Tickets for Mayor Bettencourt's Holiday Pops Concert went on sale October 19, almost seven weeks before the first downbeat in Wiggin Auditorium. That early start is typical of Peabody in December. The events with a fixed number of chairs, tables or Santa slots ask you to commit in October or November. Only three events take walk-ins, and the latest of them comes after every booked program is finished. If you plan by booking deadline rather than by event date, your calendar looks very different.

Here is the 2026 season sorted that way.

Nine of these twelve need you to sign up first. The Jamboree on December 19 is the only walk-in that falls after the last registration-only program.

The Pops Concert Is a Dinner Reservation

The Holiday Pops is easy to file under "concert" and forget about until December. In practice it's a seated dinner. Both nights, Saturday, December 5, and Sunday, December 6, dinner starts at 6 p.m. and the music at 7 p.m. in Wiggin Auditorium at Peabody City Hall, 24 Lowell Street. The City's ticket notice lists the Hillyer Festival Orchestra, soloist A.J. Ramsey and the PVMHS Chorale.

Every seat is a table seat, so the price depends on the floor. A floor table seat costs $55 and a balcony table seat costs $50. The in-person sale ran for two hours on October 19 in City Hall's lower-level conference room. Now that it's over, you can buy by phone at 978-538-5702 or by email at [email protected]. If you're bringing a group, sort out the seating before you call, since floor and balcony are priced separately and you'll be sitting at tables.

December 6 Is the Day That Needs a Plan

The Pops alone would make the first weekend of December a busy one. Sunday, December 6, has two more events on it, and each runs differently:

1. 9 to 10:30 a.m., Caring Santa at Northshore Mall. This is a sensory-friendly Santa visit on the lower level near The North Face. Reservations are required and photos are available to buy. Book it through the mall's event page.
2. 3:30 p.m., MENORAH @THEMALL at JCPenney Court. Chabad of Peabody and the mall host a Chanukah celebration with crafts, games, entertainment, treats and refreshments. The mall's listing gives the date as December 6 but calls it a Saturday, and December 6 falls on a Sunday this year. Check the day before you go.
3. 6 p.m., the second night of the Holiday Pops at Wiggin Auditorium, the closing night of the run.

A family could do all three. The two mall events are six and a half hours apart, and both sit far from the dinner seating at City Hall. Only two of the three need to be locked in ahead of time, Caring Santa and the Pops, and both are booking now.

November Belongs to the Library's Small Rooms

The Peabody Institute Library's holiday programs are a smaller version of the same pattern. Almost every seasonal event on the November calendar needs registration, and the craft programs are built around one table's worth of supplies.

At the West Branch, 603 Lowell Street, Glass Pumpkin Centerpieces runs on November 10 from 11 a.m. to noon. Children's Pie Making follows on November 14 in the same hour. It's free, and registration is required. That same afternoon at the Main Library, 82 Main Street, the Greater Salem Ballet Company presents "The Magic of the Nutcracker" for kids from 3 to 4 p.m. November 14 is a Saturday this year, so a family could do pie dough at the West Branch in the morning and ballet downtown in the afternoon.

Thanksgiving week starts early downtown. Kids: Thanksgiving Bingo, for ages 4 and up, is on Monday, November 23, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the Main Library, and registration is required.

The December calendar carries the same approach toward the holidays. Cardboard Gingerbread House is on December 12 from 11 a.m. to noon at the West Branch. It's free, and registration is required because space is limited. Cocoa, Cookies, and Cozy Stories is on Thursday, December 17, from 7 to 8 p.m. in the same building, free with registration.

The Lake Street Pair: One Walk-In, One RSVP

Two Lake Street addresses show both sides of the booking split.

The 2026 Scandinavian Fair at Community Covenant Church, 33 Lake Street, runs Saturday, November 21, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Patch's listing describes Scandinavian food and goods, crafts, a luncheon and a visit from Santa. The listing mentions no tickets. It's the easiest Santa sighting of the season for anyone who missed the mall reservations.

Farther up the street at 185 Lake Street, Puritan Lawn Memorial Park holds its free Holiday Candlelight & Tree Lighting Service on Sunday, December 13, from 4:15 to 5:15 p.m. It costs nothing, but the listing asks for an RSVP to [email protected] or 978-535-3660.

The Last Walk-In of the Season

The season's final walk-in event comes after all the registration deadlines have passed. Santa's Holly Jolly Jamboree at Northshore Mall is on Saturday, December 19, from 1 to 3 p.m. on the lower level near The North Face, and the mall says no reservations are needed. The mall's Santa photos page lists photo dates from November 7 through December 24 with a link to reserve. One line on that page calls November 7 a Thursday, but it falls on a Saturday this year, so check the opening day before you plan a visit around it.

If you head to the mall for any of these, two new restaurants arrived this fall. Patch reported that Shake Shack's first North Shore location was set to open in the Promenade on September 29. Fogo de Chão opened next door at 210 Andover Street on September 14.

Brooksby Farm at 54 Felton Street also fits the walk-in season. Its site lists holiday pies, cider and doughnuts, Christmas trees and wreaths for November and December. The farm hasn't posted 2026 pie-ordering details or Thanksgiving-week hours yet, so check brooksbyfarm.org before you count on a pie for the table.

Still Unannounced: The Downtown Tree Lighting

The biggest event downtown doesn't have a 2026 date yet. Last year Patch reported that the Downtown Holiday Stroll was on November 29, 2025, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, with the tree lighting at 4:30 p.m. That's last year's schedule, not this year's. Keep the Thanksgiving weekend loosely open until the City posts a date.

When the stroll does happen, the downtown stops will include a new one. Downtown Grounds opened October 1 at 67 Main Street, in the former Breaking Grounds space. Peabody Weekly News reports its hours as 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekends. That covers a morning coffee before a Main Library program, but not an evening tree lighting.

The Errand That Comes Before All of It

Before the decorations go up, the leaves have to come down. The City's fall yard-waste notice schedules free curbside pickup for the weeks of November 2 and November 16, on your regular trash day. Use paper bags or barrels, since plastic bags aren't accepted. The second pickup week is the week before Thanksgiving week, which makes it the last scheduled city pickup before guests arrive.

If you're hosting this season and wondering what your Peabody home is worth while the family is in town, Nikki Martin and the team can give you a clear, local answer before the December rush. Request a Free Home Valuation, and we'll have the numbers ready before your Pops tickets are.