In 2025, work on the Main Street Restoration meant the Christmas celebration ran with no parade and no Bandstand activities, so festivities were spread along Main Street and over to Crosby Arena. For 2026, the Unionville BIA's event listing says the Olde Tyme Christmas Candlelight Parade "returns for the 2026 Holiday Season," and it puts that parade back on Main Street on Saturday, December 12.
That date matters more than any other on the calendar. A Santa breakfast, a free gallery activity and the parade itself all take place within the same Saturday and on the same few blocks. Last year the restoration pushed events apart. This year the restored street brings them back together.
What last December looked like
The 2025 celebration ran on December 6 from 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Its listing said plainly that the restoration ruled out a parade and kept activities away from The Bandstand. That version was spread over time and space, with an eight-hour window and two venues, and it had no procession to anchor it.
The 2026 version is the opposite. The parade gets a one-hour slot, 6:30 to 7:30 pm, on Main Street itself. Everything else that day is set around that hour.
December 12, hour by hour
Here is how the Saturday lines up from the published listings:
| Time | What | Where | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 to 10:30 am | Breakfast with Santa, first session | Unionville Arms Pub & Grill, 189 Main Street Unionville | $33 per ticket |
| 11:00 am to 12:30 pm | Breakfast with Santa, second session | Unionville Arms Pub & Grill | $33 per ticket |
| 5:00 to 8:00 pm | Olde Tyme Christmas at the Varley, family art activity | Varley Art Gallery of Markham | Free, drop-in |
| 6:30 to 7:30 pm | Olde Tyme Christmas Candle Light Parade | Main Street Unionville | No ticket listed |
The Varley's window opens 90 minutes before the parade and stays open 30 minutes after it ends. A family can arrive at five, make something at the gallery, step out for the parade and still return before the doors close at eight. The gallery describes the activity as a festive, family-friendly art project timed to "Historic Main Street Unionville" coming alive for the holiday. The listing doesn't name the craft, so expect the details on the day.
The Breakfast with Santa listing on Eventbrite shows the Unionville B.I.A. as organizer. The $33 ticket is the same price for a child or an adult and includes HST and gratuity. Each ticket covers breakfast with juice or coffee, a visit with Santa and photo opportunities, and children under 12 also get a small gift. Babies in strollers attend free, and one booking can include up to eight tickets. For a family of four, that is $132 before anyone has looked at a parade float, which is worth knowing when weighing the breakfast against the free drop-in at the Varley that evening.
The Saturday before is the quieter Santa date
The Unionville Arms is the second of two Santa breakfasts. The first runs on Saturday, December 5, at Jake's On Main, 202 Main Street Unionville, with the same two sessions and the same $33 ticket.
These two Saturdays are not the same event. December 5 has no parade or Varley activity listed alongside the breakfast. December 12 puts the breakfast on the same day as the parade. If your family wants Santa without the parade-night crowd, the Jake's On Main sessions on Eventbrite give you a morning on Main Street a week ahead. If you want the whole day, December 12 is the one to book.
The Varley shows close eight days after the parade
The Varley Art Gallery of Markham is free to enter. If you're there for the drop-in activity on parade night, the galleries are also showing two exhibitions that close soon after.
I Think This Means I Can Fly is Anique Jordan's exhibition, curated by Essence Harden, and runs from September 26 to December 20, 2026. According to the Varley's exhibition page, the work looks at how truth is made and inherited. It draws on stories of the Flying Africans, on Gullah Geechee communities and on Jordan's Trinidadian family history, using photography, sculpture and performance.
Framing Identity, curated by Anik Glaude, runs on the same dates in the Collections Gallery. It brings together photographic work by Joi T. Arcand, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Anique Jordan, Esmaa Mohamoud, John Reeves and Katherine Takpannie. The gallery describes the show as an exploration of how people and communities build and assert identity, with themes of memory, belonging, resilience and representation.
Both close on December 20, the Sunday after the parade. If parade night is too busy for the galleries, Saturday, December 19 is the last weekend day before they close.
The run-up, from November on
The parade gives the season its peak, but the weeks before it have a steady program of their own along Main Street. The BIA's calendar and the Varley's listings fill most weekends:
- November 1: Beginner pointed-pen calligraphy workshop at the Varley.
- November 8: Wearable felt and acrylic painting workshops at the Varley.
- November 11: Remembrance Day ceremony at the Cenotaph, Crosby Community Arena.
- November 14 to 29: At the Varley, Study Hall on the 14th, a mixed-media workshop on the 15th, Curator's Corner on the 21st, a winter landscape workshop on the 22nd and intermediate brush calligraphy on the 29th.
- December 6: Felted tea-cozy workshop at the Varley, ages 16 and up, registration required.
- December 13: Fluid Art Family Workshop at the Varley, 1 to 4 pm, for ages 9 and up. It is designed for families with children on the autism spectrum, and registration is limited to two participants per family.
Several of these workshops require registration, so the November calendar favors people who sign up early.
The McKay Art Centre runs a weekly rotation of its own through the season. Its posted 2026 schedule has Trinity Home Market on two weeks, November 18 to 22 and December 9 to 13. The second of those runs through parade weekend. The other weeks belong to artists and groups:
| Dates | At the McKay Art Centre |
|---|---|
| October 28 to November 1 | Les Olson |
| November 4 to 8 | Mahtab Alavi |
| November 11 to 15 | Edmund Prior |
| November 18 to 22 | Trinity Home Market |
| November 25 to 29 | Korean Watercolour Group of Artists |
| December 2 to 6 | Markham Group of Artists |
| December 9 to 13 | Trinity Home Market |
| December 16 to 20 | Bruce Song and Jessica Zhang |
Getting there, and what the listings leave open
The BIA's standing visitor guidance says parking is free, with lots behind the Main Street businesses reached from Carlton Road and from Main Street. That is general guidance, not a parade-night plan. The BIA's listing gives Main Street as the parade location but no route, and no road closures for the evening have been posted. Check back with the BIA before December 12, especially if you plan to drive in for the 5 pm start at the Varley.
Two other things on the regional calendar are easy to mix up with this one. The City of Markham lists the Markham Santa Claus Parade for Saturday, November 28, 2026, but its time and location are still to be announced. It is a separate event from the Candlelight Parade, so don't assume it will pass through Unionville.
Skating is the other. Toogood Pond is not on the City's list of park rinks. That list names Victoria Square Park, Markham Museum, Milne Dam, Milliken Mills Park and Huntington Park. The same City page warns that moving water in ponds and waterways can leave ice thin and advises staying off it. The City says the Markham Civic Centre Outdoor Ice Rink returns in December 2026, though the season dates on its page still show last winter's.
For a Unionville household, here is how the season adds up. Book the December 5 or December 12 breakfast now. Register for any Varley workshops you want in November. Leave the evening of Saturday, December 12 open, because the street is holding its parade again for the first time since the restoration began.
If walking the restored Main Street this December has you thinking about what your own home is worth, Ample Realty Team can prepare a free home valuation built on Unionville sales, so you have a clear number before the new year.
