Alton's Light Up Night Starts at the Gilman Museum, Hours Before the Tree Is Lit

The Town of Alton lists Light Up Night on Saturday, December 5, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The tree lighting, Santa, the crafts and the hayride all happen between 5 and 6:30 p.m. The rest of the day belongs to the Festival of Trees inside the Gilman Museum, which opens at 11 a.m.

The evening is the part that draws a crowd, but the museum is where the event does its work. The Festival of Trees is a raffle for the gift fund that Alton Community Services runs for local children. The application deadline for that fund passes on November 21, two weeks before the first tree is decorated.

The evening fits on one stretch of Main Street

The Nov. 5 edition of Salmon Press printed the Parks and Recreation schedule. It places Light Up Night "in the Alton Village on Main Street," not down at the Bay, and its closing line covers everything: "Light Up Night events are free and are open to the public."

The Alton Business Association's Light Up Night page places Town Hall in Monument Square. That means the lighting and the hayride start from the same spot, and the Gilman Library at 100 Main Street is a short walk up the street. With young children, Santa is the item with an end time, since his hour at the library closes at 6:15. The hayride keeps loading until 6:30.

All of it happens within 90 minutes. The Festival of Trees has been open for six hours before the tree lighting starts.

Six hours of daylight inside the Gilman Museum

The festival's venue is a story in itself. According to the Town of Alton's museum page, Harold S. Gilman left the town his collection when he died in 1967. He and his wife Pearl had gathered it over a 50-year marriage, and it includes furniture, dolls, buttons, toys, guns, family papers and photographs. A Museum Committee appointed by the Board of Selectmen organized and conserved the collection, and in 1976 it opened the current building at the corner of Main Street and Route 140.

The town names several of the pieces. There is a stereopticon with views of New Hampshire from the late 1890s, a working toy steam engine, a Regina music box and a London tall case clock from 1703 that still strikes the hour. On December 5 the decorated trees go up among those pieces, and the doors stay open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

If you want to look closely at both the trees and the collection, go in daylight. After 5 p.m. the museum shares its visitors with everything happening outside.

How the trees have worked

The Alton Business Association runs the festival. Its 2025 Festival of Trees page describes how the festival ran in 2025, its seventh year.

• Businesses, organizations and residents registered a small or large tree, or a wreath, and decorated it at a set time.
• Each display came with a raffle item, and only that item was raffled. Decorators could take their trees home.
• Visitors bought $1 tickets for the items on the trees they liked and voted for a "Community Favorite."
• The room also had a gingerbread house display and a table of free hot chocolate, cookies and other treats donated by community members.
• Registration filled up. By November 23, 2025, the page said the event was full.
• Last year the trees were also on view for a shorter Sunday session the day after Light Up Night.

The $1 tickets don't win you a decorated tree. They put you in the drawing for whatever prize that tree's sponsor attached to it, so the real choice is between prizes.

The 2025 room also had three trees with nothing to raffle. The business association set up a Giving Tree with shelves for nonperishable food for Alton Community Services. Profile Bank hosted a Wishing Tree that carried ornament requests from families, and visitors could take one and fill it. The American Legion of Alton ran a Hat and Mitten Tree for local veterans.

Where the raffle money goes, and the deadline that comes first

The business association sent the 2025 raffle proceeds to the Mrs. Santa Fund at Alton Community Services. Its December 19, 2025 update reported that tree and prize donations plus ticket sales raised $1,700 for the fund.

Mrs. Santa is the Alton Community Services program that gives holiday gifts to children. The 2026 program page asks families who need help to list the ages, sizes and needs of their children 17 and under. It sets two dates that frame the festival:

1. November 21, 2026: sign-up forms are due. Forms are available at the Alton Community Services office or can be printed from its website.
2. Saturday, December 19, 2026: gifts are picked up at the food pantry between 1 and 1:30 p.m.

The festival falls on December 5, between those two dates. By then the sign-up window has closed and the program's shopping is underway. For a family who would benefit, the date to remember is November 21.

You don't have to go through the raffle to give. In the Oct. 29 issue of Salmon Press, Alton Community Services wrote that Mrs. Santa can use cash donations and can also use people who love to shop, and it invited anyone interested to call or text Director Chris Racine at 603-833-3482. The organization's Lend a Hand page lists its mailing address as PO Box 43, Alton, NH 03809. You can also drop donations off on Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. or give online.

Planning the Saturday around the museum

Built around the festival hours, the day looks like this:

1. Morning, if it fits. Parks and Recreation is holding a free Reiki gathering in the Agnes Thompson Meeting Room at Gilman Library from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. It's meant for people with at least Reiki One training, and RSVPs are due November 24.
2. Late morning or early afternoon. Go to the Gilman Museum once the trees open at 11, while it's light and the room is quieter. Bring small bills for $1 tickets if the raffle runs as it did last year.
3. About 4:45 p.m. Head to Monument Square before the 5 p.m. lighting at Town Hall.
4. 5 to 6:30 p.m. Choose the order of Santa at the library and the hayride from Monument Square. Santa leaves first.
5. Before 7 p.m. The museum is still open after the lighting if you want to see the trees lit after dark.

One other event that night is outside Alton. The fourth annual community holiday concert at the Congregational Church of North Barnstead, UCC, 504 North Barnstead Road, starts at 4 p.m. on December 5. It features Joyce Andersen and Harvey Reid, and tickets are by donation at the door, with $20 per person or $35 per family suggested.

Three days earlier there's another ornament event, and its deadline comes sooner. On Wednesday, December 2, Alton Parks and Recreation and Art Escape Studio are holding a fused glass ornament workshop at the Pearson Road Community Center from 6 to 7:30 p.m. It costs $25 per person, is geared to ages 12 and up, and requires registration by November 23. The ornaments are fired in a kiln and can be picked up at Parks and Recreation before the holidays. For questions about anything on the Light Up Night schedule, the Alton Parks and Recreation Department is at 603-875-0109.

Light Up Night is one of the evenings when Alton Village fills up with neighbors. If you're spending the holidays at the lake this year and have questions about Alton or anywhere else around Winnipesaukee, I'm glad to talk them through with you any time. You can reach me through Steve Mardis. Let's Connect.