On Friday, November 20, Lake Street will go dark for the Wayzata Firefighter's Parade of Lights. When the parade finishes, the mayor will light up Panoway Plaza. The date falls six days before Thanksgiving, which makes it one of the earliest starts the town's holiday season has had in recent years.
The date is the part the city controls. The rest of a Wayzata winter depends on weather. The Klapprich Park rink can't be flooded until the ground freezes, and the Chilly Open needs Wayzata Bay to be frozen solid enough to hold a golf tournament. This year's November 20 lighting comes about four weeks before the rink's usual opening target.
A lighting date set by the calendar
The City of Wayzata's event listing says this year's Light Up the Lake falls "one week prior to the normal date" and will take place "the Friday BEFORE Thanksgiving." The 2026 event runs from 5 to 7 p.m. at Panoway and along Lake Street.
Last year's dates show how much this event moves. In 2024 the city held it on November 29, the day after Thanksgiving, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The fire department parade started at 5:15 and the town lighting followed at 5:45. The 2025 event was on November 21 with the same 4:30 start and the same parade and lighting times. This year everything moves half an hour later. The parade steps off at 5:45, and the lighting ceremony follows "immediately" after the parade instead of at a set time.
The later start matters at this point in November. The parade and the lighting now happen well after dark, and families get a full first hour on Lake Street before the parade begins.
The week of clues that picks who flips the switch
The city doesn't pick a dignitary to light the town. A child does it. The fifth annual Winter Medallion Hunt runs the week before Light Up the Lake, and clues are posted November 9 through 13 on wayzata.org, the chamber's website and social media. Participants must be 12 or under. The first child or family to find the medallion wins the honor of lighting up Wayzata on November 20. Questions go to [email protected].
As of Thursday, November 12, the clues from November 9 through 11 are already posted, and the last two come out on the 12th and the 13th. If the medallion hasn't been found yet, a family that starts now can still catch up over one evening.
How Friday the 20th runs
The evening has two parts. Some activities run the whole two hours, and three events are on a fixed schedule. Here is the timed part, as the city lists it:
| Time | What happens | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 5:00 p.m. | Children's Candy Hunt, ages 5 and under only | Depot Park |
| 5:45 p.m. | Wayzata Firefighter's Parade of Lights | Lake Street, Broadway to Barry Ave |
| Right after the parade | Town Lighting Ceremony with Mayor Mullin | Panoway Plaza |
Everything else runs from 5 to 7 p.m. and is spread along the lakefront:
- Free glow light wands on Lake Street, handed out only before the parade
- Llama photos at Depot Park, which replace the reindeer of past years
- Hot cider, treats and a Reindeer Food children's activity inside the Historic Wayzata Depot
- Letters to Santa and Muni refreshments at Panoway Plaza
- Horse-drawn wagon rides, strolling carolers and music on Lake Street
The llamas are a change. The 2024 and 2025 listings both put reindeer photos at Depot Park. Because the glow wands are handed out only before the parade, families who want them should arrive before 5:45.
What to bring
Two collections run during the evening. Toys for Tots will take donations at the Wayzata PD parade float. Interfaith Outreach & Community Partners will run a food drive on Panoway Plaza. IOCP is a human services nonprofit founded in 1979. It's based at 1605 County Road 101 N in Plymouth and works to meet basic needs and help individuals and families toward stability.
This year the city lists specific items IOCP needs:
- Brand-name boxed cereal, such as Cheerios, Lucky Charms or Frosted Flakes
- Canned tuna
- Toilet paper
- Name-brand hearty soup, such as Progresso, Campbell's or Chunky
- Spaghetti sauce in a plastic jar or container
The city's page gives no parking or shuttle instructions. It directs visitors to Lake Street and lists the event under Panoway, Wayzata's lakefront park. Panoway's Lakewalk runs 1,200 feet along the shore.
The weeks between the lights and the ice
With the lighting before Thanksgiving, downtown is lit for about four weeks before the outdoor rink usually opens. Several things fill that gap.
Red Cow Wayzata, at 881 Lake Street N, is running The Snowglobe Social Holiday Pop-Up from November 24 through December 31. The Wayzata West Metro Chamber listing describes holiday cocktails, festive food and a snow globe theme. The pop-up opens four days after the lighting, the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week.
Small Business Saturday falls on November 28, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The chamber lists it as a shop-local day. In 2024, Light Up the Lake fell on that same weekend. This year the two are a week apart, so downtown has two separate weekends of holiday activity.
There's also a change at a familiar spot. Eloise, at 326 Broadway Ave. S., closed August 31 for a refresh and reopened September 4 as Bar Eloise, a more casual version of itself. According to the Star Tribune's restaurant roll call, it now has TVs, a larger food menu, cocktails, local draft beer and nonalcoholic drinks. The same Star Tribune roundup reported that Parcelle plans a small grab-and-go cafe at 641 Lake St. E.
What it takes to open Klapprich Park's rink
The rink is where the weather takes over. Klapprich Park, at 340 Park Street East, has ice skating and hockey rinks, an outdoor fireplace and a public warming house.
The city's FAQ explains why no one can promise an opening date. Before crews can start flooding, they need at least a week of very cold weather and frozen ground. Then they flood the rink with about 800,000 gallons of water, which needs 10 to 14 days below freezing to build a solid ice base.
Here is how that works out on the calendar. If the cold doesn't come until early December, the week of frozen ground plus about two weeks of base-building puts the opening right around the city's usual target. That target is about a week before Christmas, with the rink kept up through mid-February. The city calls this a general goal, not a fixed date. A warm spell in December pushes everything back.
Once the rink opens, attendants staff the warming house and rink on weekdays from 3 to 10 p.m. and on weekends from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. When school is out, the hours are 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., weather permitting. Winter break starts right around the target opening, so in a good year the rink opens with daytime hours just as families have the most free time.
Margaret Circle Park also has an outdoor winter skating rink. The city's facility page doesn't list hours or a warming house for it.
The frozen bay ends the season
The last big date of the season is out on the lake. The Wayzata West Metro Chamber's Chilly Open is set for Saturday, February 6, 2027, with tee times at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. The tournament is played on frozen Wayzata Bay, and the 19th Hole tent goes up in the 6Smith parking lot at 294 Grove Lane East.
The Chilly Open falls about a week before the rink's usual mid-February close. That means the whole winter season runs between two points. One is a lighting date the city set for November 20. The other is a golf tournament that depends on the bay being frozen solid. Between those dates, how much skating there is depends on how cold December turns out to be.
If you're planning to host this season, whether that means family in town for Light Up the Lake or a group for the Chilly Open, I'm happy to help you put together a plan for your Wayzata winter. Sally English keeps up with this calendar year-round. Let's Connect.
