In 1987, Woodland Heights neighbors put luminaries along their curbs, driveways and porches. They set up holiday entertainment and refreshments on the Norhill Esplanade and invited the city to come look. The Woodland Heights Civic Association's history of the event cites a 1989 newsletter saying that first night drew 20,000 people. The name "Lights in the Heights" seems to have come along in 1989.

Thirty-nine years later, the event still runs the way it started, with neighbors doing the work. The 2026 edition is Saturday, December 12, 6 to 9 p.m., on Highland and Omar streets between Studewood and Beauchamp. Volunteers have been planning it since May. The streets, the porches, the music and the esplanade displays all come from people who live in Woodland Heights.

The tunnels are already lit

If you want lights this week, they're up. The M-K-T Holiday Light Tunnels came back on November 4. They cover the full length of the bridges between M-K-T and the Heights Hike and Bike Trail with two pathways of light, and they're lit every night from 4 p.m. through January 5, according to M-K-T's event page.

The tunnels are easy to enjoy. You can walk or bike through after work on any of about sixty nights, and nobody on the trail has to plan anything. Lights in the Heights gets one Saturday night, three hours long. Everything that makes it happen, from city permits and security to street closures, volunteer porches and the bands, is handled by a small group working with the civic association.

A different pair of streets every December

The featured route changes every year, so each December a different set of neighbors ends up hosting the walk.

The 2021 date matters because the year before had no traditional event. In 2020, during COVID-19, the civic association didn't pull event permits. It encouraged neighbors to decorate their homes and trees and ran a scavenger hunt in place of the crowd. The public event came back on Byrne and Euclid on Saturday, December 11, 2021.

The 2026 route was approved by City of Houston Special Events. The 2026 Lights in the Heights page asks residents on Highland and Omar to consider lending their porches to musicians. The musicians volunteer too, and Joy Roth coordinates them. So on the 12th, the music on the route depends on how many households on those two streets say yes. In 2025, the event's walkable layout and porch bands made it one of the readers' favorites in the Houston Chronicle's roundup of Christmas-light neighborhoods.

The dinosaurs needed a donation fund

The Norhill Esplanade display shows best how much of this season runs on goodwill. On LITH night, lighted prehistoric figures fill the edges and trees of the esplanade, including brontosaurs and winged pterodactyls.

The civic association calls its account of how they started an origin legend. As the story goes, the first giant chicken-wire dinosaur was a family project by Ward Pennebaker, his son Drew and Drew's college roommate, around 2008. For years, Norhill neighbors quietly paid for the dinosaurs themselves. Then the costs of maintaining, storing and repairing them went up, and putting them up now takes professional help. In November 2025 the WHCA started a fund it named Save the Dinosaurs from Extinction. This year, Tiffany Tyler is coordinating the dinosaurs' creation and fundraising.

A few blocks over, the Watson Street Esplanade has its own lights. Pat Rutledge and Louise Moss have overseen them for years, and Humbug Lighting is the 2026 sponsor.

The names behind one Saturday night

The civic association's October history post credits the people who make the event happen. Ashley Allison secures the permits and coordinates logistics. Joy Roth books the entertainment. Beth Sorensen runs Friday Night Lights, the kickoff for neighbors. Board members find sponsors, pay the bills and put up signs. The association describes the goal like this:

"to celebrate the season with lights, neighbors, and friends; enjoy good music, and experience the small town atmosphere of the Woodland Heights."

The fundraising was already underway well before the lights. The Boots & Bow Ties Bash, the event's annual fundraiser, was held October 15. At the July members meeting, neighbors voted for a young local artist's design for this year's cloisonné ornament. There are two ornaments for 2026, one cloisonné and one glass. You order them through the WHCA online store and pick them up at Friday Night Lights. That kickoff is the night before the main event, Friday, December 11, from 5 to 8 p.m. on the Norhill Esplanade. The association lists it as a neighborhood-only gathering with s'mores, holiday music, seasonal drinks, and a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus.

The work before the lights includes the esplanades themselves. The Woodland Heights neighborhood cleanup is Saturday, November 14, from 8 a.m. to noon. Volunteers will tend the esplanades, clean up under the Taylor Street bridge and care for the neighborhood's concrete address posts. To see what goes into December 12 before the crowds show up, that morning is the place to start, and the board takes volunteer offers at [email protected].

Five weeks of Heights weekends

Between now and Highland and Omar, the calendar fills up with events that local groups and businesses put on themselves.

1. Saturday, November 7. The First Saturday Arts Market runs 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 540 W. 19th St. The Houston Heights Association's Art Crawl runs 1 to 5 p.m. It's a self-guided tour of 14 art stops, tickets are $50 per person, and children under 12 can't attend. That evening, the Da Gama Diwali Celebration & Night Market runs 6:30 to 10 p.m. at Da Gama Canteen, 600 N. Shepherd Dr., Suite 520.
2. Thursday, November 12. The M-K-T Sunset Market runs 6 to 9 p.m. at M-K-T Trailside. It's a free artisan market with food, drinks and entertainment, a few steps from the light tunnels.
3. Saturday, November 14. The Woodland Heights cleanup, 8 a.m. to noon.
4. Saturday, November 28. Small Business Saturday on 19th Street.
5. Friday, December 4. Holiday on 19th Street, and the HHA Holiday Home Tour, which runs 6 to 9 p.m.
6. Friday, December 11. Friday Night Lights on the Norhill Esplanade, 5 to 8 p.m.
7. Saturday, December 12. Lights in the Heights on Highland and Omar, 6 to 9 p.m.

Dinner before the walk

The newest place for a pre-lights dinner was also started by a neighbor. Little Bird opened October 29 at 1815 N. Durham, in a building that used to be a filling station. Chef Graham Laborde, who co-founded Winnie's in Midtown, has lived in the Heights for 16 years. He told the Houston Press, "This is the food I love to cook and the way I love to host."

According to the same Houston Press report, Laborde transformed the building with his wife, Paige Laborde, and general manager Chelsea Thomas. It has a hand-carved wooden oyster bar and murals by local artists Whitney-Garrett Yarborough and Dayle Booth. There are two patios, one for dining and one for cocktails. Thomas landscaped the courtyard around a 60-foot pergola and a fountain made from a converted sugar kettle. The Gulf Coast menu includes New Orleans barbecue shrimp toast, crawfish bucatini in vodka sauce, and roasted red snapper with charred okra. Pastry chef Julia Doran, formerly of Nancy's Hustle, makes a hurricane sno-ball. Little Bird serves dinner nightly, lunch on Fridays, and weekend brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. On December 12, the patio and the walk are an easy pair.

Closer to the route, Spice in Heights serves Mediterranean food at 1111 Studewood St., Suite 100. It's one of the September openings in the Houston Chronicle's roundup, on the same street that bounds this year's featured blocks.

Ornament orders, dinosaur donations and porch sign-ups all go through the Woodland Heights Civic Association, and this year's lights depend on them.

At New Heights Group, we follow the Heights block by block, from which streets get the lights to which corners get the new restaurants. If you're on Highland or Omar this year, or wondering how a December like this one plays when it's time to list or buy nearby, let's talk about your next move.