Columbia's Holiday Season Moves Into Its Historic Houses, and Starts Earlier on West Seventh

Last December, the President James K. Polk Home and Museum sold tickets to what its TicketLeap listing called the "First-Ever Tour of Lights at the Polk Home." That run started on December 5, 2025, and ended on December 23. This year the gardens light up on November 25, the night before Thanksgiving, and stay lit through December 23.

With the earlier start, Garden Lights is already running by the time Columbia's big holiday weekend arrives. Last year it opened the same night. Most of what follows it also centers on old houses and a few blocks of West Seventh Street, including the historic home tour, the December First Friday and the parade.

Garden Lights opens the night before Thanksgiving

Garden Lights at the Polk Home runs 5 to 9 p.m. nightly at 301 W. 7th Street. Admission covers the full evening in the illuminated gardens plus one hot beverage per guest. The Polk Home describes lit paths, holiday scenes and photo spots, and asks visitors to walk carefully. Children under 3 get in free, and every child 3 and older needs a ticket. All proceeds go toward preserving the President James K. Polk Home. Visit Columbia's event listing puts admission at $7.12.

Garden Lights runs on a different schedule from the museum. From November through March, the museum is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. Thanksgiving Day and December 24 and 25 are on its list of annual closures. The lights come on an hour after the weekday doors close, so a daytime tour of the house and an evening walk through the gardens are separate visits. A standard museum tour costs $14 for adults, $12 for seniors and $8 for youth, with children under 6 free and a $35 cap per family. That ticket is separate from Garden Lights.

With the earlier start, out-of-town Thanksgiving guests who stay through the weekend now have a reason to come downtown at night. Last year's schedule didn't allow for that.

The November calendar before the lights come on

Before November 25, the season builds at a school gym, a converted factory and another historic house. These are the dates for the next two weeks:

• Saturday, November 14: SHHS SkillsUSA Manufacturing Holiday Market. It runs 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Spring Hill High School, 1 Raider Lane, according to the Eventbrite listing. This is the market's second year. Admission is free, and proceeds support SkillsUSA manufacturing students as they prepare for the state competitions in April.
• Friday through Sunday, November 20 to 22: A Very Maury Christmas. This 12th annual market brings more than 75 curated vendors back to The Factory at Columbia. Visit Columbia lists a Friday preview party from 5:30 to 8 p.m. with advance tickets and says aMuse'um Children's Museum is hosting it. The Saturday market runs 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for $10, and Sunday runs 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for $5. Children 12 and under get in free.
• Saturday, November 21: Battle's Eve Dinner at Elm Springs. The evening runs 6 to 9:30 p.m. for $50 per person. Guests explore the house, sit down at 6:30 for a family-style Southern meal, hear about the home's role in the Tennessee Campaign of November 1864 and finish with a low-light tour of the house.

The Elm Springs dinner is the first of the season's evenings inside a historic house. Four days later the Polk Home gardens light up, and within two weeks the home tour opens houses across the county.

Home tour tickets are paper-only this year

The 2026 Maury Christmas Historic Homes Tour runs Friday, December 4, and Saturday, December 5, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. Experience Maury describes it as a tour of private and public historic properties. Tickets are $25 each and went on sale November 4. This year the tour has no online ticket sales. Tickets are sold in advance at three in-person locations and stay available through December 6.

Hours differ at each location, and the differences matter on the Saturday of the tour:

1. The Athenaeum Rectory, 808 Athenaeum Street. It's the tour headquarters, open by appointment before the tour and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on December 4 and 5. The tour site says the headquarters also has baked goods and T-shirts.
2. The Maury County Visitor's Center, 302 W. 7th Street. It's open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is closed Saturday, December 5.
3. Historic Elm Springs, 2357 Park Plus Drive. It's open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is also open Saturday, December 5, for tickets.

The Visitor's Center sits at 302 W. 7th, one number off from the Polk Home's 301. On weekdays you can pick up home tour tickets there and come back the same evening for Garden Lights. If you put it off until the Saturday of the tour, you'll have to go to the Athenaeum or Elm Springs.

The money from the tour stays close to home as well. The tour's About page says proceeds pay the Athenaeum's annual operating costs and, when possible, its restoration. The Athenaeum is owned and operated by the Maury County Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities. For a sense of the stops, the 2024 tour as the Columbia Daily Herald listed it included the Athenaeum Rectory, Rally Hill, Historic Pisgah Church and Cemetery, the James K. Polk Home and Museum, The Shoemaker Loft, the Smiser-Ganser Home and St. Peter's Episcopal Church. The lineup changes from year to year. The 2024 list is the latest published one.

December 4 and 5 stack onto the same few blocks

On the first weekend of December, the daytime home tour, the First Friday market, the parade and the garden lights fall on two back-to-back days. Columbia Main Street Corporation runs First Fridays in partnership with the City of Columbia. Its 2026 schedule makes December 4 the Merry Makers Market, from 5 to 8 p.m., with food trucks, craft vendors, live music, a game zone and a youth market. This year's First Fridays footprint covers West Seventh Street, the entire Public Square and one block of South Main Street. The Christmas Parade follows on Saturday at 6 p.m.

Each evening has an obvious next stop. On Friday, the Merry Makers Market fills West Seventh while the Polk Home gardens are lit on the same street. Garden Lights stays open an hour after the market wraps up at 8. On Saturday, the home tour closes at 4, the gardens open at 5 and the parade starts at 6. Last year the lights opened on parade weekend. This year they'll have been running for more than a week when the parade steps off.

Garden Lights runs through December 23. After that, the Polk Home observes its listed closure on December 24 and 25.

If you're getting ready to show family around downtown this year, or if a home tour has you curious about the story behind one of Columbia's older houses, First Realty Group has worked with historic properties across southern Middle Tennessee for three decades and is glad to talk it over. Contact us anytime this season.