Last December, the lit boats didn't stay under the London Bridge. RiverScene's listing for the 2025 parade gave the route like this: start at the Skate Park, wind along the beaches of Rotary Park, finish at Windsor 4. Every one of those landmarks sits on the mainland, a short drive down London Bridge Road for anyone living on the Peninsula, Lakeview or Country Club side.
The 2026 marketing points the other way. The new Friday night belongs to London Bridge Resort, and the Saturday ads call for crowds around the bridge. The beaches the boats actually passed in 2025 are still your neighborhood's beaches. This year they come with free parking, a free State Park gate that opens at 4 p.m., and the only legal wood fires anywhere along the parade.
What changed for 2026
The parade runs on the second Saturday of December now, which puts it on Saturday, December 12, 2026. Go Lake Havasu says to expect more than 100 decorated boats. For comparison, the 2025 listing advertised "over 50 glowing boats." If the 2026 number holds, the fleet is roughly twice as big.
The bigger change is Friday. In 2025, the dock party for seeing the boats up close was held at Havasu Riviera. This year it's called The Dock Glow, and it moves to London Bridge Resort as part of the resort's 12 Days of Christmas. Committee member Rachael Atkinson explained the idea to RiverScene in July:
"By expanding the celebration into a weekend-long destination event, we're creating opportunities to support our local businesses, restaurants, hotels and tourism, while giving families a holiday tradition they'll look forward to year after year."
A weekend built to draw visitors from across the Southwest puts most of its people near the bridge on both nights. Go Lake Havasu's event page already warns that traffic around the London Bridge can get congested and tells everyone to arrive early.
Where the boats went last year
The 2026 organizer site describes the parade in broad strokes: illuminated boats moving through the Bridgewater Channel and under the London Bridge, with the parade starting at 6:00 p.m. It hasn't published a start point, an end point or a staging area for this year.
The 2025 route is the most detailed one on record, and it ran along the mainland. Boats started at the Skate Park, followed the Rotary Park beaches and ended at Windsor 4. Organizers can redraw that course for 2026, especially with a bigger fleet. Check the official parade site the week of the event before you pick a beach. If the route repeats, both of the spots below will be on the water the boats actually use.
Two beaches on last year's course
Rotary Community Park
Rotary Community Park is at 1400 Smoketree Ave. Go Lake Havasu describes it as a 40-acre park with a beach and a two-mile path. The skate area where the 2025 route started is labeled on the park map as the Skate Park at Tinnell Memorial Sports Park. The city's park sheet shows paved parking, public restrooms, a sandy beach and a buoyed swim area closed to watercraft.
Rotary is on Go Lake Havasu's list of free parking for parade night. It's a good fit for a family that wants restrooms close by and a walking path for kids who get restless before 6 p.m.
Windsor Beach at Lake Havasu State Park
Lake Havasu State Park is at 699 London Bridge Road. "Windsor 4" refers to the park's Lot 4 area. The Arizona State Parks map puts Lot 4 at the day-use beach with ramadas. The boat ramps are in Lot 2 and the PWC ramp is in Lot 1.
On parade night, Go Lake Havasu says the State Park will offer limited free access to its viewing area. Use the gate across from Paseo Del Sol, which is the Windsor Beach entrance. It opens for free admission at 4 p.m. Dogs aren't allowed on the white sand beach, and the listing asks people to leave pets at home. Children must be with an adult.
"Limited" is the key word. If 2025's endpoint repeats, this is where the parade finishes, and there's only so much room once the gate opens.
The fire rule decides which beach you pick
December evenings at the lake get cold after sunset, and the fire rules matter more here than they do on any other night of the year. Go Lake Havasu lists them plainly:
- No wood-burning fires on the beaches at Rotary Community Park, London Bridge Beach or Lake Havasu State Park.
- Propane fire pits are allowed at all of those parks.
- The one exception is the State Park, which will provide a limited number of designated wood fire pits and supply the wood. Park staff control those fires.
At Rotary, warmth means packing your own propane pit. At Windsor Beach, the park supplies the wood and runs the fire, but there are only a few designated pits and they go to people who come through the gate after it opens at 4.
Parade Saturday, in order
Here's how Saturday, December 12 plays out under the published rules:
- 4:00 p.m. The free State Park gate across from Paseo Del Sol opens. Boats can no longer moor along the Bridgewater Channel beaches, and law enforcement starts sweeping the channel to clear it.
- 5:00 p.m. The organizer's public festivities begin.
- 6:00 p.m. The parade starts.
- 9:00 p.m. The organizer's posted festivities end.
Go Lake Havasu's calendar buttons show a 6 to 11 p.m. window. The organizer's own schedule of 5 to 9 p.m., with the parade at 6, is the one to plan around. Whatever time you leave, the listing asks everyone to pick up their trash, wherever they watched from.
What the judges rewarded last year
If you live near the water and have been thinking about entering a boat instead of watching, the deadline is December 6 and the entry fee is $100, according to Go Lake Havasu. Registration goes through the official parade site.
RiverScene's 2025 recap gives a sense of the prize money. Best of Show paid $1,500 and went to Boat #4, the Luebke Family's Gingerbread House, the event's first three-time winner. The same boat took People's Choice for another $500. The Parrott Head Club won Best Nonprofit, the Creagan Family won Best Family Entry, and Benjamin Gerlich won Best First-Time Entry. Title sponsors were Anderson Auto and Powersports and GoLakeHavasu.
Friday belongs to the bridge, and so does the rest of December
The Dock Glow runs Friday, December 11, from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. The organizer describes it as a stroll along the docks to see the decorated boats up close before Saturday's parade. RiverScene's July report adds live music, photos with Santa, local vendors, and the chance to meet many of the boat owners. Walking past the boats at the docks is the only way to see the detail on them. It's also the night the bridge area is built to be crowded.
The Dock Glow is one night of a longer run. London Bridge Resort's 12 Days of Christmas opens Friday, November 27, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., with a Festival of Lights Swim Race and more than 750,000 lights across the resort village, according to RiverScene's event listing. After that, it runs Wednesdays through Saturdays, December 2 through 23, from 5 to 8 p.m. The lineup includes Santa and Mrs. Claus, the Grinch, s'mores, ice skating, food vendors and an animated light show. Go Lake Havasu lists it in the resort's Kokomo Backyard with free admission.
That gives Peninsula, Lakeview and Country Club households roughly four weeks of resort nights to choose from and one Saturday when the boats come down their own shoreline. A Wednesday in mid-December covers the lights and the skating. Saturday the 12th is the night for Rotary Park or the Windsor Beach gate.
If you're on the Peninsula side and watching the parade go by has you curious about which homes near Rotary Park or the State Park shoreline come with lake views, that's a conversation DJ enjoys. REALTOR® DJ can walk you through how those streets sit relative to the water before the boats light up on December 12. Schedule a free consultation.
