On Stoughton's Last 300th Day, the Parade of Lights Shows Off the Town

Who gets the last word on Stoughton's 300th year? According to the official schedule, a time capsule and a toast close the year on the afternoon of Saturday, December 12. Less than two hours after that ceremony ends, Stoughton Town Center fills up for the Holiday Parade of Lights. In that event the town's pizza makers, its bank, its plumbers, dance studios, scouts and public works crews roll down Pearl Street and compete for a trophy. The ceremony makes the year official, and the parade is the year's last public event.

Two events, one Saturday

The Stoughton 300th events page lists the 300th Closing Ceremony for Saturday, December 12, 2026, from 2:00 to 3:10 p.m. The listing reads:

We'll close out the Stoughton 300th Celebration with a time capsule, treats, and a toast to the town.

Stoughton Recreation's parade listing fills in the evening. Here is how the day lines up:

1. 2:00 p.m. The 300th Closing Ceremony begins.
2. 3:10 p.m. The ceremony is scheduled to end.
3. 4:00 p.m. Parade participants check in at O'Donnell Middle School.
4. 5:00 p.m. The Holiday Parade of Lights steps off and runs through Stoughton Town Center from Pearl Street to Park Street, a route of about 1.6 miles.

Businesses and organizations that want a float have until Thursday, December 10, to register through Recreation, and the town charges no fee to enter.

A year with two time capsules

December's capsule is the second one this anniversary year has produced. In April, Stoughton's town manager sent an invitation to a June 13 block party in the Wyman Street area. The party celebrated the former train station's conversion into a new community center. Town Meeting, the Commonwealth, the Community Preservation Committee and the United States Congress funded the project. The program included a fifty-year time capsule, and residents were invited to write letters to be read publicly in 2076 on the theme "My Hope and Prayer for Stoughton in 2076." The plan was to close that capsule at 6 p.m., when the party ended.

The June capsule marked the opening of a new civic building. The December capsule marks the end of the anniversary year itself, and the parade follows it that same evening.

The parade keeps to the second Saturday

The 2026 date follows a pattern. In recent years Stoughton has held its Parade of Lights on the second Saturday of December at 5 p.m.:

The 300th committee put its closing ceremony on the parade's regular Saturday. Because of that, the anniversary's final afternoon runs straight into an evening the town already knew to keep free.

What the Callanan Trophy is judged on

The Parade of Lights is a competition. Recreation awards the Callanan Trophy to the best overall float and judges entries on four criteria: workmanship, design, theme and creativity.

Local businesses have taken the trophy home in past years. In the 2023 parade video from Stoughton Media Access, the announcers introduced Town Spa as the 2022 Callanan winner and said it was "looking to repeat." In the 2025 Stoughton Media Access broadcast, Town Spa came through again, described as being in its 70th year at 1119 Washington Street and as a former trophy winner. Stoughton Cooperative Bank was also called a former winner and was introduced as the banking home for local people and businesses for more than 130 years.

Town Spa's name also appears on the anniversary's other closing event. Town Spa Pizza sponsors the Stoughton 300th Formal Gala at Blue Hill Country Club on Saturday, November 21, from 6 to 10 p.m. The 300th committee describes the gala as closing out the anniversary festivities "in style," with dinner and dancing. Tickets are $50 per person, payable by cash or check to the Town of Stoughton.

The lineup is a directory of local names

The Stoughton Media Access broadcasts from the past few years read like a directory of the town. Over the last three Decembers, the lineup has included these entries:

• Music: the Stoughton High School marching band, the Old Stoughton Musical Society, the Santa Claus Jazz Band, the Boston Wind Jammers and a Dixieland band
• Local businesses: Town Spa, Stoughton Cooperative Bank, New England Drain, Zola Plumbing, True Line Builders, Grand View Landscaping and East Coast Jeeps
• Dance, arts and fitness: Dance Elite Center, Starline Academy of Dance, West Street Music, Circus Dynamics, Legacy Martial Arts and Fitness, and Max Training Center
• Youth groups: Scouts 516, Girl Scouts, Stoughton Flag Football, Stoughton Youth Baseball and the YMCA
• Town crews: the Department of Public Works, with Santa at the back of the procession

Several entries in the 2025 broadcast introduced themselves with their Stoughton history. New England Drain said it has been a family-owned business in the heart of Stoughton since the 1980s. Dance Elite Center said it had recently relocated within town and has served dancers for more than 40 years. Stoughton Flag Football's float carried three division champions from that season: the junior coed Dolphins, the middle school boys' Titans and the middle school girls' Bengals.

The Enterprise News gallery from 2024 shows the same mix: the marching band, the DPW, East Coast Jeeps, hot chocolate along the route and Santa waving to the crowd. Because of that mix, the parade makes a fitting end to an anniversary year. Most of the float entries are businesses and groups that line the parade route.

Where past evenings have wound down

The 2026 listing gives the route as Pearl Street to Park Street. Earlier years show where the parade tends to begin and end. The 2023 Enterprise News listing had it starting at Stoughton High School and finishing on Leach Street by Halloran Park. That year Recreation served cookies and hot chocolate at its building, 15 Pleasant St. In 2022, Recreation held an open house at the same address for an hour before and after the parade, with Santa photos, cookies and ornament-making. At the end of the 2025 broadcast, the announcers told families that Santa was heading to the recreation center for pictures.

Those details come from past years. For December 12, 2026, the Stoughton Recreation page has the parade's route, start time and registration deadline, and the 300th events calendar has the closing ceremony's hours.

For a business or group still deciding about a float, the practical details are these: register by Thursday, December 10, check in at O'Donnell Middle School at 4 p.m. on the 12th, and build for the four judging criteria.

At Mayer Realty Group, we love the weeks when Norfolk County towns celebrate their own people, and Stoughton's 300th has given the town a full year of them. If the anniversary has you thinking about your own next chapter, whether you plan to stay close to Pearl Street or make room for the next one, start your seamless move by scheduling a consultation with our team.