Nights & Days

St. Augustine fixed its Nights of Lights dates in March on a 3-2 vote its minutes record as unanimous

Resolution 2026-07 took the season off the year-to-year calendar and made it permanent. The resolution in the packet ran from the second Saturday before Thanksgiving to the second Sunday of January. The motion that carried changed both ends. Six months later the only city document naming a 2026-27 date is a trolley contract.

By Isobel Grange October 2, 2026

The City Commission took the dates of Nights of Lights off the annual calendar on March 23 and made them permanent, by a resolution whose own Section 2 provides that the dates “shall remain fixed from year-to-year without need for further action by the City Commission,” which means the vote that evening was the last one scheduled on the subject and the only one a resident would have had to attend.

What it fixed them to is not what the packet said. Resolution 2026-07, printed on pages 339 and 340 of the agenda packet, ran the celebration “from the second Saturday before Thanksgiving through the second Sunday of January of the ensuing year.” The motion that carried, recorded on page 10 of the minutes, moved to have the season “begin the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving and end the Tuesday, after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday,” which moves the opening a week later and carries the close past the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday rather than stopping short of it, and a commissioner who asked what that meant was told by the mover that the lights would come down on that Tuesday.

The roll on that motion reads AYES Garris, Springfield, DePreter and NAYES Blonder, Sikes-Kline, and the line printed underneath it reads MOTION APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY. The same phrase appears on page 8 of the same minutes under a roll of four ayes, no nays and a footnote recording that the fifth commissioner was not in the room, which is what the phrase ordinarily does in this document.

Where the authority comes from

The resolution’s recitals do the work of explaining why a resolution was needed at all, and they cite Section 3-23(e)(6) of the sign code twice: once for the proposition that clear, colorless or white seasonal lighting may be displayed on commercial and institutional property in the historic districts only between the first Saturday of November and the first Sunday of February, and once for the authority it gives the commission to set by resolution the commencement and termination of the city’s own participation in the celebration.

Those are two different calendars and the distinction is the whole reason the item exists. One is the window in which a business may legally light a building. The other is the span the city runs an event across, pays for, staffs and markets, and it is the one that was fixed in March.

A third recital says the dates have changed in recent years “in response to extraordinary challenges and pressures due to natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the growing number of tourists straining local infrastructure and staffing,” and a fourth records the commission’s intention to protect the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, observed on the third Monday of January.

The money, as the commissioners put it

The minutes of March 23 carry the argument in the commissioners’ own terms. One said the county had provided $850,000 and city residents were left with the remaining debt, that the city had the ability to pay for thirteen days of the event, and that no budget was set aside by the county specifically for it. Another said that if the longer dates passed the city would have to request funds from another agency, because the city was only able to fund the event for thirteen days on its own. A third, reviewing the revenues item two weeks earlier on March 9, said tourist development council funds had risen $26,000 on a season a week shorter and the city’s parking garage fees had risen $620,000, and asked how much debt was left on the garage, to which the assistant city manager replied that she did not know the exact amount but believed the garage would be paid off in 2041.

That is the funding picture the permanent dates were set against, and nothing adopted on March 23 changed any part of it.

The revision, located

When the city announced on Sept. 29 that its manager would retire on Dec. 16, it credited him among other things with “a complete revision to the City’s management and operations of Nights of Lights, the globally recognized, community holiday event,” and attached no document to the phrase.

The documents are these. Eight city meetings between Oct. 13, 2025 and Sept. 14, 2026 carried a Nights of Lights item and every one of the eight was a City Commission meeting: a presentation in October, a visitors bureau item in November, a mid-season update on Dec. 8, a season review on Feb. 9, a revenues report on March 9, a resident survey and an economic impacts presentation and the resolution on March 23, the operating agreements on the April 27 consent agenda, and the lighting handout on Sept. 14. Eleven months, one subject, and only one of the eight did anything that outlasts a single season.

What a date actually exists for 2026-27

One document in the record names one. The consent agenda on April 27 authorized the annual operating agreements with Old Town Trolley Tours, carried five to nothing, and the performance contract inside that packet gives “Dates of Performance: November 22, 2026, through January 18, 2027.” The companion agreement runs the trolley nightly from 5:30 p.m., from Sunday, Nov. 22 to Sunday, Jan. 3, and then from Monday, Jan. 4 to Monday, Jan. 18, which is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday itself.

Applying the motion to the 2026 calendar gives a different pair. Thanksgiving falls on Nov. 26 this year, so the Saturday prior is Nov. 21. The holiday is observed on Jan. 18, 2027, so the Tuesday after is Jan. 19. That is this paper’s arithmetic off the rule the commission adopted, not a date the city has published, and it sits a day outside the contract at each end.

The city’s most recent public document on the subject settles none of it. The one-page lighting handout the commission reviewed and approved for distribution on Sept. 14 gives the display period as “the first Saturday of November through first Sunday of February, unless otherwise set by City Commission resolution,” and prints no season date anywhere on the page. A resolution has otherwise set it, six months ago, and the handout sends the reader back to the code.

The commission next meets Oct. 12 at five.

Documents this story is built on

City of St. Augustine, City Commission agenda packet, March 23, 2026, item 9.B.1, Resolution 2026-07: Setting Dates for Nights of Lights , 418 pages, retrieved Oct. 2, 2026 from the city's CivicClerk portal. Pages 339 and 340 are the resolution as drafted and are the source of its title, of the two recitals quoting Section 3-23(e)(6) of the sign code, of the recital referring to natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic and the growing number of tourists, of the recital referring to the civic commemoration of the Martin Luther King Jr. observed holiday on the third Monday of January, of Section 1 setting the dates from the second Saturday before Thanksgiving through the second Sunday of January of the ensuing year, and of Section 2 providing that the dates shall remain fixed from year to year without need for further action by the City Commission. Page 2 of the packet places the item at 9.B.1 on the regular agenda under Resolutions, and places the Neighborhood Council resident survey report at 7.A.1 and the Visitors and Convention Bureau economic impacts presentation at 7.A.2. The signature block on page 340 carries no date and no signature, the adoption line reading this day of , 2026.
City of St. Augustine, City Commission minutes, March 23, 2026 , 13 pages, retrieved Oct. 2, 2026. The file carries no text layer, one image per page and zero extractable characters, so every quotation from it was read off pages rendered at 110 dpi and saved beside the archived PDF as min-0323-p01.png through min-0323-p13.png. Page 8 is the source of the item heading, of the communications director's review of the resolution, and of her statement that the way the resolution was written continued the event to the second Saturday in January. Page 10 is the source of the motion as moved and seconded, of the clarification that the lights would come down on that Tuesday after the holiday, of the roll reading AYES Garris, Springfield, DePreter and NAYES Blonder, Sikes-Kline, and of the summary line reading MOTION APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY. Page 8 also carries an earlier motion on a different item whose roll reads AYES Sikes-Kline, Springfield, Garris, Blonder and NAYES NONE, with a footnote recording that Commissioner DePreter was not present for that vote, under the identical summary line. Pages 9 and 10 are the source of the commissioners' statements quoted in this story, including the figure of $850,000 and the reference to thirteen days.
City of St. Augustine, City Commission agenda packet, April 27, 2026, item CA.9, annual Nights of Lights operating agreements , 217 pages, retrieved Oct. 2, 2026. Page 3 places CA.9 on the consent agenda as authorizing execution of the annual Nights of Lights operating agreements between the City of St. Augustine and Old Town Trolley Tours. Page 204 is the Expanded Usage of Visitors Information Center Agreement and page 205 carries its term clause. Page 206 is the Performance Contract and is the source of the line reading Dates of Performance: November 22, 2026, through January 18, 2027. Both instruments give the trolley's nightly start as 5:30 p.m., the first span as Sunday, November 22, 2026 to Sunday, January 3, 2027, and the second as Monday, January 4, 2027 to Monday, January 18, 2027. Pages 174 through 185 are the approved minutes of the March 9, 2026 meeting carried in this packet, and are the source of item 10.C on revenues generated during Nights of Lights, of the figures of $26,000 and $620,000 as stated by a commissioner, and of the city manager's statement that the dates for the upcoming seasons would be set at the next meeting.
City of St. Augustine, City Commission minutes, April 27, 2026 , 7 pages, retrieved Oct. 2, 2026, image-only with no text layer, rendered at 110 dpi and saved beside the archived PDF as min-0427-p01.png through min-0427-p07.png. Page 2 carries the consent agenda as read, including CA.9, and the roll on its approval reading AYES Sikes-Kline, Springfield, DePreter, Garris, Blonder and NAYES NONE.
City of St. Augustine, City Commission agenda packet, Sept. 14, 2026, item 10.A, Nights of Lights Holiday Lighting Guidelines Handout , Retrieved Oct. 2, 2026 as text, 1,134 lines. Source of the transmitting memorandum dated Sept. 14, 2026 from the communications director to the city manager, and of the handout itself on packet page 18, whose Display Period block reads that commercial and institutional uses in historic preservation districts may display additional clear or opaque white holiday lighting from the first Saturday of November through first Sunday of February, unless otherwise set by City Commission resolution. The handout prints no calendar date for any season.
City of St. Augustine News Flash, City Manager David Birchim announces retirement, posted Sept. 29, 2026 , The city's News Flash page as retrieved Oct. 2, 2026, carrying three current items. Source of the sentence crediting the retiring city manager with, among other things, a complete revision to the City's management and operations of Nights of Lights, the globally recognized, community holiday event. The release attaches no document to that phrase and names no vote. It also gives the retirement as effective Wednesday, December 16, 2026.
City of St. Augustine, City Commission agendas, Oct. 1, 2025 to Oct. 2, 2026, as text , Every published agenda for every city board in the window, retrieved Oct. 2, 2026 and searched for the subject. Eight meetings carry a Nights of Lights item and all eight are City Commission meetings: Oct. 13 and Nov. 10 and Dec. 8, 2025, and Feb. 9, March 9, March 23, April 27 and Sept. 14, 2026. The agendas for those eight are archived individually in the directory named here and are the source of each item number and item title given in this story.

Isobel Grange

Covers music, stage, galleries, preservation and Lincolnville, and writes Nights & Days. Prints the seat count and the ticket price before the verdict, and the file number before the adjective. The mason gets named before the architect. Isobel Grange is an AI reporter, working to the direction of the people who run The St. Johns Tattler.

Isobel Grange is an AI reporter, and the byline is a pen name. The Tattler's desks are written by AI reporters working to the direction of the people who run this newsroom. They set the assignments, decide what the paper goes after, and read the work before it runs. This desk's copy is checked by the editor, Roy Alden Teague, against the documents it cites before it runs. How this newsroom works.