Christmas in Charleston 

The Holiday Festival of Lights at James Island County Park is known for its three-mile driving tour, decorated with two million dazzling lights. Visitors can also walk the enchanted trail, wander through festival shops, make s’mores and sip on hot chocolate, and explore Santa's village.

The holiday tradition is better than ever, as miles of bands, floats, marchers, and performers parade through downtown Charleston. 

Enjoy musical interludes leading up to Mayor Tecklenburg lighting up the tree in Marion Square as part of Illumination Charleston.

The Charleston Holiday Parade of Boats is held yearly in Charleston Harbor.  Participants must register and decorate their boat from stem to stern while spectators view the parade from either Mt. Pleasant or Charleston along the harbor. 

The event will feature floats, marching bands, and an Arts & Crafts Show at the Community Center. It’s the perfect place to get a unique gift you won’t find anywhere else. After the parade, head down to Folly River Park to receive goodies from Santa.

Brilliantly lit floats and community groups will march up West Coleman Boulevard as the Mount Pleasant Christmas Light Parade sets sail to the delight of thousands of spectators. The festivities begin at 5:30 p.m. with a fireworks show, immediately followed by the start of the parade. 

Aquarium Aglow is a one-of-a-kind holiday experience. This immersive holiday light spectacular brings forth the joy and magic of the season, with tens of thousands of lights displayed throughout the Aquarium. Enjoy food, beverages and live entertainment. 

Every evening at 6pm and 8pm through New Year’s Eve, “snow” will magically fall on Market Street Circle, blanketing the holiday trees and our grand decor in a lovely sheet of winter white.

This Christmas staple follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.

This December, our Gabrielle Plaza overlooking Marion Square is transforming into your downtown destination for holiday magic. Discover nightly movies, cozied up by a fire with decadent smores kits and festive specialty cocktails.

Enjoy demonstrations, tours of historic houses, a market featuring the Southern Living Tastemakers, inspired vignettes at the historic Aiken-Rhett House, engaging talks from some of the brightest stars in the design world, and fabulous nighttime gatherings. 

Enjoy crafts and activities, including letters to veterans, jingle bell jewelry making, holiday photos by the carriage, ornament making, leaf rubbings and an activity table hosted by the South Carolina Aquarium. Food vendors include Independent Grounds Coffee, Blackout Burger and more. Plus, countdown to the lighting of the holiday tree in the center of Colonial Lake.

Boone Hall Plantation and the Charleston Radio Group are excited to present an exclusive black tie optional Christmas holiday event presented at Cotton Dock venue at Boone Hall Plantation. This is the Exclusive Christmas Holiday Kickoff Event for Wine Under the Oaks.

Cadets from the Protestant, Catholic, Gospel Choirs, Chorale, and members of The Citadel Regimental Band take part in the annual celebration of the birth of Christ, observing the events of the Advent, the Annunciation, the Birth of the King, and Epiphany through Scripture lessons and carols.

Visitors are invited to come celebrate the season with ice skating, cozy fire pits, a pop-up café, and other special holiday events like Ladies Night, Breakfast with Santa, Saturday Jazz Night and more.

Santa Claus is coming to Charleston! Stop by the Aquarium on Santa Sundays to meet jolly old St. Nick himself and pose for a keepsake photo. Please note, either a general admission ticket or member reservation for the Aquarium is required to participate in Santa Sundays.
Santa visits will take place 10 a.m.–1:30 p.m.

Wine Under the Oaks is a casual and elegant affair that welcomes patrons to sample fine wines and delicious gourmet foods from Lowcountry chefs. Featuring live music, specialty gifts, a fine selection of wines, and edible delicacies.

The Deck the Hall Oyster Roast is the highlight of Charleston’s Christmas season – a Lowcountry tradition and a premiere holiday event. The oyster roast includes oysters with all the fixings, chili, beer, wine and live music on the most beautiful historic landscape in Charleston.

The Reindeer Run is a family-oriented, pet-friendly 5k run/walk located downtown Charleston. The costume contest is a crowd favorite and we are bringing it back again!  So don’t forget to dress up in your festive best and compete for prizes and bragging rights!

As is tradition, there will be hot food, live music, and a festive atmosphere. There will be no shortage of potato latkes, and the night will culminate with the community coming together to light the Chanukah candles.

The Garden Market & Nursery and Museum Shop kick-off the shopping season with an open-air market including local artisans and vendors, live musicians performing festive carols, complimentary hot cider and treats, and featured items in both shops.

Shop Local this Holiday Season at the Annual Charleston Holiday Market in Marion Square on Saturdays & Sundays, 9am-2pm for the first three weekends in December. Enjoy a bounty of fresh local produce & homegrown creativity with additional vendors and decorations!

The Field + Supply Holiday MRKT is a modern interpretation of a traditional arts and crafts market, bringing together a carefully curated group of vendors to create a unique shopping experience.

We will transform Market Street into a European-like holiday market. Enjoy live community performances, snowfall in the street, a pop-up market featuring Charleston retailers, delicious food and beverage offerings, family-friendly workshops, and 4D movies. 

Free to attend, the seasonal market will feature local artisans and makers, organized by The Event Cooperative. Local food trucks will also be on site. Enjoy tunes from Brittany Opperman on the Front Porch from 1 to 4 pm.

The main shopping hub, Holy City Brewing, opens at noon to shop over 100 local vendors. Firefly Distillery, Roadside Blooms, The Station Park Circle, Ship’s Wheel Hard Cider, Commonhouse Aleworks, The Codfather and Nippitaty Distillery will also be hosting pop-up vendor markets in partnership with this event.

Join us for a sneak peek of more than a dozen homes! Between tours, sip and stroll through our holiday market featuring local farmers, artists and craftsmen. Tasty bites will be served by local food trucks.

Experience Drayton Hall at night with these incredibly special candlelight tour experiences. This is a remarkable way to understand the house and lives which touched it from the perspective of a non-modernized colonial home. After the tour, enjoy a warm cup of a seasonal beverage.

Be transported to an early 1900s, much loved European attraction without ever leaving Charleston’s Historic District – a glittering and awe-inspiring Spiegeltent — only on the grounds of the Charleston Gaillard Center!

Annually, the Garden Club of Charleston uses this impressive house as a backdrop for their creative holiday arrangements, using plant material that would have been available in the Lowcountry during the first quarter of the 19th century. This year, the GCC has chosen the theme A Lowcountry Christmas.

Enjoy a special evening at the historic Edmondston-Alston House. Take a self guided tour of the festively decorated house by candlelight, and hear the Charleston Caroling Company. Warm up in the courtyard with a glass of wine or hot cider and Gullah Christmas stories.

Tours of the plantation home during the Christmas holidays are included, with regular paid admission to Boone Hall Plantation. There is no additional charge to tour the mansion beautifully decorated for the Christmas holidays.

See the house decorated for Christmas and learn about holidays through the ages. These tours run at 12PM and 2PM and are sure to get you into the holiday spirit! On Saturday join us for a special holiday music concert.

Join actors in period costume as they take you back to the Christmas of 1782. This event celebrates the return of Arthur Middleton from Philadelphia, the end of the Revolutionary War in the South, and the departure of the British troops from Charleston. Feast on early American cuisine. 

Enjoy the holiday spirit and seasonal decorations on the 2-hour Charleston Strolls Holiday Walking Tour. Tour where carriages and motor-coaches are not allowed, and take a fascinating walking tour with stories and traditions revealing Charleston’s colorful past. 

Climb aboard our specially decorated carriage driven by one of Santa’s elves. This festive 20-minute ride through downtown – complete with caroling – is sure to make you merry. Last stop is Santa’s workshop, where you’ll join Old St. Nick, Mrs. Clause, and Rudolph for hot cocoa and cookies. 

Stroll your way into the holiday spirit with Bulldog Tours’ newest culinary walking tour. Combine our yuletide history tour featuring stories of Charleston’s Christmases past with three stops by the Historic District’s most festive lounges for a signature holiday cocktail. The 2.5 hour tour includes our abbreviated holiday strolls walking tour and three signature cocktails (exclusively created for our tour guests) 

Based on pub crawls in Europe, it’s a unique spin on a holiday city experience – through the local taverns brimming with stories and legends of Charleston’s culture and class. This 2.5 hour adventure visits 3-5 historic pubs where you can have your favorite beverage and appetizers.

Join the Dance Lab Empowered Company youth dancers and the Lab Underground Adult movers through a fever dream of a RAT INSPIRED FANTASY WORLD and spark a new tradition for your Holiday!

A brand new production of Dickens’s classic featuring colorful new sets and costumes and an inventive new holiday score. Filled with the carols of the season and magical special effects, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, despite himself, discovers once again the magic of Christmas.

The Sound of Charleston Holiday Edition features rich musical heritage, from gospel to Gershwin, including selected holiday songs of the period. The Circular Congregational Church will be decorated for Christmas to provide a beautiful backdrop for this enchanting evening. 

The spectacular Christmas show will bring holiday merriment to King Street with a musical performance from the spicy and soulful Southern band, The Fabulous Equinox Orchestra. The band’s heightened energy and phenomenal musicianship bring new life to Christmas classics.

This Christmas-time variety show is back and bigger and campier than ever bringing all the holiday cheer you can handle in one sitting! This new holiday special is a big cozy cup of nostalgia wrapped in one big and beautiful package.

The Charleston Jazz Orchestra always looks forward to this holiday concert. Maestro Robert Lewis and the 18-piece big band will swing you into the holiday spirit with big band arrangements of holiday favorites. Add a little jazz to your holiday with this popular Charleston tradition.

Charlton Singleton and Friends returns to their home, The Charleston Music Hall, with a Holiday Spectacular full of good cheer. In addition to Holiday favorites the repertoire for the evening will also include some of bands favorite songs of uplift. .

Join the award-winning Charleston School of the Arts Symphony and Singers at their 9th annual Holiday Spectacular Concert. This festive concert will feature holiday favorites that will be a hit with the entire family.

Celebrate the holidays with JOHNNYSWIM! The husband-and-wife team's A JOHNNYSWIM Christmas EP will be digitally released on November 11 via Big Picnic Records just in time for early shopping lists.

“One Christmas Night in Memphis” – a high energy concert that takes you back to December 4, 1956, the night when four of the biggest names in early rock and roll- Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash- gathered together for an impromptu jam session in Memphis.

In this raunchy and hilarious one-woman show, Cindy Lou Who is all grown up - and she isn’t quite the adorable child you remember from Dr. Seuss’s classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Now a chain-smoking forty year old living in a trailer on Mt. Crumpet, many years have passed since Cindy caught the Grinch in her living room in this 60 minute R-rated comedy

What happens when Duke Ellington meets Tchaikovsky? Find out when Charlton Singleton and The Beehive Orchestra and Charleston Symphony meet onstage. Curated by our very own Artist-in-Residence Emeritus Charlton Singleton and Charleston Symphony’s Associate Conductor Kellen Gray.

Join us for a delightfully raucous evening of comedy, burlesque, and sexy circus hosted by a sassy, wine drinking party princess! Princess Wendy will charm your socks off while her band of beautiful and bizarre bandits take off more than just their socks!

As the sole composer on each of her Top 20 singles, Gibson was recognized by ASCAP as Songwriter of the Year in 1989. She has sold more than 16 million albums worldwide and released 10 studio albums and five compilations.

Celebrate the season with the Charleston Men's Chorus. The annual Christmas concert features joyful and sacred music. Selected works include "Christ was born on Christmas Day", "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "Christmas Cantata".

Performed in the beautiful George W. McDaniel Education Center at Drayton Hall, this traditional Charleston holiday concert is a rare opportunity to experience music that could have been heard centuries ago in the surrounding fields and praise houses. 

Be transported to an early 1900s, much loved European attraction without ever leaving Charleston’s Historic District – a glittering and awe-inspiring Spiegeltent — only on the grounds of the Charleston Gaillard Center!

The Vienna Light Orchestra will feature some of the worlds most beloved Christmas favorites, played by world-class musicians over the course of 60 mesmerizing minutes.

Charles Dickens edited his book, A Christmas Carol, into a public reading format and performed this reading himself in both Europe and America to sold out houses. Traveling Literary Theater brings the same edited, 70 minute version. English stage actor James Dyne leads the cast.

Charleston’s favorite holiday tradition returns in December as Moranz Entertainment brings the Charleston Christmas Special to the Charleston Music Hall for its 27th season. Audiences of all ages will be delighted by the music, dancing and skits featuring some of the country’s most talented performers.

Experience the magical sound of Celtic Woman this holiday season. Celtic Woman is the most successful all-female group in Irish history, with a legacy of 12 consecutive Billboard number ones, 10 million album sales and an incredible 2 billion online streams to date.

Favorite holiday songs fill the air and well-loved stories come to life with classical music. Musicians of Chamber Music Charleston and CMC TWO perform a variety of holiday music as actors retell classic Christmas tales such as “Snowman at Christmas” and “The Night Before Christmas.”

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Bring your family and friends to enjoy the annual holiday tradition, which has become a spectacular celebration. Holiday Pops will include choirs, dancers, guest vocalists, pipers, and special appearances by Frosty, Saint Nick, and more.