Twickenham switches its Christmas lights on at 6pm on Friday 20 November and Teddington follows on Thursday 26 November. Richmond town centre has no date yet.

There is no single Christmas lights switch-on in Richmond upon Thames. Each town centre runs its own, on its own night, organised by its own business group, and the dates land within a week of each other in late November.

Two are fixed for 2026. One is not, and the reason is worth knowing if you are planning around it.

Twickenham: Friday 20 November

Twickenham goes first. The VisitRichmond listing for Discover Twickenham’s event says the Christmas Light Up Events take place on Friday 20 November 2026, with the lights around the town switched on at 6pm, accompanied by music.

The rest of the programme was still to be published when we checked on 5 September, and the BID’s own site asks people to save the date and watch for updates.

In past years the evening has been split between two locations, with a tree lit on Twickenham Green earlier in the afternoon and the main event running on King Street. Treat that as the shape of the night rather than a confirmed 2026 running order.

Teddington: Thursday 26 November

Teddington Together has put Thursday 26 November 2026 on its site as the date for Teddington Lights Up 2026. The page carries the date and the location and nothing else: the words underneath it are “details to follow”.

Teddington’s version is usually the busiest street event of the three, with stalls along the High Street and Broad Street, so the timings matter. Expect them in late October or early November.

Richmond town centre: no date yet

Be Richmond, the business improvement district that runs George Street, had not published a 2026 date on 5 September. Its press page carries no festive release, and its events listing is empty of Christmas entries.

What exists is last year’s. The VisitRichmond listing for Be Festive is marked as passed and describes a Thursday 27 November event on George Street, running 4pm to 6pm, with performers from 5pm and the switch-on itself at 5.45pm with the Mayor of Richmond. The 27th falls on a Thursday in 2025 and a Friday in 2026, so that is the 2025 evening, not a preview of this one.

If Be Richmond keeps to the same weekday, the 2026 date would be either the 26th, the same night as Teddington, or the following week. We will update this page when it is announced.

East Twickenham and Richmond Bridge have run a lights event at the Richmond Road end in past years. Its listing is also marked as passed with no 2026 date.

The dates that are already fixed

The switch-ons are not the only thing happening in the borough that fortnight, and two of them sell out.

From Event Where
Fri 13 Nov 2026 Christmas at Kew opens, runs to 3 Jan Kew Gardens
Fri 20 Nov 2026 Twickenham lights switch-on, 6pm Twickenham town centre
Fri 20 Nov 2026 Hampton Court Palace ice rink opens, runs to 3 Jan Hampton Court Palace
Thu 26 Nov 2026 Teddington Lights Up Teddington
Sat 28 Nov 2026 Winter Palace and The Christmas Beast Ball open, run to 3 Jan Hampton Court Palace
Sat 28 Nov 2026 The Robin’s Tale opens, runs to 3 Jan Ham House and Garden
Sat 5 Dec 2026 Jack and the Beanstalk opens, runs to 3 Jan Richmond Theatre

The Kew, Hampton Court and Ham House dates come from the borough’s own Christmas and New Year events listing; the pantomime run is from ATG’s Richmond Theatre listing, which gives Saturday 5 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027.

Getting there and parking

The switch-ons all sit on shopping streets that are hard to park near on a Friday evening, and the last weekend of November is also the Nations Championship finals weekend at Allianz Stadium, which puts the Twickenham event-day parking zone in force from 11am to 11pm on 27, 28 and 29 November.

For tariffs and zones the rest of the time, see our parking in Richmond page. For anything closed on the night, see roadworks and travel.

Sources