Short answer: Twenty-two Devon towns have confirmed a switch-on. <strong>Plymouth is first on Thursday 12 November</strong> and <strong>Clovelly is last on Sunday 6 December</strong>. The busiest night by far is <strong>Saturday 21 November</strong>, when six towns switch on at once, and the second is Saturday 28 November with five. They are all free, and three of them fall on a weekday rather than the Saturday people assume.
Thursday 12 November — Plymouth. City centre, at the Piazza on Armada Way. Close to 20,000 LEDs the length of the street and a 25ft real tree in Old Town Square. Time not announced. The first in the county, and on a Thursday.
Friday 13 November — Exeter. The city centre lights come on, and the Cathedral Green Christmas market opens the same day. Exeter does not do a single countdown event the way the towns do.
Friday 20 and Saturday 21 November — Brixham. Lanterns, Lights & ’Luminations. A lantern parade over the harbour rather than a countdown in a car park, and the prettiest of the lot. Friday market 4pm to 7pm.
Saturday 21 November — Newton Abbot. St Leonard’s Clock Tower, with the event running 12 noon to 6pm.
Saturday 21 November — Sidmouth. Switch-on at 5.30pm with late night shopping.
Saturday 21 November — Dawlish. Christmas in Dawlish, Saturday and Sunday, with the switch-on at 5pm on the Saturday.
Saturday 21 November — Honiton. Christmas tree lights, 4pm to 7pm.
Saturday 21 November — South Molton. Switch-on at 7pm, the latest of the night.
Tuesday 24 November — Totnes. From 3pm, with the Mayor switching on at 5.30pm. A Tuesday, which catches people out, and it is missing from most of the listings sites.
Thursday 26 November — Barnstaple. 5pm to 8pm, switch-on at 6pm. The biggest in north Devon, and a Thursday.
Friday 27 November — Ilfracombe. Combe Christmas, Lighting of the Lights. Time to be announced.
Friday 27 November — Ivybridge. Christmas Festival, switch-on 6pm.
Friday 27 November — Ottery St Mary. Festive Cheer. Time not stated.
Saturday 28 November — Exmouth. Winter Festival, 3pm to 7.30pm.
Saturday 28 November — Seaton. Switch-on at 4pm with a Christmas market.
Saturday 28 November — Bovey Tracey. Christmas market and switch-on, 2pm to 6pm.
Saturday 28 November — Crediton. Celebrations from 1pm.
Saturday 28 November — Cullompton. 4pm to 6pm.
Saturday 28 November — Moretonhampstead. Christmas market from 2pm, switch-on at 5.30pm. The Dartmoor one.
Sunday 29 November — Bideford. On The Quay, with the lights over the water and the old bridge alongside. Time not stated.
Thursday 3 December — Okehampton. The Edwardian Evening, 5pm to 8pm, switch-on at 6.30pm. Costumed, and the most distinctive of the lot.
Saturday 5 December — Kingsbridge. Kingsbridge Celebrates Christmas, switch-on 4.30pm.
Sunday 6 December — Clovelly. The RNLI switch-on, from 4pm. The last in Devon, and in the only village in the county you have to walk down into.
Axminster, Tiverton and Topsham had not published a 2026 date when this page was checked on 8 November. Torquay and Paignton do not run a conventional switch-on: the Bay of Lights opens along the seafront on Saturday 28 November with a free firework display instead, and there are pixel-tree installations in both towns.
Tavistock, Dartmouth and Appledore light up without a formal countdown — Tavistock around its Christmas Festival on 6 December, Dartmouth with Candlelit Dartmouth from 27 November, and Appledore quietly, with the lights coming off the water down the narrow streets.
Brixham if you only do one. Lanterns carried down to the harbour beats a countdown in a square, and it runs over two days.
Okehampton for the Edwardian Evening, which is a costumed street event rather than a switch-on with a tree.
Moretonhampstead if you want the Dartmoor version: small, a market, and dark enough that the lights actually register.
Clovelly for the oddest setting in Devon, but remember the village is a steep cobbled street and you walk back up it.
They are all free. Town centre car parks fill from about an hour before, and several towns close roads around the square — if you are driving through rather than attending, go early or go round.
Three of these are on weekdays: Plymouth on a Thursday, Totnes on a Tuesday and Barnstaple on a Thursday. Check before you travel, because the Saturday assumption is the single most common reason people miss one.
Times move and small towns publish late. Where a time says "not stated" above, the town council or the chamber of commerce Facebook page is where it appears, usually in the fortnight before.
The five Devon light trails open between 21 and 29 November, so the switch-on fortnight and the trail season overlap almost exactly. The free lights driving route strings the ones that cost nothing into a single evening, and Christmas and New Year town by town has what else each place does.
Everything else on in Devon this month and every December date are the week-by-week lists.
Pick a town and plan the day around who's with you.
Browse all Devon town guides →