Gahanna's Holiday Lights Celebration this Sunday runs from 3 to 6:30 p.m. That's three and a half hours, and it ends with Santa, a tree lighting and fireworks. The 300,000 lights it switches on stay up in Creekside Park every evening for about six weeks. By the city's posted schedule, that comes to more than 180 hours of display time. Sunday's ceremony is a small slice of it.
That changes how to plan the season. The Sunday program is built around a stage, vendors and one big moment. The display nights after it come with the same lights and none of the program. Those nights line up with the Creekside District's year-round restaurants, and one of them opened only in October.
Sunday, Nov. 22: what the afternoon holds
Visit Gahanna lists the Holiday Lights Celebration for Sunday, November 22, 2026, from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in the Creekside District. Nth Degree presents the event, and it's free. The afternoon follows a clear order:
- 3 p.m. Free activities open across the district. Live music and dance run on the Holiday Stage at Creekside Plaza, along with free trackless train rides, a Giant Snow Globe photo spot, a petting zoo, a snow room, holiday characters and a stiltwalker, face painting and caricatures, snow axe throwing and a festive silent disco.
- By 6 p.m. Santa arrives to light the tree and set off the holiday fireworks. Columbus on the Cheap reports that he arrives by firetruck.
- After the tree lighting Visit Gahanna invites visitors to walk through Creekside Park and see the full display.
Columbus on the Cheap gives the location as 117 Mill St. and notes parking in the garage.
The vendor list makes Sunday feel local. Food comes from Midway Kettle Corn, Cousins Maine Lobster, My Chick'N Bites, Schmidt's, Tortilla Street Food and Pretzel Shop Etc. Retail tables include Hai Hunny Candle Co., Thistle Bee Pottery, Just Papa's Baking Company, The Cousin Collection, Sugar Rae and WHATTAMUTT. The activity hosts are mostly Gahanna's own groups: Gahanna Residents in Need, Give to Gahanna, the GLHS Art Department, Gahanna Lincoln Athletics, the city's Parks & Recreation department, and congregations including Mifflin Presbyterian, Peace Lutheran, St. Matthew the Apostle, Stonybrook United Methodist and Walnut Creek Presbyterian.
The date follows a pattern
The celebration has settled on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Columbus Underground's listing put the 2025 event on Sunday, Nov. 23, from 3 to 6:30 p.m., with stage entertainment, Santa, the tree lighting and fireworks. A photo caption on the Columbus on the Cheap page dates the 2023 celebration to Sunday, Nov. 19, 2023.
So you can plan around it without checking the calendar every year. Gahanna lights its tree a few days before Thanksgiving, which means the display is already running when Thanksgiving guests arrive. The lights stay on after Sunday's program packs up.
Six weeks of evenings, by the city's schedule
The City of Gahanna's October 2026 newsletter lists the Holiday Lights Display at Creekside Park & Plaza from Monday, Nov. 23 through Monday, Jan. 4.
| Nights | Display hours | Number of nights, Nov. 23 to Jan. 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday through Thursday | 5 to 9 p.m. | 31 |
| Friday and Saturday | 5 to 10 p.m. | 12 |
The night counts come from a 2026 calendar laid over the city's dates. That's 43 evenings in all, and those hours add up to 184. The celebration covers three and a half of them. Columbus on the Cheap adds that the light show is set to music.
The 12 late nights include both weekends around Christmas and the two after it: Dec. 18 and 19, Dec. 25 and 26, and Jan. 1 and 2. The 31 weeknights close at 9 p.m., and a 5 p.m. start makes them easy to fit around a school night. The display opens after dark in late November and December, so the whole lit park is there from the first hour.
Where the display nights meet Creekside's tables
On Sunday, food comes from vendor booths. On every other night, it comes from the businesses that are in the Creekside District all year. Visit Gahanna's Creekside dining directory lists nine:
- Barrel & Boar Creekside
- Cafe Creekside
- Cold Stone Creamery
- Durbar Nepali & Indian Cuisine
- Marlow's Cheesesteaks
- Nostalgia Brewing
- Signatures Mill Stone Tavern
- Upper Cup Gahanna
- Xochilt Mexican Cuisine
Those names cover most of what an evening around the lights needs: a sit-down dinner, a brewery, a coffee to carry through the park, and ice cream for anyone who doesn't mind the cold. With a 5 p.m. opening, you can eat before the walk on a 9 p.m. weeknight. On the Friday and Saturday nights that run to 10, you can eat after.
The newest name on that list
Durbar Nepali and Indian Cuisine is the one that wasn't here last holiday season. According to the Columbus Dispatch's Nov. 2 restaurant roundup, Durbar opened Oct. 4 at 64 Granville St. It's the restaurant's second location. The first opened in Reynoldsburg in 2020. Visit Gahanna lists it under the Creekside District.
The Dispatch notes that the menu runs from chicken wings and fries to chana masala and chicken vindaloo. Owners Sagar Dhital and Himod Sharma say on their website that "momos are why people come back." The dumplings come six ways, including tossed in chili sauce, steamed with spicy achar on the side, or served in broth. Broth-covered momos suit a walk through the park in late November.
Durbar's arrival fits a wider pattern. The same Dispatch roundup led with Indian restaurants opening across central Ohio in October, with Gahanna's new Durbar alongside openings in Westerville and downtown Columbus. For Creekside, it means a new kind of cuisine within reach of the lights for the first time this season.
One more October opening, outside the district
Gahanna's other October opening sits outside the Creekside District. The same Dispatch roundup reports that Dafuque Beer Co., also called DFQ, opened The Flight House taproom on Oct. 24 at 1102 Gahanna Pkwy. Its first weekend included food trucks and a family-friendly Halloween party. Owner Andrew Whitaker started home-brewing in 2020 and opened his first taproom in the Short North in February.
The Flight House shares its space with Buckeye BrewCraft, which sells equipment and supplies to home-brewers. Because the display stays lit until 10 on Fridays and Saturdays, you can also stop at Gahanna Parkway before or after the park on those nights.
Matching the nights to your guests
Grandparents arriving for Thanksgiving week can see the display on Tuesday, Nov. 24, when the lights run until 9. Out-of-town guests at Christmas can see it on Friday the 25th or Saturday the 26th, which are both 10 p.m. nights on the city's schedule. The display's last night is Monday, Jan. 4, with the lights on until 9.
Greg Giessler and Cam Taylor Realtors keep a close eye on Gahanna's Creekside calendar, from the tree-lighting Sunday through the display's last night in January. If the season has you wondering what your Gahanna home is worth heading into the new year, reach out for a free home valuation, and we'll talk it through over coffee from Upper Cup.
