Boston Common Christmas Tree Lighting

Boston, MA · Holiday

When: December 3, 2026
Where: Boston Common, Parkman Bandstand · Boston · MA
Cost: Not confirmed
Status: Approximate: based on past editions, not announced yet

Boston's official Christmas tree, an annual gift from Nova Scotia since 1971 in thanks for Boston's aid after the 1917 Halifax Explosion, is lit on Boston Common each December. The ceremony includes caroling and remarks from the mayor. The tree arrives by truck weeks earlier for public viewing.

Open on the map → Official site

Organize this event? Claim this page to confirm the dates and details. It takes about a minute.

The history within reach

First Night Bostonsame spot
First Night Boston began in 1976 as the first First Night celebration in the country and became the template for the alcohol free New Year's Eve arts festivals other cities later copied.
Boston Commonsame spot
Bought from the settler who had got there first and set aside for grazing and militia drill, the oldest public park in the United States.
The first subway in America0.2 mi
Streetcars on Tremont Street had got so thick you could cross the road on their roofs, so the city put them underground, the first subway on the continent, four years before New York's.
The 54th Massachusetts marches out0.2 mi
The first Black regiment raised in the free states left down Beacon Street past cheering crowds, and two months later lost nearly half its strength assaulting Fort Wagner.
Mary Dyer hanged on the Common0.2 mi
A Quaker who kept returning to a colony that had banished her on pain of death, deliberately, to break the law.