Sapphire's Holiday Season Starts in Cashiers and Comes Home on December 12

By 5:45 p.m. on the Friday after Thanksgiving, the gazebo on The Village Green in Cashiers will have its tree lit. The Mistletoe Market and Santa's afternoon at Lewis Hall will already be over, and the Festival of Trees will have closed for the day at the Summit Center. For anyone living in Burlingame, those first hours of the season happen a short drive down US 64.

This year's plateau calendar has a clear shape. Most of the season lands on three days: Friday, November 27; Saturday, December 5; and Saturday, December 12. The first two belong to Cashiers. The third comes back to Sapphire. The rest of the calendar runs from one of those days to the next.

November 27: four events, one Cashiers afternoon

The Village Green, a nonprofit park, puts three of its holiday events on the same Friday. The order of the day, as the Village Green's Christmas on the Green page lists it:

1. Mistletoe Market, noon to 5 p.m. at Lewis Hall, with local artisan gifts and holiday items.
2. Santa on the Green, 1 to 4 p.m. at Lewis Hall. Visits are by registration only, and the park encourages a $5 donation per child.
3. Christmas Tree Lighting, 5 to 7 p.m. at the Gazebo. It's free, and the tree is lit at 5:45 p.m.

That same Friday and Saturday, the Summit Charter School Foundation runs the 2026 Cashiers Festival of Trees at the Summit Center and High School, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. The program includes decorated trees, wreaths and gift baskets, children's crafts, story time, performances, rivalry-weekend football viewings, and a pop-up O.P. Taylor's Teddy Bear Workshop.

The festival works more like a shared fundraiser than a single-school event. When another nonprofit decorates a tree or wreath, 80% of that item's sale goes back to the nonprofit that made it. So a wreath bought on Thanksgiving weekend can end up funding a different Cashiers-Highlands charity than the one hosting the room. The foundation started the event in 2021, which makes this its sixth year.

The lights that go on that Friday stay up a long time. The Village Green says its displays shine from Thanksgiving weekend to early February, rain or shine.

The week before the parade has a new twist

Starting December 1, the Cashiers Area Chamber of Commerce spreads the season out from the crossroads with its Twelve Days of Christmas. Local businesses and venues host live music every day from December 1 through 12, in Cashiers, Glenville and Sapphire. Performers, venues and times are posted on the Chamber's Cashiers411 community calendar.

Sapphire is part of that roster, and the series ends on December 12. That's the same Saturday the rest of the season moves back to Sapphire.

In the middle of that stretch, the Cashiers Historical Society has changed its schedule. Its Holidays at the Historical Society page lists "new days and times for 2026": Thursday, December 3, and Friday, December 4, both from 4 to 8:30 p.m. Society staff lead candlelight tours of the decorated Zachary-Tolbert House, and Thruppence sings 19th-century Christmas carols inside. The Zachary Family Cabin is set up for families to make classic Christmas crafts, with s'mores at an outdoor fire. Tickets are sold in advance through the society.

The new Thursday and Friday dates keep the tours off the Saturday that follows. That matters, because December 5 is already busy.

December 5: the parade, and a choice on the same afternoon

The Cashiers Area Chamber's 52nd Annual Peppermint Stick Christmas Parade steps off Saturday, December 5, at 3 p.m., with the theme "Santa's Workshop." Laurel Magazine's November 2026 preview gives the route. It starts at Frank Allen Road on US 64, goes to the crossroads, turns right at the light, and ends at Cashiers School Road. The road from Sapphire to Cashiers is US 64, so the parade will be on that same highway Saturday afternoon.

This year's grand marshals connect the plateau's holiday calendar to the rest of the year. Laurel Magazine reports that the Crawford family, owners of the Cashiers Farmers Market, will lead the procession with their market dogs:

"What Tom and Robin Crawford and their family started in the 1990s has become a community treasure, carried on by Josh and Miranda Crawford and the next generation."

The same magazine notes that the Crawfords won last year's Cashiers Christmas Star Award. Back in July, Miranda and Josh Crawford hosted the Toast to the Trees, the summer gala that comes before the Festival of Trees. It was held at Halsted House at The Club at High Hampton on July 28. The same family shows up on both ends of this season's calendar.

The Rosman Tiger Band from Rosman High School will march, giving the Cashiers parade a Transylvania County connection.

The scheduling overlap that afternoon is in Highlands. The Bascom holds its free Holiday Market reception on December 5 from 2 to 4 p.m., after the Highlands Christmas Parade. It has a trunk show, hot chocolate, cookies and cheese straws. That window covers the Cashiers parade's 3 p.m. start. Anyone who wants both can still find the market later. The Bascom's Holiday Market runs through December 26 at 323 Franklin Road in Highlands, and the gallery and shop are open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

December 12: the season comes back to Sapphire

On the second Saturday of December, the calendar moves back to Sapphire. Three things fall on the same date:

• Sapphire Valley Winter Arts & Crafts Festival, presented by Sapphire Valley Resort, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. inside the Sapphire Valley Community Center at 127 Cherokee Trail. The Highlands Chamber listing describes handmade local crafts, quality folk art, food and live music. Admission is free.
• Ski Sapphire's target opening day for both the Sapphire Valley Ski Area and Frozen Falls Tube Park. The Ski Sapphire hours page lists "Target Open: Dec 12, 2026," and the hill operates weather and conditions permitting. The ski site's home page sets opening day at 9 a.m.
• The last day of the Twelve Days of Christmas live music series, which includes Sapphire venues.

Ski Sapphire warns that high winds, dense fog and heavy rain can occasionally close the area for short periods during the season. Either way, the craft festival goes on indoors.

For families with kids home for the weekend, Highlands Performing Arts Center adds another option. It's staging Frozen The Musical on the Main Stage Friday, December 11, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, December 12, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $5 and open to the public. The Friday evening show doesn't overlap with anything happening in Sapphire that Saturday.

After the twelfth

Once Sapphire's big Saturday is over, the calendar gets lighter. Highlands Performing Arts Center has A Highlands Christmas with Mike Kinnebrew on Thursday, December 17, from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Martin Lipscomb Theatre, with Christmas music, stories and original songs. The Bascom's Holiday Market stays open until December 26. The lights on The Village Green, first lit on Thanksgiving Friday, stay up through the end of the year and into early February.

Here are the three dates to put on the refrigerator: Friday, November 27, in Cashiers; Saturday, December 5, at 3 p.m. on US 64; and Saturday, December 12, at the Sapphire Valley Community Center and up the hill at Ski Sapphire.

If family visits over the holidays have you wondering what a full winter in Sapphire would look like, the team at Petit Properties lives and works on this plateau year-round and is happy to talk it over. Contact Us whenever you're ready, before the parade or after the lights come down.