Hillsborough's Longest Night Is Lit by Hand, and the Lanterns Start in November

In 2015, local artist Tinka Jordy set up an online sign-up sheet for a lantern walk along the Eno River and expected a few dozen people to come. As she later wrote for the Hillsborough Arts Council website, "When the online sign up sheet we created kept populating I thought it was some kind of glitch! Soon we had 1,960 participants signed up!" The Orange County Arts Commission retold that story in December 2025, along with how the idea began. Jordy had met a puppeteer at the Cleveland Museum of Art who had led a lantern walk there, and she brought the idea home as an inclusive, nondenominational community event.

Eleven years later, that sign-up sheet has become the largest light event on Hillsborough's December calendar. The Chamber's tree lighting and parade fall on the first weekend of the month. The Solstice Lantern Walk comes two weeks later, on Saturday, December 19, from 5 to 8 p.m. Its lights are made by hand, most of them at kitchen tables during November.

From a sign-up sheet to a crowd the size of a small town

The Hillsborough Arts Council (HAC) organizes the walk today, and as the numbers have grown, the event has changed to keep up.

As the crowds grew, the event's setup changed with them. Before the 2024 walk, The News of Orange County reported that HAC had added way-finding, moved the starting point farther into the Riverwalk to ease bottlenecks, and started printing kit instructions in Spanish and English. In that same article, Ivana Beveridge, then HAC's programs and marketing director, said the kit process improved after a 2022 collaboration with the North Carolina Museum of Art.

"Essentially, we order all of the supplies, get together a team of volunteers, and we have a kit-packing pizza party and do a sort of assembly line."

That article also says kit preparation starts around the end of September or early October.

The Solstice Market and the registration requirement came later. The Orange County Arts Commission reported that the market now supports forty or more local artists, and that registration helps with safety and grant reporting. In that piece, HAC Executive Director Heather Tatreau described the walk as "so peaceful," adding that "the lanterns themselves keep growing."

The window that opened on November 3

The 2026 walk opened for registration on Tuesday, November 3. HAC's Solstice page says registration is required for everyone attending, whether you walk in the procession, watch the lights or just come for the market and performances. The event is free, with a suggested donation of $10 per participant. Nobody checks tickets at the Farmers Market Pavilion, but registering may come with perks such as the 2026 Solstice Mug. All ticket proceeds go to the Arts Council.

Lantern kits also went on sale November 3 at the HAC Gallery & Gift Shop on Churton Street, while supplies last. The shop is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For the 2024 walk, HAC prepared 500 kits, up from 300 a few years earlier.

This year's two workshops are already full. Mary Longhill is teaching a Lantern Felting Workshop on November 8 from 1 to 3 p.m. and again on November 11 from 6 to 8 p.m., both at Snow Approach Foundation, 129 E King St. Participants turn wool into felt and shape it into a lantern lit from inside by an LED. Both sessions are listed as sold out, at $35 per participant plus $10 for supplies, for ages 12 and up.

What a lantern has to be

Whether you buy a kit or start from scratch, HAC's lantern resources page sets a few rules:

• Lanterns should be handmade and winter-themed.
• Light them only with yellow, white or blue LEDs.
• No flashing lights and no flames.
• Bells and chimes are welcome.
• To weatherproof a paper lantern, coat it with clear aerosol lacquer spray.

Within those rules, people have built big. The Orange County Arts Commission's 2025 article lists Star Wars-themed ships, twinkling eyeballs, tentacles, swans and jellyfish among recent lanterns. Beveridge told the Commission about a recurring giant fabric octopus whose maker, Maureen Noh, did not see herself as an artist until HAC asked her to lead a workshop on larger lanterns.

The weekend the town turns on its own lights

The first weekend of December falls in the middle of lantern-making, and it is when downtown's official decorations go up. Visit Hillsborough's Jingle and Joy Weekend listing starts on Saturday, December 5, at the Hillsborough Visitor Center. The day includes Photos with Santa, Reading with Mrs. Claus, a Multicultural Holidays Fair and treats for sale, followed by the annual tree lighting at the Historic Orange County Courthouse.

On Sunday, December 6, the Hillsborough/Orange County Chamber of Commerce holds its Light Up the Night Holiday Parade from 4 to 6:30 p.m. This year's theme is "Classic Holiday Stories." The parade heads south on Churton Street from Corbin Street to Margaret Lane and ends at Margaret Lane and Cameron Street. The Chamber lists Mayor Mark Bell, marching bands, classic cars and Santa among the participants, and suggests arriving early for parking and a viewing spot. The Chamber page also says the tree lighting will not follow the parade, since it now takes place the night before.

The Chamber also runs Homes for the Holidays, a gingerbread contest it calls "Not Your Mother's Gingerbread Competition." Entries go on display at participating Hillsborough businesses from December 5 through January 4. Registration is open November 1 through 24. The structure underneath can be made of anything, but everything visible has to be edible.

A November calendar for makers

Here are the November and early-December events on Visit Hillsborough's calendar, in order:

1. November 8 and 11: Lantern Felting Workshops at Snow Approach Foundation, both sold out.
2. November 12 and 19, 2 to 4 p.m.: Making on the Porch at Keckly Burwell.
3. November 13, 15 and 29: tours of The Outlander Exhibit in Saltire Gallerie.
4. November 21, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Hillsborough Holiday Bazaar on the Courthouse Lawn.
5. November 24: last day to register for Homes for the Holidays.
6. November 28 and December 5, 1 to 4 p.m.: Christmas Wreath Workshops at Firefly Farm.
7. December 3, 2 to 4 p.m.: Making on the Porch at Keckly Burwell, one more time.

December 19 on the Riverwalk

The night starts at the Farmers Market Pavilion, 144 E. Margaret Lane. Under the pavilion, the Solstice Market sells handmade art by local artists from 5 to 8 p.m., along with live music, hot drinks and warm food. From there, the procession follows the Eno River's Riverwalk trail.

HAC's Know Before You Go page lists these details:

• Walk: about 1.3 miles, taking 45 to 60 minutes, at your own pace anytime from 5 to 8 p.m. The busiest time is 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
• Flat entrances: the Riverwalk entrance by the Farmers' Market Pavilion, the River Park path from the Churton Street sidewalk, and the Riverwalk Boardwalk entrance by the Weaver Street Parking Garage.
• Viewing spots: River Park near the walk start, the Exchange Park Lane bridge, and on top of or in front of the Weaver Street Parking Garage.

Some stretches of the Riverwalk are quite dark, so HAC suggests bringing a flashlight and keeping it pointed at the ground.

HAC's 2026 announcements page fills in the rest of the program:

• Music: the Lagomorph Quartet plays at the pavilion all evening, and Living Arts Collective musicians play along the Riverwalk from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
• Dance: Red Sage Collective roams with LED dance performances and takes the River Park Stage at 6:30 p.m.
• Lantern contest: entrants walk the stage at 6 p.m. for a chance at local gift cards.
• Sky tours: if the sky is clear, CHAOS Astronomers lead stargazing in River Park.
• Moon Man: 1,2,3 Puppetry's Giant Moon Man & Stars Puppet joins the walk at 6:30 p.m., starting from the pavilion.

If you are entering the contest, or would like the Moon Man in your photos, you will need to be at the pavilion by about 6 p.m. with your lantern finished. Working back from that, December 19 really starts with the kits that went on sale November 3.

The Spotlight Realty team loves seeing Hillsborough come together on nights like this, and we'll be watching for the octopus again this year. If you'd like to talk about life in Hillsborough, or anywhere else in the Triangle, we're happy to help. Contact Us.