From Silver Lake, Two Holiday Parades One Night Apart
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
In 2026, downtown Linden and downtown Fenton are holding their lighted parades and fireworks on back-to-back nights. Linden's Holiday Happening is Friday, December 4, and Fenton's Jinglefest is Saturday, December 5. Linden's event is a compact Friday evening that ends at 9:30. Fenton's starts at 9 the next morning and runs past dark. From Silver Lake, you can treat the two as one festival with two downtowns.
Here's the weekend in a single table, using the schedules both organizers have posted so far.
| Linden Holiday Happening | Fenton Jinglefest | |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Friday, December 4 | Saturday, December 5 |
| First event | 5 p.m. shopping, food trucks, elf hunt | 9 a.m. Breakfast with Santa |
| Parade | 7 p.m. Lighted Frosty Parade | 6 p.m. Holiday Lighted Parade |
| Tree | City Christmas Tree outside City Hall | Community Tree Lighting after the parade |
| Fireworks | 8:30 p.m. over the Millpond | After the tree lighting |
| Santa | 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., Community Center | Breakfast, afternoon photos, Cookies with Santa |
| Wraps up | 9:30 p.m. | After Cookies with Santa |
Linden's evening starts at 5 p.m. with Shopping in the Moonlight, food trucks, pre-parade entertainment from Linden Dance Academy, a Family Fun Tent, and a pasty sale at the Masonic Temple. The Family Fun Tent is at 208 E. Broad Street. It doubles as headquarters for the elf hunt and hosts crafts and church-sponsored activities. The elf hunt runs from 5 to 7 p.m., so if you have kids, the first two hours are the window for it.
The Lighted Frosty Parade steps off at 7 p.m., and the event site marks that start as a new time. The event's food and activities page says the City Christmas Tree is lit outside City Hall at 7 p.m. That's the same hour as the parade, so the posted pages don't make the order clear. If seeing the tree go dark-to-lit matters to you, plan to be near City Hall a little before 7 and check the site for updates. The homepage says it's still under construction.
Frosty Fireworks go up over the Millpond at 8:30 p.m. Santa photos start at the same time inside the Community Center and run until 9:30. After the parade, trackless train rides leave from the Community Center parking lot. Refreshments are served there until 9 p.m. or until they run out. The site credits Linden Kiwanis and Linden Lions with keeping that refreshment tradition going.
Because the fireworks and the Santa line start at the same moment, families have to pick one first. The site doesn't say how long the line usually gets. It does say Santa leaves at 9:30.
Linden fits its whole evening between 5 and 9:30 p.m. Fenton's Jinglefest takes up the whole of Saturday, in four blocks that build toward the evening.
The Chamber's page also has a registration link for the JingleJog 5K run/walk, but the schedule doesn't list a start time for it.
Fenton's lineup doesn't change much from year to year. The City of Fenton's schedule for the 2025 Jinglefest, held Saturday, December 6, 2025, had the same structure: breakfast and shopping at 9, Rotary tree decorating at Bush Park at 10, activities at 3, and the parade at 6, followed by the tree lighting, fireworks and Cookies with Santa. When the 2026 map comes out, the timing will probably look familiar.
On Saturday, most of the food in downtown Fenton is sold by local nonprofits and service groups.
Linden works the same way on a smaller scale. There's the Masonic Temple pasty sale before the parade, and Kiwanis and the Lions handle refreshments at the Community Center afterward. Over the two nights, a Silver Lake household could buy dinner from a dozen local groups across both towns without visiting the same stand twice.
Both schedules are posted, but some of the practical details aren't out yet.
Fenton hasn't published its 2026 parade route. The Chamber's page lists the Jinglefest Parade Lineup Map as "Available in December" and marks the downloadable PDF of the map and schedule "coming soon." Until that comes out, the page shows the 2025 map.
Linden's site has pages for the parade route, parking and shuttles, and road closures. In our research, those maps were images and didn't include readable street-by-street details. Check both sites again the week before, especially if you're driving in from the lake and need to know where parking ends and closures begin.
The December weekend comes at the end of a short series of Linden events. Zombies, Scarecrows and Monsters, billed as "A Frightfully Fun Family Event," is set for October 23 and 24, 2026. Linden's Ladies Night Out, described as a night of shopping, fun and games, follows on Saturday, November 7. Ladies Night Out falls about four weeks before the holiday weekend, which makes it a useful time to scout the Broad Street shops you'll be walking past again on December 4.
Here's how the posted times line up.
Fenton's parade starts an hour earlier than Linden's. If you want to watch both, be downtown sooner on Saturday than you were on Friday.
Having both of these holiday nights within reach is one of the things I like most about this part of Fenton Township. If you're wondering whether a home closer to Linden's Millpond or Fenton's Bush Park would suit how your household spends weekends like this one, Christine Champlin and our team would be glad to talk it through over a complimentary consultation, any time before the parades or after.
Get assistance in determining current property value, crafting a competitive offer, writing and negotiating a contract, and much more. Contact Christine today.
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3295 SILVER LAKE ROAD FENTON MI 48430