Wassail Weekend Peaks at 2 p.m. Saturday. Most of It Repeats on Friday and Sunday.

The 42nd Wassail Weekend runs Friday through Sunday, December 11 to 13, 2026. The official Woodstock schedule calls Saturday "the heart of celebration," and its signature events all fall on the Village Green between 2 and 4 p.m. that day. Most of the rest repeats on Friday, Sunday or both. If you live in Woodstock or Quechee, the weekend breaks down into the few things that belong to Saturday and the larger set you can do another day, sometimes on better terms.

The two hours that belong to Saturday

The schedule describes the Saturday parade as the core of the weekend, and it builds the day's activities around the Green. Here is the afternoon in order:

1. 1 to 3 p.m. First Congregational Church serves hot wassail and DIY s'mores, followed by a parade watch party.
2. 2 p.m. The Wassail Horse Parade, with live music and horse-drawn carriages, travels through town and around the Village Green.
3. 3 p.m. The Memory Tree lighting, the Yule Log bonfire and a community carol sing. At the same hour, Wrensong performs "Let All the Nations Sing" at Norman Williams Public Library.
4. 3:45 p.m. The Woodstock Rotary Community Raffle drawing.
5. 4 p.m. Rotary lights the luminaries on the Green.

None of these happen on Friday or Sunday, and everything else on Saturday is arranged around them. The Wassail Café on the Green serves traditional wassail punch, with adult and non-alcoholic versions, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., so it closes an hour after the parade starts. The North Country Chordsmen and Voxstars carol outside the library and on the Green from noon to 1:30 p.m. The Upper Valley Ringers play handbells at First Congregational Church from noon to 1 p.m. The Woodstock Inn & Resort runs a hot cocoa and donut bar on its front lawn from noon to 4 p.m., which covers the whole parade-and-lighting stretch.

Getting in is part of the Saturday plan too. A shuttle runs from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Parking at Woodstock Union High School costs $5, the money goes to Woodstock Youth Hockey, and pickup and drop-off are on River Street at the Middle Covered Bridge. Since the shuttle runs until 5, you can stay for the 4 p.m. luminaries and still have time to get back to the car.

Most of the weekend runs on more than one day

Here is how the repeating events line up across the three days on the posted schedule:

The carriage rides are the main exception to the "skip Saturday" idea. On Saturday a ride costs a $10 donation, but only until 12:30 p.m. On Friday and Sunday it costs $20 per adult and $10 per child. A family that wants a Saturday ride should go in the morning, before the Green fills up for the parade. A Friday or Sunday ride costs more per person but comes on a day without the 2 p.m. parade. Every ride leaves from in front of M&T Bank.

The schedule also has a Wassail Ornament Scavenger Hunt that runs all weekend, starting at the Town Crier on Elm Street. It works on any of the three days.

Billings Farm has the same hours all three days

At Billings Farm & Museum, the program runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on all three days, December 11 to 13. It starts with the wassailing of the orchard, an old custom of singing to the apple trees and sharing bread and cider to ward off spirits and bring a good harvest the next year. The Historic Farmhouse is decorated in 19th-century holiday trim, with interpreters on hand. Activities include candle dipping, hands-on butter-making, and apple tasting with dried apples and homemade applesauce.

Cocoa, hot spiced cider, coffee and wassail punch are for sale at the outdoor fire pits. Horse-drawn sleigh or wagon rides through the pastures run only on select days, weather permitting. Members get in free, and the farm suggests buying tickets online in advance to speed up check-in. The schedule pairs Sunday with the farm in particular, describing it as a day for "the enduring customs of a Victorian Christmas at the Billings Farm & Museum."

Because the farm's hours never change, visiting on Saturday means picking between the farm and the Green during the afternoon. On Friday or Sunday you don't have to choose.

Friday has the longest market and the earliest evening

Friday's Wassail Artisan Market on the Green runs from 1 to 6 p.m., two hours later into the evening than Saturday's 10-to-4 market. The market listing names vendors including Mettowee Valley Maple, Killington Distillery, Butterfly Bakery of Vermont, Anas Empanadas, Gray Barns Pottery, Hulett Farm, BURN + BRIM and Athena Bandit Jewelry, plus a table from Woodstock Fire & EMS. Some downtown merchants stay open until 7 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday.

Friday also has two short programs that aren't repeated. Stories of the Season for Children is at Norman Williams Public Library at 3:30 p.m., and First Congregational Church gives a tour of its building and its Revere Bell at 4:30 p.m. Put those together with the farm in the morning and the market after lunch, and you've covered most of the weekend's daytime events before Saturday starts.

Sunday starts on the ice and ends with the Messiah Sing

Sunday opens early with an open skate at Union Arena from 9:40 to 10:40 a.m., with skate rentals available. It is ticketed. The Masonic Hall craft fair, with goods from more than 25 local artisans and food available, closes at 2 p.m. on Sunday, two hours earlier than on Saturday. At King Farm, the 1-to-3 p.m. swag workshop has visitors make holiday door swags from natural materials gathered on the property.

Pentangle Arts hosts free cookies and hot chocolate with Santa at Town Hall Theatre from noon to 2 p.m. Both stage productions have afternoon shows on Sunday, so you can see either one without a night out. The high school's The Skin of Our Teeth is at 2 p.m. in YOH Theater Auditorium, and Ninevah is at 3 p.m. The weekend ends at 4 p.m. with Woodstock's annual Messiah Sing at Our Lady of the Snows, presented by Pentangle Arts. Reservations are required, and the suggested donation is $10.

The evenings that need a ticket

Each night has ticketed events, and most have posted prices:

• Friday, 7 p.m. Pentangle's Holiday Community Concert at Woodstock Town Hall Theatre, $20 per person.
• Saturday, 7 p.m. The Harvard Krokodiloes, presented by Pentangle Arts, $30 per person.
• Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m. Ninevah: a Solstice Celebration with Bow Thayer at Artistree's Grange Theatre, $30 in advance or $35 at the door.
• Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. The local high school theater department's The Skin of Our Teeth in YOH Theater Auditorium, ticketed.

Artistree buyers save $5 by purchasing in advance. The schedule's general advice is to book fee-based events ahead of time. Artistree's Saturday ornament-making session, from 10 a.m. to noon, is also ticketed. Pentangle's Holiday Open House at Town Hall Theatre, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, is free and includes crafts, complimentary cider and caroling.

Splitting the weekend

The schedule makes a three-day split easy. Friday covers Billings Farm, the book sale, and the late afternoon at the market with the 4:30 Revere Bell tour. Saturday goes to the Green from 1 p.m. through the luminaries, using the shuttle from Woodstock Union High School. Sunday covers the craft fair before its 2 p.m. close, a King Farm swag, and the Messiah Sing at 4. For the Wassail Committee's sponsorship and volunteer contacts, see the Wassail Weekend page.

If a Wassail Weekend visit from out-of-town guests gets you thinking about what your own place near the Green or in Quechee would be worth today, Sandy Reavill can put real numbers to it. Request a free home valuation, and enjoy the luminaries.