Celebrate Christmas Downtown with Main Street Nashville

Main Street Nashville presents the 2023 Celebrate Christmas Downtown event, the official lighting of the Rutherford County Christmas tree, on Friday, December 1 at 6:00pm. The public square will be shut down to traffic from 4:00-8:30pm.

Bring your family and friends to the historic downtown of Nashville to kick off the holidays with this annual tradition. A family friendly event, there will be entertainment all around downtown starting at 5:30pm to 8:30pm. The St. Mark’s bell choir will perform on the square starting at 5:30. Free crafts and activities for children around the courthouse throughout the night, including live reindeer and pictures with Santa in the courthouse at 7:30pm. On stage performances from 6:00-7:30pm in front of the historic Rutherford County courthouse including city and county elementary school choirs, The Dancer’s School, Oakland Middle School show choir, and The Center for the Arts will be performing songs from “White Christmas.” “Miss Pattie Cake” will take the stage to entertain and dance with the kids and before Santa himself, along with his elves, will switch on the courthouse Christmas tree lights with the help of the crowd.

Entertainment will follow the stage event all around the square including MTSU gospel choir, Belle Aire Church’s choir, Center for the Arts student performers, and KST Performance Academy singers. Carriage rides around downtown will be offered for $5 a person or $20 for the entire carriage. Boutique stores and restaurants will be open for shoppers throughout the night. There will be food trucks available for drinks and food around the courthouse.

The Boro Art Crawl will be participating in the evening’s festivities from 4-7pm at downtown businesses. To learn more about artists and locations on the crawl go to The Boro Art Crawl – Visual Arts, Music, and Writing, Great Art. When you walk around the shops make sure to scan the QR code at checkout to enter to win a downtown gift basket that will be given the following Monday on Main Street Nashville’s Facebook page. Also, vote for your favorite window decorations – look for a QR code on participating stores’ windows that night.

Thanks to our presenting sponsor Middle Tennessee Electric and other supporting sponsors including Pinnacle Financial Partners, Redstone Federal Credit Union, State Farm with Michael Busey and Dana Womack, The Goddard School, Wilson Bank, Dempsey, Vantrease & Follis, Nashville Nissan, Learning Zone Childcare, The Davey Tree Expert Company, Kevin Sparks Signature Pools, Ragan-Smith, and in-kind sponsors Century 21 Wright Realty, Wild Goose Chase events, Concert Production, The Fish, and WGNS radio. This event is in partnership with the Rutherford County Government. Sponsors will be providing activities for children including free hot coco, crafts, and activities.

Free pictures (take your own) with Santa will continue the following three Saturdays, December 2, 9 from 10:00-2:00 and December 16 from 12-3pm in the historic Rutherford County Courthouse. Bring your family and visit with Santa thanks to the many lawyers downtown sponsoring this event. No appointment necessary.

Main Street Nashville works to maintain, enhance, and promote the historic downtown as the heart of our community. All Main Street events are free to the public and family friendly. For more details go to www.MainStreetNashville.org.