Haywards Heath Christmas Festival runs 12pm to 5pm on Saturday 28 November, with a lantern parade at 4.30pm and the lights on at 5pm at The Orchards.

The Haywards Heath Christmas Festival is on Saturday 28 November 2026, from 12pm to 5pm, based at Haywards Heath Baptist Church and Centenary Hall. The lantern parade gathers at The Orchards Shopping Centre from 4.30pm and the Christmas lights are switched on there at 5pm. Haywards Heath Town Council lists it as “our next event” on its festival page, and its exhibitor pack describes the festival as free for the community to attend. (Haywards Heath Town Council, Christmas Festival)

Updated 17 October: the council has now published the hours (12pm to 5pm), the venues (Haywards Heath Baptist Church and Centenary Hall) and the lantern parade and switch-on at The Orchards (4.30pm and 5pm).

What is confirmed, and what is not

  • Date: Saturday 28 November 2026, confirmed
  • Admission: free, confirmed in the council’s exhibitor pack
  • Hours: 12pm to 5pm, confirmed
  • Venues: Haywards Heath Baptist Church and Centenary Hall, confirmed
  • Lantern parade: at The Orchards Shopping Centre from 4.30pm, confirmed
  • Light switch-on: 5pm at The Orchards, confirmed
  • Free activities: balloon modelling and face painting (a suggested £2 donation to Kangaroos, the Mayor’s charity), the Best Dressed Window vote, the Christmas trail, and the Elves at the Baptist Church “with their good-o-meter”
  • Stalls: gifts from local businesses, charities and community groups. Stallholder applications have closed and applicants hear by Thursday 22 October.
  • Road closures: none published
  • Christmas card competition: primary school children can design the Mayor’s 2026 card; entries close at 10am on Monday 9 November.

(Haywards Heath Town Council, Christmas Festival exhibitor information pack)

Ignore the 23 November date

Haywards Heath Business Association still hosts a sponsorship page for “our new forthcoming Christmas Festival event on 23rd November”. It carries no year, and 23 November 2026 is a Monday. It is not this year’s date. (Haywards Heath Business Association)

The 2025 festival was a week earlier in the calendar, on Saturday 22 November. This year it falls on the same weekend as the Burgess Hill Christmas Festival, which runs from Thursday 26 to Sunday 29 November.

What the festival was like in 2025

The 2025 event ran on the Saturday afternoon and used three indoor venues rather than a single street market: Centenary Hall, the United Reformed Church and Haywards Heath Baptist Church, with stalls, food and gifts spread between them and entertainment through the afternoon. The light switch-on happened on the same day.

Two things ran alongside it, and the council’s festival page still describes both:

  • The Christmas Window Trail, a free trail between the three festival venues, spotting hidden gifts in shop windows and recording them on a paper sheet returned to the Town Hall for a prize. In 2025 it stayed open until Christmas Day.
  • The Best Dressed Window competition, voted for by the public and sponsored by Mid Sussex District Council. The 2025 winners were Oathall Veterinary Group in the non-retail category and Paws on Track in retail.

Parking

District pay and display charges in Haywards Heath run 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday and 9am to 5pm on Sundays and bank holidays, so a Saturday afternoon festival falls inside charging hours from start to finish. (Mid Sussex District Council)

One local quirk worth knowing: the Dolphin Leisure Centre car park is not pay and display but a touchscreen site, where you enter the registration before using the centre, and it gives three hours with no return within two. Charges for the rest of the district’s car parks are on our parking page.

The festive dates near Haywards Heath that are confirmed

Date Event Where
Thu 5 Nov Lindfield Bonfire Night Lindfield Common
Sat 7 Nov Cuckfield Charitable Bonfire and Fireworks Cuckfield Park
Sun 8 Nov, just before 11am Remembrance Sunday War Memorial, Muster Green, Haywards Heath
Sat 21 Nov Christmas lights switch-on and Big Reveal East Grinstead High Street
Thu 26 to Sun 29 Nov Christmas Festival and lights switch-on Church Walk, Burgess Hill
Sun 6 Dec, 11am to 3pm Christmas market East Court and Meridian Hall, East Grinstead

On Remembrance Sunday the parade marches to Boltro Road, with the salute taken at the Town Hall, and the service is live streamed on the council’s Facebook page from 10.55am. The council’s remembrance page is headed “Sunday 8th November 2025”, but 8 November is a Sunday in 2026, not 2025, so treat the year as a typo. (Haywards Heath Town Council, Remembrance) All three towns’ Remembrance arrangements are on our Mid Sussex Remembrance Sunday page.

Details for the others are on our Burgess Hill Christmas Festival, East Grinstead switch-on and Mid Sussex fireworks pages, and road closures on the day go on our roadworks and travel page.

Telling the council about an event

Haywards Heath Town Council takes event submissions for its calendar from anyone running something in the town or in Cuckfield, Lindfield or Wivelsfield, through the register your event form on its website. Its events team is at eventsandcommunity@haywardsheath.gov.uk.

We will update this page if the council publishes a stage line-up or road closures.

Sources