Rupert Grint switched on Highgate's lights on South Grove on 19 November 2025. The 2026 date is not out yet; the last two were announced in late October.

Highgate’s Christmas lights switch-on for 2026 has not been announced yet. We checked the Highgate Society’s site, which publishes it, on 30 September 2026 and found no 2026 post. That is normal for the time of year: the announcement came on 29 October last year and 24 October the year before, both times about three weeks before the evening itself.

The quick answer

  • Is it on this year? Not yet confirmed. The lights have been switched on in the third week of November for the last two years, on a weekday afternoon.
  • Where: South Grove, N6, outside the Highgate Society, in the village at the top of Highgate Hill.
  • Last year: Wednesday 19 November 2025, 4pm to 5pm, with the actor Rupert Grint and the broadcaster Alex Zane.
  • Carols in Pond Square, the other big village evening, was on Wednesday 10 December 2025 at 6.30pm. No 2026 date is out for that either.

What happened in 2025

The switch-on is run by a volunteer group, Highgate Festive Events, and publicised by the Highgate Society. Its 2025 post, published on 29 October, set out the evening (Highgate Society):

  • Wednesday 19 November, 4pm to 5pm, on South Grove N6.
  • Festive music from the Highgate Brass Ensemble, with Rupert Grint and Alex Zane as the special guests.
  • Father Christmas from 3pm to 4pm at the Riverstone Hub, for younger children, before the lights went on.
  • Drinks for adults after the switch-on. Riverstone ran an “Aperitivo Hour” from 5.30pm to 6.30pm, and asked people to register in advance through its own site.

The lights are paid for by sponsors and donations. The 2025 sponsors named by the Society were Channing and Highgate schools, Streathers, Riverstone, Urban Baristas and Valouran, with a long list of village businesses behind them and a public JustGiving appeal. The Society said that with enough donations it hoped “to be able to light Pond Square too”, so what is lit depends partly on what is raised.

And in 2024

The Society’s 2024 post, published on 24 October, gave the switch-on as Thursday 21 November at 4.30pm in South Grove, sponsored by Riverstone of 1 Hampstead Lane, and said the lights would stay up “through the Christmas and New Year period” (Highgate Society).

Two years is not a rule, but both evenings fell in the third week of November, midweek, starting around 4pm to 4.30pm as it got dark. Nothing has been published to say 2026 will be different, and nothing has been published to confirm it.

Carols in Pond Square

The Highgate Society’s own Christmas event is its carol singing in Pond Square, which it calls “a gift from the Highgate Society to the local community”. In 2025 it was on Wednesday 10 December at 6.30pm, led by the Highgate School Brass Ensemble, with mulled wine and food afterwards at the Society’s rooms at 10A South Grove. Collections, “cash preferred”, went to the Alexandra Wylie Tower Foundation’s food and bike bank and to The Toy Project in Archway (Highgate Society).

The Society’s earlier reports show the scale. In 2023 more than 25 volunteers ran it, the rain cleared in time, and the collection raised over £2,200 for North London Hospice and Jacksons Lane’s Christmas Day lunch (Highgate Society). In 2022 it raised over £1,300 for the Harington Scheme (Highgate Society). The 2025 carols were announced on 16 November, so expect the 2026 date in the middle of November.

Getting there

South Grove is on the bus. Transport for London’s stop data puts the 143, 210, 263, 310 and N263 at the South Grove stops, and the 214 at the Pond Square stop, which is the closest to the carols (TfL).

No road closure has been published for the switch-on in either of the last two years. If you are driving, our parking page has the local controlled parking zones, and our roadworks and travel page has anything dug up on the way.

Other switch-ons nearby

  • Crouch End: the Crouch End Festival lights the tree at Hornsey Town Hall. Our Crouch End Christmas lights page has last year’s date and when to expect this year’s.
  • Christmas markets: Handmade In Highgate’s winter fairs at the Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution on South Grove start on 20 November, and Jacksons Lane holds its first Christmas market on 6 December. Dates are on our Christmas markets page.

We will update this page when Highgate Festive Events and the Highgate Society publish the 2026 date. On last year’s timing, that should be in late October.

Sources checked on 30 September 2026