Lyndhurst switches on at 6pm on Saturday 28 November 2026, High Street shut 5.45 to 6.30pm. Ringwood and New Milton are Sunday 29 November; Lymington TBC.

Three New Forest towns now have 2026 Christmas switch-on dates in public: Lyndhurst, Saturday 28 November, lights on at 6pm; Ringwood Winter Wanderland, Sunday 29 November; and New Milton’s Lions festival and parade, also Sunday 29 November, noon to 5.15pm (provisional). Lymington, Fordingbridge and Totton have published nothing for this year, and in Fordingbridge’s case the page that still ranks is three years old.

Updated 29 September: Lyndhurst Parish Council has published its switch-on (Saturday 28 November, 6pm, High Street closed 5.45pm to 6.30pm), and the Lions Club has New Milton’s festival down for Sunday 29 November.

We read every town council’s own website on 5 September 2026, and checked again on 29 September.

Lyndhurst: Saturday 28 November, 6pm

Lyndhurst Parish Council’s events calendar says “the Christmas lights will be switch on at 6pm” on Saturday 28 November 2026. The High Street will be closed to vehicles from 5.45pm to 6.30pm. Traffic coming down the High Street to the traffic lights will be sent along Romsey Road towards Cadnam, and vehicles on Romsey Road coming into the village will be held where they are. Nothing else about the evening is published yet.

A week later, on Saturday 5 December, the parish council lists a Family Christmas Fun Day, “a whole day of activities in the village ending with Father Christmas travelling down the High Street”, with the High Street shut to vehicles from 4.45pm to 5.30pm on the same diversion (Lyndhurst Parish Council).

Ringwood: confirmed, Sunday 29 November

Ringwood Town Council’s Winter Wanderland page says it plainly: “2026 Event - Sunday 29th November - Further information to follow.” Market stalls are already being booked, and the council says a limited number are still available through events@ringwood.gov.uk.

Winter Wanderland is a whole day, not an evening. In 2025, held on Sunday 30 November, it started at 11.30am and the switch-on was at 6pm in the Market Place, with more than 80 market stalls, a stage running from noon, miniature steam train rides, Santa’s grotto, a circus workshop, street performers, a children’s fair and a parade led by Santa to the switch-on itself.

The town mayor, Cllr Rae Frederick, said afterwards that “the new lights, funded by Ringwood Town Council, look stunning”, so expect the same set again this year. Times for 2026 have not been posted; on last year’s shape, plan for late morning to about 7pm.

Lymington: nothing published, but the lights are getting money

Lymington and Pennington Town Council has not put a 2026 date on its events calendar. Its most recent published switch-on page is still the 2024 one.

The town’s pattern is the last Friday of November. The 2025 event ran on Friday 28 November from 4pm to 8pm around the St Thomas Church Christmas tree, with the mayor switching the lights on at 6pm, the Lymington Choral Society leading carols and the blessing of the crib from 5.40pm, the church bellringers straight after the switch-on, and Christmas jazz from 7.15pm. The 2024 event ran the same hours on Friday 29 November along the High Street, with the Coda Ukulele Group at 4.30pm, carols and the crib blessing at 5.20pm, the mayor at 5.45pm and the Lymington Town Band outside the United Reform Church from 5.30pm to 7.30pm.

One detail that repeats every year and matters more than the programme: parking is free in the district council’s Lymington town car parks on switch-on evening.

Separately, the town council’s amenities committee has agreed to look at buying new illuminations and raising catenaries on High Street buildings so lights can again be strung across the street. The costs it considered were £11,400 for festoon lights from Marks and Spencer down to the lower High Street plus £2,500 a year to install them, £3,680 for new eyebolts including a £130.90 county council licence, £1,600 for meteor lights plus £240 a year, £1,500 to £3,000 for a Caffe Nero and Angel display, and £150 to £300 each for Pennington motifs. So the display may look different this year even though the date is not out.

Fordingbridge: the page that ranks is from 2023

Search for Fordingbridge’s switch-on and you will land on the town council’s own “Lights, Santa… Action” page. It describes Friday 1 December 2023. There is no 2026 equivalent.

It is still the best guide to what the evening looks like, and it is the only one of these events with published road closures. In 2023, roads shut from 4pm, affecting Roundhill, the High Street, Provost Street and Shaftesbury Street. The event ran 5pm to 8pm, with a lantern and Santa parade at 5.30pm, Santa switching the lights on at 6pm, and his grotto at Avonway Community Centre from 6.30pm to 8pm, run by Fordingbridge Events Group with the town council.

New Milton: Sunday 29 November, provisional

The Lions Club of New Milton and District lists its “Lions New Milton Christmas Festival, Parade and Lights Switch-On” for Sunday 29 November 2026 in the town centre, 12 noon to 5.15pm, and says the timings are provisional (Lions Club of New Milton). New Milton Town Council’s own events page does not list a switch-on. The town’s 2025 event was a smaller affair, salvaged by the Lions after the larger festival and parade was called off on the weather forecast.

Totton and the rest

Nothing is published for Totton, Fordingbridge or the villages.

Lyndhurst’s lights also have their own website. It refused every request we made to it on 5 September and returned an error rather than a page; the parish council’s calendar is the source for the date above.

When the dates usually land

On recent years, expect Lymington to announce during the first half of November, and Fordingbridge around the same time. Ringwood publishes earliest, with Lyndhurst’s parish council not far behind.

We will update this page as each one confirms. If you are travelling to one, parking in the New Forest has the council and Forestry England tariffs, and roadworks and travel covers closures that could be in the way.

Sources

  • ringwood.gov.uk Winter Wanderland page, read 5 and 29 September 2026.
  • lyndhurst-pc.gov.uk events calendar, Christmas Light Switch-on and Christmas fun day pages, read 29 September 2026.
  • newmiltonlions.org.uk event listing, read 29 September 2026.
  • lymingtonandpennington-tc.gov.uk events calendar and Christmas Lights Switch On page, read 5 September 2026.
  • Advertiser and Times, “Lymington set to light up for Christmas”, 16 November 2025, and its report on the amenities committee’s lighting costs.
  • fordingbridge.gov.uk, “Fordingbridge: Lights, Santa… Action”, read 5 September 2026.
  • newmiltontowncouncil.gov.uk town council events page, read 5 September 2026.