Hawke's Bay packs most of its Christmas into the first weekend of December, when Napier, Hastings, Taradale and Havelock North all have something on. The weather is usually on your side.
Napier Christmas Parade
The Napier Christmas Parade is on a Sunday afternoon in early December. In 2025 it was on Sunday 7 December at 1pm. About 40 floats, bands and walking groups took part and around 5,000 people watched.
- The route: it starts at Clive Square, travels along Tennyson Street, turns into Hastings Street and then Emerson Street, and finishes back at Clive Square.
- Afterwards there is a Christmas Fiesta in lower Emerson Street and Memorial Square with entertainment, food stalls and Santa's grotto.
Napier Night Fiesta
On the Friday before the parade, Napier has held a Night Fiesta in Memorial Square from 5.30pm to 8.30pm with food trucks, children's activities and fireworks.
Fiesta of Lights, Hastings
The Fiesta of Lights at the Tōmoana Showgrounds in Hastings has been running for more than 25 years. It opens in early December and runs to New Year's Eve, when there is live music and an early fireworks display for children. You walk or drive through fields of light displays. There is a small entry charge, which keeps it going.
Christmas lights around the Bay
For many years the Tremains Christmas Lights have mapped decorated homes, gardens and shops in Napier, Taradale, Hastings and Havelock North, with routes published on the Tremains website through December. Evening bus tours have run from Napier and Havelock North in the past.
Carols and concerts
- Carols on the Green, on the Village Green in Havelock North, on a Sunday afternoon in early December, with Santa and a free sausage sizzle.
- Christmas at the Park and Christmas in Cornwall Park, in Napier and Hastings.
- A concert at the Sound Shell on Marine Parade, which followed the parade in 2025.
Markets and food
- The Hawke's Bay Farmers' Market in Hastings on Sunday mornings, for cherries, berries and Christmas hams.
- The Napier Urban Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings.
- Christmas art and craft fairs in Hastings and Taradale.
- Pick-your-own berries: December is the season.
A Hawke's Bay Christmas weekend
- Friday night: the Night Fiesta in Napier.
- Saturday: the farmers' market, then the beach at Westshore or Waimārama.
- Sunday: the parade at 1pm, carols in Havelock North at 4pm, and the Fiesta of Lights after dark.
See what other cities have planned in our national guide to Christmas events.
Bring Santa home afterwards
Parades and lights are for crowds. The moment children remember is the one that is only for them. Santa can ring your phone, ask for your child by name and ask what they would like for Christmas. You choose the day and the minute, so it can ring as you get home from the parade or the lights.