From Friday, December 4 through Sunday, December 6, 2026, the Umbrella Arts Winter Market, the Friends of the Concord Free Public Library Holiday Book Sale, a Concord Women's Chorus concert, the Concord Museum's Family Trees installation and the Town Tree Lighting all fall on the same three days.
The Sunday hours work out well. The book sale reopens at 1:00, the museum's authors event runs 1:00 to 3:00, the Winter Market stays open until 5:00, and the parade leaves the Hunt Gym at 4:40. With those times, one afternoon can cover the weekend's main events and still end on Main Street when the town tree goes on.
The weekend at a glance
| Day | Event | Where | Hours | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thu, Dec 3 | Friends' Holiday Book Sale, members' pre-sale | Goodwin Forum, 129 Main Street | 5:00–7:30 p.m. | Friends members only |
| Fri, Dec 4 | Umbrella Arts Winter Market | 40 Stow Street | 11 a.m.–5 p.m., family activities 3–5 | Free entry |
| Fri, Dec 4 | Friends' Holiday Book Sale | Goodwin Forum, 129 Main Street | 9 a.m.–4 p.m. | No registration |
| Sat, Dec 5 | Winter Market | 40 Stow Street | 11 a.m.–5 p.m., family activities 1–4 | Free entry |
| Sat, Dec 5 | Book Sale | Goodwin Forum | 9 a.m.–4 p.m. | No registration |
| Sat, Dec 5 | Concord Women's Chorus, "Sing We Noel" | Trinity Episcopal Church, 81 Elm Street | 4:00 p.m. | $30 |
| Sun, Dec 6 | Winter Market | 40 Stow Street | 11 a.m.–5 p.m., family activities 1–4 | Free entry |
| Sun, Dec 6 | Book Sale | Goodwin Forum | 1–4 p.m. | No registration |
| Sun, Dec 6 | Afternoon with Authors and Illustrators | Concord Museum, 53 Cambridge Turnpike | 1–3 p.m. | Museum admission |
| Sun, Dec 6 | Town Tree Lighting | Parade from the Hunt Gym down Main Street | 3–6 p.m., parade 4:40, lighting about 5:00 | Free |
Sunday is the book sale's short day, opening at 1:00 and closing at 4:00, which lines up with Umbrella's Sunday family activities.
Friday and Saturday are the browsing days
The weekend starts quietly. The Friends of the Concord Free Public Library Holiday Book Sale opens to members with a pre-sale on Thursday, December 3, from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m., then opens to everyone Friday morning at 9:00. The sale is in the Goodwin Forum at the Main Library, 129 Main Street, and needs no registration. The library is specific about where the proceeds go. Friends' sales pay for library programs, museum passes, eBooks, large-print and audiovisual materials, and staff professional development.
On Friday the Umbrella Arts Winter Market opens at 11:00 at 40 Stow Street, with free family activities from 3:00 to 5:00. Umbrella calls the market a twenty-year Concord tradition. Studio artists, galleries and guest artisans fill three floors, and the stock runs from work in the Umbrella Studio Artists' exhibition "Off the Wall" to the Holiday Ceramics Sale and locally made bread and chocolate. Entry costs nothing. Umbrella Arts instructors lead the children's art activities, and families can pre-register or drop in.
Saturday has the weekend's one ticketed concert. The Concord Women's Chorus presents "Sing We Noel: Songs of Peace and Joy" at 4:00 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 81 Elm Street. The program opens with Mendelssohn's Laudate Pueri and Veni Pueri and moves through arrangements of Away in a Manger and Angels We Have Heard on High, along with Michele Weir's jazz versions of Winter Wonderland and I'll Be Home for Christmas. Dan Forrest's Shalom comes near the end, followed by a carol sing-along. The guest artist is violinist Kenneth Mok. According to the chorus's concert announcement, tickets are $30, and EBT cardholders can buy up to two tickets at $10 each. The chorus's concert page sells tickets online and at the door while they last.
A 4:00 concert also fits around the rest of Saturday. The book sale closes at 4:00 and the Winter Market at 5:00, so a Saturday visit to both can end in the pews on Elm Street.
Sunday fits together hour by hour
Sunday's events connect most closely, and the sequence ends at the tree.
- Late morning, Stow Street. The Winter Market opens at 11:00, two hours before anything else on Sunday's list, and Umbrella's cafe has treats to pick up before you browse.
- 1:00 to 3:00, Cambridge Turnpike. The Concord Museum holds An Afternoon with Authors and Illustrators, where visitors can meet the local authors and illustrators featured in this year's Family Trees installation, along with some of the characters from their books.
- 1:00 to 4:00, Main Street. The book sale's last session runs in the Goodwin Forum.
- 1:00 to 4:00, back on Stow Street. Umbrella's free family activities run at the same time as the book sale, and the market stays open until 5:00.
- 3:00 onward, Main Street. The town's event begins with outdoor entertainment and decorated storefronts.
- 4:40, the Hunt Gym. The parade steps off, with Santa riding down Main Street on a Concord fire truck.
- About 5:00. The town tree is lit, and the event runs until 6:00.
The authors event is the only part of Sunday that costs money. Concord Museum admission is $20 for adults, $15 for seniors and students, $10 for youth 6 to 17, and $5 for children 3 to 5. Children 2 and under and museum members get in free. The museum encourages buying tickets in advance but doesn't require it, and it said tickets for the season would go on sale in November.
Family Trees is the event that lasts all season
The other events on the list last a day or a weekend. Family Trees: A Celebration of Children's Literature runs from November 21, 2026 through January 3, 2027, so it opens about two weeks before the tree lighting and stays up well after it. Local volunteers and community organizations decorate dozens of trees, each one based on a picture book. This year's list mixes classics with newer titles, including books by local authors and illustrators. Visitors can walk the display, sit down with a book, or do a scavenger hunt. The museum has posted the 2026 book list, which is a good way to know ahead of a visit which trees your children will look for first.
Family Trees also raises money. It funds the museum's education programs, which the museum says reach more than 17,000 students each year. Put that next to the library's list of what book sale proceeds buy, and two of the weekend's events are fundraisers for institutions in town. A $20 museum ticket and a stack of used books both stay with the place that sold them.
The hours give some room for the crowds on December 6. Family Trees is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. It is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and open on New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and on Mondays in December. Mondays in December add a day the museum is usually closed, and they fall outside the weekend crowds.
If the weather turns Saturday night
The tree lighting is outdoors, and the Recreation Department has a plan for bad weather. If soaking rain or plowable snow is expected, the town will decide whether to cancel by 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 5. If it cancels, an indoor event runs on December 6 from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. at the Hunt Recreation Center. The department lists that event's activities as still to be determined. The town's tree lighting page is where to check after 9:00 that Saturday.
The indoor fallback doesn't affect the rest of Sunday. The Winter Market, the book sale and the museum event are all indoors, so their hours stay the same whatever happens on Main Street.
The second weekend is busy too
Saturday, December 12 is nearly as full as the 6th.
- Concord Museum Holiday House Tour. The museum's Guild of Volunteers presents the 2026 Holiday House Tour, which visits private Concord homes from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- Concord Chorus Winter Concerts. The Concord Chorus performs at 2:00 and 5:00 p.m. at the Middlesex School Memorial Chapel, 1400 Lowell Road.
- A Dickensian Christmas at Orchard House. Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House, 399 Lexington Road, runs its holiday living-history program on December 12, 13, 19 and 20. This year it looks at Dickens's influence on the Alcotts. Hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sundays, and visitors book by date and time slot.
That makes December 12 a second full day. The house tour runs 10:00 to 4:00, Orchard House opens at 10:00, and the chorus gives its second concert at 5:00. The 5:00 concert falls at about the same hour as the tree lighting the Sunday before.
On December 12, Concord homes open their doors to holiday visitors, and a lot of work goes into getting each one ready. If you're thinking about preparing your own home for a different kind of showing in the new year, the Nancy Cole Team can talk through timing, staging and presentation with you privately. Request a confidential market consultation.