Your Guide to Winter 2015/2016 Festivals & Events in Edmonton

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UPDATE: Check out my 2016/2017 listing here!

Here’s my listing of winter festivals & events for 2015/2016, powered by ShareEdmonton. Below you’ll find dozens of events with a website, dates, and links to social media for each. You’ll also find a link to the event at ShareEdmonton and a link to an iCal for the event. I hope you find this listing as useful as I do.

High Level Bridge

Festivals & Events

For winter, I’m generally looking at events that take place from mid-November through March. Those with a winter or holiday theme are more likely to be included. Here’s the listing for 2015/2016:

Event Dates Links
Christmas on the Square Holiday Light Up November 14 SE 
Hazeldean Christmas Craft Sale November 14-15 SE  
Leduc Festival of Trees November 14-15 SE  
Santa’s Little Helpers Shopping Extravaganza November 15 SE  
Indie Handmade November 20-22 SE    
All is Bright on 124 Street November 21 SE    
Santa’s Parade of Lights November 21 SE    
The Vixens of Vintage Holiday Market November 21-22 SE  
Royal Glenora Club Christmas Gift Show November 22 SE   
Festival of Trees November 26-28 SE    
Make It Edmonton November 26-29 SE     
Royal Bison Craft & Art Fair Nov 27-29 & Dec 4-6 SE    
Winterfest at Snow Valley November 27-29 SE    
Hand2Hand Christmas Market November 28 SE  
Silver Bells Winter Market November 28 SE   
A Christmas Carol Nov 28 – Dec 23 SE     
Butterdome Craft Sale December 3-6 SE    
The Legislature Light-up December 3 SE    
So This Is Christmas December 4-6 SE  
Celebrate the Season December 4-23 SE    
Festival of Light December 4-13 SE    
A Festive Mosaic December 5 SE 
A Christmas Karol: The Karol Wojtyla Nativity Play December 5 SE 
Luminaria December 5-6 SE   
Old Strathcona Horse-Drawn Sleigh Shuttle Dec 5, 12, 19 SE     
The Many Moods of Christmas December 7 SE 
Holiday Magic at City Hall December 7-11 SE 
Candy Cane Lane Dec 11 – Jan 3 SE    
Christmas Reflections Dec 11-30 SE     
Southeast Winter Fun Festival December 12 SE   
Leefield Community’s Gift & Craft Sale December 12 SE  
Snowflake Sunday December 13 SE  
The Culture Collective Holiday Arts Market December 17 SE    
A River City Christmas December 17 SE   
Edmonton Singing Christmas Tree December 17-20 SE     
Shumka presents Clara’s Dream! December 29-30 SE   
New Year’s Eve Downtown December 31 SE    
Swing ‘n Skate Sundays Jan 3 – Feb 28 SE 
Deep Freeze: Byzantine Winter Festival January 9-10 SE   
Ice Castles Jan 9 – Mar 14 SE   
Edmonton Whisky Festival January 13 SE 
World Snow Day January 17 SE     
Ice on Whyte Jan 21-24 & Jan 28-31 SE    
Winter Walk Day February 3 SE   
The Flying Canoe Adventure February 5-6 SE   
Hypothermic Half Marathon Feb 7 & Feb 21 SE   
Canadian Birkebeiner Ski Festival February 12-13 SE   
Silver Skate Festival February 12-21 SE   
winterfête: Family Day at the Alberta Legislature February 15 SE    
SkirtsAFire Festival March 10-13 SE  
Winter Warrior Challenge March 12 SE   
Western Canada Fashion Week March 24-31 SE   

You can check out a calendar view of festivals here or you can download the iCal feed for your own apps.

Winter in Edmonton

Edmonton is a winter city, and we’re working hard to reclaim the joy of winter and embrace the season! You can learn all about the WinterCity strategy and associated events and ideas here. Stay tuned for a new Winter Signature Drink contest and the For the Love of Winter Fashion Design Competition. Also taking place sometime this winter (depending on when the snow comes) is #YEGSNOWFIGHT – stay tuned!

Quite a few events took place last year that aren’t happening this year, like Red Bull Crashed Ice and the Winter Cities Shake-Up. Hopefully some others will return, like illumiNITE, and if they do I’ll add them to the list above.

Happy New Year 2015!
Fireworks welcomed 2015!

For some in our community, this time of year is anything but merry. Lots of organizations do great work on behalf of the less fortunate, but two in particular are celebrating big milestones this year. Santas Anonymous is marking 60 years of delivering toys to less fortunate children in Edmonton and the Christmas Bureau is marking 75 years of providing a festive meal to Edmontonians in need. You can learn more about both and get involved here.

There are of course many more events listed in the ShareEdmonton calendar, so check it out! Have I missed something that should be included? Let me know in the comments and I’ll add it.

Happy winter!

Published by Mack Male

Mack is on a mission to change the world through code and prose. An entrepreneurial journalist based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Mack is the co-founder of Taproot Publishing, a digital publishing company that helps communities understand themselves better.

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7 thoughts on “Your Guide to Winter 2015/2016 Festivals & Events in Edmonton”

  1. Just a quick correction, it should be “whisky” festival not “whiskey” festival. It’s without an “e” in Canada.

    Reply

  2. Awesome list! And probably a lot of work to put together. I realize you’re probably not looking for feature requests 😉 but IMHO the only thing that would make it even better is a category filter so one could see a list of just all the craft fairs, outdoor festivals, etc.

    Reply

    1. Thanks. I was going to ask for something like a keyword search. I wanted to know if Hawrelak and Epcor were partnering again to light the park up.

      Reply

  3. Hey Maq;

    I wanted to let you know about a great event “Shop the Hall” taking place in the Westmount Community League Hall on November 21st (10:00am – 4:00pm) which is the same date as the 124th Street ‘All is Bright’ so everyone coming down for that one can come visit our Local Artist Craft Fair and support the Westmount Vegetable Garden!

    Admission is free (10978 – 127 Street) but please bring some food to donate to the Food Bank.

    Thanks so much for helping spread the word.

    Dianne Hopkin

    http://www.westmountcommunityleague.com/#!shop-the-hall/c12jo

    Reply

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