The New River's Holiday Season Opens at Esplanade Park and Ends at Stranahan House

At 6:30 tonight, Thursday, November 5, the lights go on along the New River. Riverwalk Fort Lauderdale hosts "Get Lit" at Esplanade Park, 400 SW 2nd Street. The night has live holiday music, kids' crafts, a visit from Santa, and the lighting ceremony that starts Light Up Lauderdale. Riverwalk calls it a 10-week celebration of holiday lights along the banks of the river. Entry is free. The kids zone runs from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

The lights stay up all season, but the events move over the weeks. Most of the November calendar happens at Esplanade Park. By mid-December most of the dated events are a short distance east, around Stranahan House and the Water Taxi dock beside the Riverside Hotel. If you plan the season by location, you can spend November at one end of the river and December at the other, and stop in between at Huizenga Park, which just added two new places to eat.

November Belongs to Esplanade Park

Light Up Lauderdale is the first of the city's holiday lightings this year, a week ahead of the others. The City of Fort Lauderdale's Light Up schedule has the river first on November 5. Light Up the Galt follows on November 12, and Light Up the Beach at Las Olas Oceanside Park on November 19. For about a week, the river is the only part of the city with the season's lights on.

Riverwalk keeps Esplanade Park busy for the next nine days.

Bring a toy tonight if you can. Riverwalk is working with the Suits, Stilettos & Lipstick Foundation on the 25th Annual John & Elizabeth's Toy Drive. Drop off new, unwrapped toys for children ages 3 to 12 at the tent by the park's northeast entrance. Toy weapons and stuffed animals aren't accepted.

After the food festival, Esplanade Park has one more listed holiday event, the Jazz Brunch on December 6. The rest of the dated season is farther east.

Huizenga Park, With New Places to Eat

Huizenga Park sits between the two ends, at 32 East Las Olas Boulevard. It reopened in early 2026 and added two food tenants this fall.

Sweetwaters, at 58 East Las Olas, comes from Specialty Restaurants Corporation, the family-owned group behind Miami's Rusty Pelican. It has a double-height dining room, an open kitchen, and patios that overlook both the river and the park. The menu covers seafood, steaks, a raw bar, sushi and cocktails, and there's a separate menu for dogs. In its October update, the park says why it put the restaurant there:

"Sweetwaters was designed to complement the surrounding park space, creating a place where guests can gather, connect, and enjoy the New River from a different perspective."

Ophelia handles mornings. The bakery-café started in Coconut Grove as a vintage-inspired mobile concept, and this is its first Broward County location. It's open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Breads, pastries, syrups and cold foams are all made in house, including the English muffin on its bacon, egg and cheese sandwich and the coffee-glazed cinnamon rolls. Ophelia closes at 5, so it works for a Saturday morning before a cruise later in the week. For a table with the lights in view after dark, Sweetwaters is the option.

December Moves East to Stranahan House

By December, the season's plans mostly start from one spot. The Water Taxi's Holiday Lights Cruise leaves from Stop F1, between Stranahan House and the Riverside Hotel. The Winterfest Boat Parade lines up on the docks just west of the same house. Stranahan House runs its own events in the weeks around both.

1. November 17–20: Pictures with Santa at the Historic Stranahan House Museum, about two weeks before most of the December events.
2. December 4: Holiday Lights Cruises begin. Departures are at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m., with live music and drinks for sale on board. The current listing runs the cruises through January 3.
3. December 5: Cookies with Santa at Stranahan House, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
4. December 12: Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade, 6 to 8:30 p.m. Boats stage on the New River docks from just west of Stranahan House back toward the Broward Center. The parade starts at Stranahan House and heads east along the river. There are no holiday cruises that night.
5. December 16–20: Victorian Christmas walkthroughs at Stranahan House, 5 to 8 p.m. Tickets start at $30. Tours take about 40 minutes, with a new group of six or fewer leaving every 10 minutes, and docents lead while Christmas songs play on the house's 1900s piano.

The house itself suggests pairing the walkthrough with the Water Taxi's holiday tour before or after. Both leave from the same stretch of dock, so a Victorian Christmas tour and an 8:30 cruise fit into one evening without moving the car.

Cruise tickets are now at regular price, $49 for adults and $25 for children ages 4 to 11. Children under 3 ride free. The early-bird rates ended November 1. There are no cruises on December 12, 24 or 25, so book around those dates.

Riverwalk gives the light display ten weeks from tonight but hasn't published a final night. That would put the end around mid-January, a little after the last cruise on January 3.

Getting Between the Two Ends

The free LauderGO! Water Trolley is the obvious way to cover the river between Esplanade Park and Stranahan House. It was paused October 28 through November 1 for the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. Its posted schedule is 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, with an estimated 20 to 30 minutes between stops. Three caveats from the city's Water Trolley page matter this season:

• The Huizenga Plaza/Bubier Park and Riverfront Plaza stops are listed as unavailable because of construction. Those are the middle stops, the ones you'd use for Huizenga Park.
• New River bridge openings can delay service, so leave extra time if you're heading to an 8:30 cruise.
• Check the city's live tracker before you go. The stop notice isn't dated, and the park beside those stops has already reopened.

Until those middle stops reopen, walking along the river is the most dependable way between the two ends.

The Rest of the City's Light Up Nights

When the river's events move east in December, the city's other lightings continue elsewhere:

• Light Up the Galt, November 12, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., at North Beach Restaurants and Shoppes, NE 33rd Avenue and NE 33rd Street. Tree lighting at 6:30 p.m.
• Light Up the Beach, November 19, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., at Las Olas Oceanside Park. More than 50,000 lights and "Olas," the 20-foot snowman at A1A and Las Olas Boulevard.
• Light Up Sistrunk, December 4, 5 to 8 p.m., along Sistrunk Boulevard between NW 9th and 11th Avenues. Tree lighting at 7 p.m.
• Light Up Carter Park, December 11, 5 to 8 p.m., at Carter Park.

Light Up Sistrunk is on the same night as the first Holiday Lights Cruise, December 4. If you want both, catch the 7 p.m. tree lighting on Sistrunk and then take the 8:30 departure from Stop F1.

The Fortune | Christie's Las Olas team at Tyler Tuchow works a few blocks from these docks year round. If the view from the cruise has you wondering what owning on the river is like, from dock frontage to bridge clearances to which stretches stay quiet on parade night, request a private consultation and we'll walk the river with you.