.
The shorter season was a deliberate choice. The 2026 program is built around three heavier weekends instead of five lighter ones. The changes were also designed to send people off the ice and into the shops along downtown's streets.
The 2025 edition, presented by Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort, ran five weeks, from Nov. 21 through Dec. 21. It was also the first year after a merger. Winter Blast Royal Oak ended after 20 years and moved its winter activities into Royal Oak Holidays. According to a City Commission agenda item from May 18, 2026, the multi-week program grew out of earlier single-weekend holiday events, including the old one-weekend Winter Blast.
The producer, Jonathan Witz & Associates, gave the city a 2025 recap that shows how many people each piece drew.
The 2025 program had a budget of about $478,000. The recap puts total 2025 revenue at about $470,000. It says the City and the Downtown Development Authority put in $217,500, commercial sponsors gave $170,000, and food, vendor and Cookie Crawl sales brought in about $35,000.
These numbers set up the 2026 plan. The Lighting of the Park and the Cookie Crawl drew big crowds, and both are back. The zipline drew the smallest crowd on the list, and it doesn't appear in this year's lineup.
The 2026 proposal from Jonathan Witz & Associates says the event "will build on last year's accomplishments with key changes to build on its most successful programming elements." In the new format, the Holiday Markets and the Holiday Lodge anchor all three weekends. Each weekend also gets its own extra features: carnival rides, free skating, ice sculptures, the Cookie Crawl, Hungry Hungry Hippos and the Bottomless Toy Chest toy drive.
The city's sponsorship request is smaller too. The proposal asks for $142,500 from the DDA and $75,000 from the City, and says the producer will make best efforts to match last year's $478,000 budget. The May agenda item lists the DDA's $142,500 share for the 2026-2027 program.
The biggest change is to the Elf Hunt. It used an app to send families from business to business, and it is not coming back as it was. The proposal says "A new activity to replace this will be researched and developed, with the goal being to drive foot traffic to downtown businesses, similarly to what the Hunt did."
Santa visits follow the same idea. In 2025, Santa appeared inside downtown businesses as well as around the rink, and the proposal says this will happen again in 2026 "to drive foot traffic throughout downtown." The Royal Oak Holidays site lists Santa at various locations around downtown. The Holiday Markets feature 20 local artisans and downtown Royal Oak businesses. So most of the program is designed to move people around downtown, and a family that comes for the ice will also end up walking past storefronts.
Every December weekend has the same base. Holiday Markets run Friday 4 to 9 p.m., Saturday noon to 9 p.m. and Sunday noon to 8 p.m. in Centennial Commons. The Holiday Lodge has live music, cocktails, games and comfy seating. Marshmallow roasting kits are available at The Rink. Horse and wagon rides pick up on Troy Street, across from Royal Oak City Hall. The rides run on Friday and Saturday evenings and loop through downtown.
The weekend-only events are what make each one different.
| Weekend | What's added | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Dec. 4 to 6 | Hungry Hungry Hippos on the ice; Cookie Crawl on Saturday, Dec. 5 | Hippos teams of four ride tubes and have two minutes to scoop balls; the Crawl runs noon to 4 p.m. and collects 18 handcrafted cookies from downtown businesses |
| Dec. 11 to 13 | Bottomless Toy Chest toy drive; Free Skating Weekend | Toys worth $10 or more go to local hospitalized pediatric patients; donations are collected at the Holiday Lodge during its hours |
| Dec. 18 to 20 | Ice sculptures; Grinch Weekend; Guns & Hoses Broomball Battle on Friday, Dec. 18 | More than 50 ice sculptures in Centennial Commons and around downtown; the Grinch is out Saturday and Sunday; Royal Oak Police play Royal Oak Fire to raise money for local nonprofits serving the homeless community |
Cookie Crawl check-in runs from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Dec. 5. The producer's proposal places the carnival rides and inflatables for kids on the final weekend, Dec. 18 to 20.
The weekends also move from busy to calm. The first weekend has the busiest single afternoon, the Cookie Crawl, which last year sold 612 tins. The second weekend makes skating free, and that drew 1,800 people last year. The third weekend has the ice sculptures, which you can walk around downtown and see whenever you like.
Before any market opens, the season starts on Friday, Nov. 20, with the Lighting of the Park, 4 to 9 p.m. in Centennial Commons. The evening includes skating, Santa visits, food trucks and live music. The ceremony on the steps of the Royal Oak Public Library includes local musicians and school groups, skating performances and the annual Beacon of Light Awards, and it ends with the lighting of the park and the Giant Oak Tree.
That same night, The Rink at Royal Oak opens. It is open every day from Friday, Nov. 20, through Tuesday, Feb. 16. That's almost three months on the ice. For the two weekends before Dec. 4, and for all the weeks after Dec. 20, the rink is the only holiday attraction running downtown.
The Detroit Zoo's Wild Lights starts the next night. Its 2026-27 season runs Nov. 21 to Jan. 3 on 30 select nights. Gates open at 5 p.m. It runs until 10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and until 9 p.m. on other nights and all January dates. Tickets cost $17 to $65, and the zoo says Wild Lights sells fast. The lights cover the front half of the zoo, with more than 500 animal- and nature-themed displays. Santa is there every night through Dec. 23.
New this season at the zoo:
Compare the two calendars and the gaps mostly line up. Wild Lights is open Nov. 21 and 22 and Nov. 27 to 29, the weekends the downtown program skips. It is also open every night from Dec. 26 through Dec. 31, after the last downtown market closes on Dec. 20.
Wild Lights has the fewest open nights and sells out, so book it first. The downtown events are free and need no reservation, so they can fit around whatever zoo night you get.
Weekends in Centennial Commons are a big part of a Royal Oak December, and they shape what a home a few blocks away is like to live in. If you're wondering what yours is worth this season, Closing and Toasting will put together a valuation that reflects that, while you're out between the markets and the rink. Get your instant home valuation.
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