December on the Treasure Coast: Boat Parades, a Million Garden Lights, Sailfish Season and a Christmas in Shorts (2026)

Oct 9

Quick answer: December on the Treasure Coast is 76 and sunny most days, 57 most nights, and busier than any other month on the calendar. The big weekend is December 4 to 6: the Stuart Christmas Parade Friday night, the Hobe Sound and Vero Beach parades and the Martin County Christmas Boat Parade on Saturday, then Fort Pierce's Sights and Sounds parade and tree lighting and the Vero Beach boat parade on Sunday. After that: the St. Lucie County boat parade off Fort Pierce December 12, Heathcote's Garden of Lights on weekends through the 27th, McKee's Jungle Lights in Vero, free lights at The Port in Port St. Lucie, two Nutcrackers, the Pirates Cove Sailfish Classic December 9 to 12, and 9 o'clock fireworks on New Year's Eve in Fort Pierce and Tradition. If you're buying, one date matters more than all of those: close and move in by December 31 and you can homestead the house for 2027.

Every year I get a text from someone up north around the 10th of December that says some version of "what's it like down there right now." The honest answer is that it's the best month we have, and the busiest. The weather is finally what the brochures promised. Every town on the coast throws a parade in the same week. The boats dress up in lights, the gardens dress up in lights, the snowbirds are back and the restaurants are full, and on Christmas morning you can walk the beach in a t-shirt before anybody else is up. Here's what I'd put on the calendar, with the dates I could confirm in early October. Things change, so check before you go.

The weather, since that's what you're really asking

December here averages a high of 76 and a low of 57, with about two and a half inches of rain for the whole month, most of it in one or two fronts. A cold front comes through every week or two, the morning after is in the 50s, everyone wears the one jacket they own, and by lunch it's 72 again. The ocean near the beach is still in the low 70s because the Gulf Stream runs about 15 miles off our coast all winter. People swim on Christmas Day. Visitors think it's a stunt. It isn't.

The first weekend: five parades, two boat parades, pick your battles

The Treasure Coast does all of its parades in one four-day stretch, and you cannot do them all. Here's the slate.

Thursday, December 3. Jensen Beach lights its tree downtown at 6:30. Small, local, and the best of the tree lightings if you want to run into people you know.

Friday, December 4. The Stuart Christmas Parade, the 65th one, steps off at 7 on SE Ocean Boulevard. This year's theme is "Santa's Stuart Vacation." Get downtown by 6, park once and walk, and eat before, because the restaurants on Osceola are slammed the second it ends. The same night, Tradition's tree lighting in Port St. Lucie runs 5 to 9 in Tradition Square, with Santa lighting the tree at 6, vendors, train rides for the little kids and a band after. If you live west of the turnpike, that's your Friday.

Saturday, December 5. Three things, and they stack. The Hobe Sound Christmas Parade, the 40th, is at 1 in the afternoon down Dixie Highway and Bridge Road, and it's the most small-town of the bunch. Then the Vero Beach Christmas Parade at 6 on Ocean Drive, hosted by Sunrise Rotary, which is the one with the beach-town backdrop and the shops open late. And the Martin County Christmas Boat Parade at 6, which starts at Sandsprit Park, loops the Manatee Pocket and runs up the St. Lucie to downtown Stuart and the Roosevelt Bridge. Watch it from Sandsprit, from the docks at Pirates Cove, from the Stuart causeway, or from the Riverwalk downtown where Stuart Main Street sets up the party. Sebastian's parade has been the same Saturday night the last few years, 6:30 down Indian River Drive to Riverview Park; the city hadn't posted the 2026 date when I wrote this, so check before you drive up. Port St. Lucie also does its Festival of Lights at the MIDFLORIDA Event Center that day, 2 to 10, if you'd rather have rides and vendors than a parade.

Sunday, December 6. Fort Pierce's Sights and Sounds on Second, the 38th, is the big daytime one: the parade starts at Tickle Tummy Hill on Second Street at 1 and the whole thing runs until 6, with the downtown tree lighting right after. There's free parking in both garages. Then drive north for the Vero Beach Christmas Boat Parade at 6. This year's theme is "250! Merry, Bright and Nifty!" for the country's 250th, so expect a lot of red, white, blue and green. The boats start north of the Barber Bridge, circle Fritz Island, pass the City Marina where the judges sit, poke into Riomar Creek and finish in front of Royal Palm Pointe. The City Marina, Riverside Park and Royal Palm Pointe are the spots, and the people with blankets down at 4:30 have done this before.

My advice if you're visiting and want one of each: Stuart Friday night, Hobe Sound Saturday afternoon, the Stuart boat parade Saturday night, Fort Pierce Sunday afternoon. That's four towns in three days and nobody's crying in the car.

The second weekend: Fort Pierce lights up the inlet

The St. Lucie County Christmas Boat Parade is Saturday, December 12 at 6, launching from the Fort Pierce City Marina at Marina Square and running the inlet by the South Causeway. Marina Square, the causeway park and the Square Grouper's deck are the views. It's the smallest of the three boat parades and my favorite, because the water's narrow and the boats go by close.

Same weekend: the Pirates Cove Sailfish Classic fishes Thursday through Saturday, December 10 to 12, out of Pirates Cove in Port Salerno, with the awards Saturday night. Last year's purse was close to $200,000. You don't need a boat to enjoy it. Be at the Manatee Pocket around 3:30 any of those afternoons when the fleet comes back in with the release flags flying, and go get a drink at one of the places on the water. The Treasure Coast Holiday Food Fest is at Clover Park in Port St. Lucie Saturday from noon to 9. The Environmental Learning Center in Vero does WinterGreen Night Lights Friday and Saturday, December 11 and 12, 5:30 to 8:30, with the mangrove trails lit and canoe tours if you book. The Vero Beach Outlets Holiday Bazaar is the 12th and 13th. And for the south end of the coast, the Jupiter and Tequesta parade, the 50th, is Sunday, December 13 at 1, ending at Abacoa.

The lights

Heathcote Botanical Gardens, Fort Pierce. The Garden of Lights is the one I send everybody to. More than a million lights on 210 Savannah Road, 5:30 to 9 on December 4 to 6, 11 to 14, 18 to 20 and 26 to 27. Adults are $15, kids 6 to 17 are $5, under 6 free, members $10. Food trucks, Santa on select nights, a scavenger hunt for the kids with a prize at the end, and the Treasure Coast Woodturners spinning tops. Closed Christmas Day. Buy online ahead on the weekend nights or you'll stand in the gate line.

McKee Botanical Garden, Vero Beach. Jungle Lights at 350 US 1 is the bigger production: a lit walk through the jungle garden, illuminated animals, the reindeer hall with the 12-foot Rudolph, Santa in the Spanish Kitchen and the model train on the premium nights. It has opened right around Thanksgiving weekend and run into the first days of January, 6 to 9 with last entry at 8:30, closed Mondays. Last year non-member adults paid $35 and kids $20, and the nights between Christmas and New Year's are the busiest. Check McKee's calendar for this year's dates and buy early.

The Port District, Port St. Lucie. PSLinLights at The Port on SE Westmoreland is free, which matters when you've already paid for two gardens. The city lights the whole boardwalk from the event lawn to the Botanical Gardens with turtles, seahorses and flamingos, runs a food court every night from 5 to 9, puts Santa (and the Grinch, on a couple of nights) in the Botanical Gardens pavilion, and sells $5 train rides through the lights. It has run from the Friday after Thanksgiving through New Year's Eve, dusk to 9. Park at Veterans Park at Rivergate and walk the boardwalk; the city says there's no event parking in the plazas across the street, and they mean it. The city also does Noche Buena at The Port Friday, December 18, 5 to 9, free, and publishes a holiday lights map every year of the houses in PSL that go all out. Use it. There's a house or two in every neighborhood that has clearly been planning since July.

Two Nutcrackers and a Christmas play

Ballet Vero Beach does Nutcracker on the Indian River at Riverside Theatre, which is the same Tchaikovsky score with the story moved to Christmas Eve 1919, the year Vero was chartered, with Marie's family taking the train down from New York and the Indian River Lagoon as the backdrop. December 10 and 11 at 7:30 and December 12 at 2, plus shorter sensory-friendly performances on the 12th and 13th. It sells out. In Stuart, the Treasure Coast Ballet's Nutcracker is at the Lyric Theatre December 18, 19 and 20, two shows a day. And if your family has seen enough sugar plums, A.C.T. Studio Theatre in Stuart does Every Christmas Story Ever Told December 3 to 13, which is three actors doing all of them in ninety minutes.

What's happening on the water

December is the sailfish month. The north winds that come with the fronts push the fish down the edge off Stuart, which is why the tournaments are stacked here and why Stuart calls itself the sailfish capital. If you've never been offshore, a December charter out of Port Salerno or Fort Pierce is the one to book; on a good day after a front, boats can release a dozen or more. Snook season closes December 15 on this coast and stays closed until the end of January, so if you want one for the table, you've got two weeks. The beaches have pompano, Spanish mackerel and bluefish on the cool mornings, stone crab is still open, and the fishing guide has the rest.

The manatees are in full winter mode. Moore's Creek by the Manatee Center in downtown Fort Pierce, Round Island Park on the lagoon side of A1A in Vero, and Indian Riverside Park in Jensen Beach are the easy spots; go early on a cold morning when they bunch up. If you're on a boat, the winter manatee zones are posted and the officers are out.

Christmas week

This is the week the relatives come, so here's how to run it. Christmas Eve, the waterfront restaurants from Stuart to Vero are packed and most of them took reservations in November; if you haven't booked, you're cooking. Christmas morning, go to the beach before breakfast. Bathtub Reef on Hutchinson Island, Jensen Beach, Fort Pierce Inlet State Park and Round Island are all open, the parking lots are empty until 10, and a Christmas morning walk at 7 with the sun coming up out of the ocean is the single best thing about living here. Take the picture. Send it north. Christmas Day most restaurants are closed, the hotels on the island do dinner, and the Chinese places in Stuart and Port St. Lucie are a tradition for a reason.

The week between Christmas and New Year's is the busiest week of the year at the beaches, the state parks and the boat ramps, and the citrus stands are doing their best business of the season; the November post has the groves. Heathcote's last two nights of lights are the 26th and 27th. And the last weekend has the bird people out: the Audubon Christmas Bird Count runs from mid-December to January 5 and this coast has several, if you want to spend a morning counting pelicans with a retired biologist who knows everything.

New Year's Eve. Two free fireworks shows, both at 9 o'clock, because this is a coast where a lot of people are in bed by 10 and we've made peace with it. Fort Pierce shoots them off at Marina Square downtown, about 15 minutes' worth, and the view from South Beach across the inlet is as good as the view from the marina with half the crowd. Port St. Lucie does Neon Nights at Tradition Square, music from 5, fireworks at 9, park at the church lot and take the shuttle. Both were free last year and I expect the same this year. The midnight crowd goes to the hotels and restaurants on Ocean Drive in Vero, the places on the river in Stuart, or the bars at the Fort Pierce inlet, and the tickets for the ocean-front parties in Vero went for $85 and up last year, so if that's your night, buy early.

Why December matters if you're buying or selling

I'm going to tell you something most agents skip. In Florida, the homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes cap, the two things that keep your property tax from running away, are decided by one date: January 1. If you own the house and live in it on January 1, 2027, and file the application by March 1, you get the exemption for 2027 and the cap starts counting from there. Close on January 2 and you wait a full year. I have seen buyers push a closing from December 29 to "after the holidays" and hand the county a year of savings for nothing. If you're under contract in December, close in December.

Two more December things. Your property tax bill for the year is already out, and paying it in December gets you a 3 percent discount (November was 4, and it drops a point a month until March). And if you're selling, December is quieter but better. The people looking at houses the week between Christmas and New Year's are not browsing; they flew down, they're staying with family, and they've decided. There are fewer buyers, but a much higher share of them write offers, and there are fewer listings to compete with. I show houses on December 26 every year for exactly that reason.

If you're down here for the holidays and you're even a little curious, the Port St. Lucie versus Stuart post, the gated communities guide and the 55+ neighborhoods guide are the three to read on the plane. And if you're reading this from somewhere it's snowing, this one was written for you.

Questions people ask about December here

What's happening on the Treasure Coast in December 2026?

The first weekend is the big one: the Stuart Christmas Parade Friday, December 4 at 7 pm, the Hobe Sound parade (1 pm), Vero Beach parade (6 pm) and Martin County Christmas Boat Parade (6 pm) on Saturday, December 5, and Fort Pierce's Sights and Sounds on Second parade and tree lighting (1 to 6 pm) plus the Vero Beach Christmas Boat Parade (6 pm) on Sunday, December 6. Then the St. Lucie County boat parade December 12, Heathcote's Garden of Lights on weekends through December 27, McKee's Jungle Lights in Vero, free lights at The Port in Port St. Lucie, the Nutcracker in Vero (December 10 to 13) and Stuart (December 18 to 20), the Pirates Cove Sailfish Classic December 9 to 12, and New Year's Eve fireworks at 9 pm in Fort Pierce and Tradition.

When are the Christmas boat parades on the Treasure Coast in 2026?

Three of them, all run by the Marine Industries Association of the Treasure Coast and all free to watch. Martin County: Saturday, December 5 at 6 pm, from Sandsprit Park through the Manatee Pocket to downtown Stuart. Vero Beach: Sunday, December 6 at 6 pm, from north of the Barber Bridge around Fritz Island to Royal Palm Pointe. St. Lucie County: Saturday, December 12 at 6 pm, from the Fort Pierce City Marina through the inlet. Get to your spot an hour early.

Where can I see Christmas lights on the Treasure Coast?

Heathcote Botanical Gardens' Garden of Lights in Fort Pierce (more than a million lights, $15 adults, select nights December 4 to 27), McKee Botanical Garden's Jungle Lights in Vero Beach (ticketed, roughly Thanksgiving through early January), and PSLinLights at The Port in Port St. Lucie, which is free and runs nightly from the Friday after Thanksgiving through New Year's Eve. The City of Port St. Lucie also publishes a map of the best decorated houses every December.

What's the weather like on the Treasure Coast in December?

The average high in Port St. Lucie is 76 and the average low is 57, with about two and a half inches of rain for the month. Cold fronts arrive every week or two and can drop a morning into the 40s or 50s for a day before it warms back up. The ocean stays in the low 70s. It is shorts and a sweatshirt weather, and people swim on Christmas Day.

Is December a good time to buy a house on the Treasure Coast?

It can be the smartest month of the year to close. To receive the Florida homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes assessment cap for 2027, you must own and live in the home on January 1, 2027 and file by March 1, 2027; closing in December instead of early January gets you a full year of those savings. There are fewer buyers in December but a higher share of them are serious, and inventory is thinner, so sellers who list in December get less competition. Property taxes paid in December also earn a 3 percent discount.

What's open on Christmas Day on the Treasure Coast?

The beaches and state parks are open every day of the year, including Bathtub Reef, Jensen Beach, Fort Pierce Inlet State Park and Round Island; Christmas morning on the sand is a local tradition. Most restaurants close on Christmas Day, though the hotels on Hutchinson Island and the barrier island in Vero usually serve dinner. Heathcote's Garden of Lights is closed on Christmas Day and reopens December 26; check McKee's calendar for its holiday schedule.

Talk with William. If you're down here for the holidays and want to see what living here really costs, text me. I work the week between Christmas and New Year's, because that's when people decide. Call or text (772) 800-2274 or send a message.

General information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Event dates, times and prices were confirmed in early October 2026 where possible and change; check with the organizer before you go. Homestead rules are summarized; confirm with your county property appraiser. William Merchant, REALTOR®, RE/MAX Gold. Each RE/MAX office is independently owned and operated.

Sources

William Merchant