At 9 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5, the Buford Holiday Festival & Parade starts at Tannery Row and heads into historic Main Street. One hour later, on Buford Highway, the doors open at the Buford Community Center for the City of Buford's Christmas Traditions. Nobody gets in early, and nobody gets in without a ticket.
Both events have Santa and both have kids' activities. They fall on the same Saturday, but different hosts run them under different rules. If you want both, plan the day around the Community Center ticket and treat Main Street as the flexible part.
Two Hosts, Two Addresses, Two Sets of Rules
The Buford Business Alliance runs the Main Street event. The Alliance says the festival has been going for more than 10 years and lists it at 304 E. Main St., with the parade at 9 a.m. and the festival from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The festival lineup includes live performers on stage all day, food trucks, a DJ, bouncy houses, community vendors and a Holiday Dog Contest. Its Eventeny page also lists photos with Santa.
The City of Buford runs Christmas Traditions at the Buford Community Center, 2200 Buford Hwy NE. That's a separate building from the Main Street festival grounds. Tickets cost $10 per guest for adults and children alike, and kids 2 and under get in free. Admission covers professional photos with Santa, a hot chocolate bar with holiday sweets in the Grand Ballroom, a holiday classic movie, face painting and a balloon artist.
| Holiday Festival & Parade | Christmas Traditions | |
|---|---|---|
| Host | Buford Business Alliance | City of Buford |
| Where | Historic Main Street, listed at 304 E. Main St. | Buford Community Center, 2200 Buford Hwy NE |
| Hours | Parade 9 a.m., festival 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. | Entry at 10 a.m. or 11:30 a.m., Santa photos 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. |
| Entry | Open festival day | $10 timed ticket, 2 and under free |
| Santa | Photos with Santa on the festival lineup | Professional Santa photos included |
The Main Street events run in one continuous block from 9 to 3. The Community Center has two fixed entry times, and the city's listing says guests may only enter at the time printed on their ticket.
Choose the Ticket Slot First, Then Build the Rest of the Day
Christmas Traditions tickets went on sale Monday, Nov. 2, at 9 a.m. through the city's Freshtix page. The 10 a.m. entry and the 11:30 a.m. entry have separate ticket links.
Line the two schedules up and the choice comes down to the parade.
- The 10 a.m. slot matches the hour the Main Street festival opens. You'd go to the Community Center first, spend the morning there and come back to Main Street for the afternoon, so you'd probably miss the 9 a.m. step-off at Tannery Row.
- The 11:30 a.m. slot gives you the parade at 9 and the festival's first hour after 10. You'd head to Buford Highway for the late-morning entry, with Santa photos running until 2 p.m., and still have time on Main Street before it wraps at 3.
For a household that wants the parade, the 11:30 slot is the one that fits. For a household with small kids who will be done by lunchtime, the 10 a.m. slot puts the indoor part of the day first and leaves Main Street as an optional afternoon.
The Alliance has listed a 9 a.m. parade start at Tannery Row for 2026. Last year, according to Patch's listing for the 2025 festival, the parade started at Tannery Row, 554 W. Main St., ran down historic Main Street and finished at South Hill Street. The festival covered South Hill Street to Wilson Street, including the Amphitheater Park at 301 E. Main St. That gives you a sense of the layout if you've never been.
Nov. 20 Comes First
Two Buford holiday dates arrive before Dec. 5, and both fall on Friday, Nov. 20, eight days after this post goes up.
The first is the dog contest deadline. Registration for the festival's Holiday Dog Contest is free on the Eventeny application page, and it closes Nov. 20, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. In 2025, the city's flyer listed contest registration at 10 a.m. and the Paws & Claus contest at 1:45 p.m. on the Amphitheater Stage. If your dog has a costume ready, registration is the part with a deadline.
The second is the opening night of Magical Nights of Lights at Lanier Islands, which is also in Buford. It runs nightly from 5 to 10 p.m. through Jan. 3, 2027. According to the resort's October 2026 announcement, this year's driving tour adds more than a mile and a half of lights to last year's route, with new holiday vignettes, animated trees and over-the-road décor. Game Changer, the resort's 23,000-square-foot indoor playground, serves as Holiday Headquarters again and hosts Clark's Holiday Pop-up Bar. Lanier Islands Resort President Matthew Bowling said in that release that "after five years with no light show, it was clear that our fans missed it."
Tickets are priced per car, not per person. They start at $25 per vehicle and vary by vehicle type and day of the week. Part of the gate proceeds goes to the Georgia Mountain Food Bank. The Lanier Islands FAQ lists $100 for vehicles carrying 11 to 20 people and $250 for anything carrying more than 20. That matters if your neighborhood group or church small group is thinking about renting one big van. The lights run every night for about six weeks, so they're the easiest part of the season to fit around Dec. 5.
The Night Before and the Weekends After
The Buford Community Center holds the rest of the December calendar too, mostly at night in the Sylvia Beard Theatre.
- Friday, Dec. 4, 8 p.m.: A Holiday Evening with Marley Jayne & Friends, $20.
- Friday and Saturday, Dec. 11 and 12, 8 p.m.: Nashville Noel, $35 to $45.
- Friday, Dec. 18, 8 p.m.: Celtic Angels, $35 to $45.
The Dec. 4 show is the one that ties into festival weekend. Ticket holders spend Friday night at the same building on Buford Highway and come back the next morning for Christmas Traditions. Main Street gets the parade crowd and the Community Center gets the ticketed crowd, and some households will do both.
Where Dinner Fits
The parade and festival wrap at 3 p.m., which leaves a long afternoon and an early dinner.
On Main Street, the Better Hometown summer 2026 business roundup lists Chicks N Boba at 1 W. Main St., Suite 3, close to the festival. The same roundup names Flying Biscuit and Tequila Mama as dining anchors at The Pointe at Ariston, and Paris Baguette Café and Taqueria Tsunami among the newer openings at The Exchange at Buford.
For a bigger family dinner after a long day, Fogo de Chão opened at 3206 Buford Drive on March 30, 2026, What Now Atlanta reported. This December is its first holiday season near the Mall of Georgia.
A full Buford Saturday might look like this. Catch the parade at 9 at Tannery Row, then spend festival time on Main Street. Use the 11:30 Christmas Traditions entry for Santa photos and hot chocolate on Buford Highway, go back to Main Street before 3, and eat dinner off Buford Drive. If you'd rather drive through lights than walk Main Street, the Lanier Islands route opens at 5 every night that month.
Manny loves helping Buford neighbors figure out how holiday seasons like this one work from their own street, from parade morning to the Lanier Islands lights. If you're thinking about how your corner of Buford fits into the year ahead, reach out to Mano Sells Homes. Let's connect.
