Light Up Wickford is Thursday 19 November, 4pm to 7pm; Billericay's Late Night Light Up is Thursday 26 November. Basildon and Laindon have no 2026 date yet.

The Basildon borough does not have one Christmas lights switch-on. It has four separate events across four weekends, run by four different organisations, and two of them have a 2026 date so far.

Where each event stands

Basildon borough festive light events: 2025 dates and 2026 status at 4 September
Event20252026 status
Billericay Late Night Light UpThu 27 Nov, 5pm to 9pmThu 26 November confirmed, details to come
Basildon town centre Magical ChristmasSat 15 Nov, 10am to 6pmNot announced
Wickford Lights Switch-OnSat 22 Nov, switch-on 4.30pmLight Up Wickford, Thu 19 November, 4pm to 7pm
Shine ON LaindonSat 22 Nov, 11am to 3pmNot announced

Billericay: Thursday 26 November, and it is not a switch-on

Your Billericay BID has posted the date. Its Late Night Light Up page carries “Date for your diary: Thursday 26th November” and, below it, “More details coming”. Nothing else on the page is settled yet.

The important thing to understand about this event is what it is not. The BID’s own 2025 page said so in as many words: “Please note, this is not a Christmas Light switch on event, it will be the first night the Christmas lights are all on.” If you turn up expecting a countdown and a celebrity pulling a lever, that is not what happens in Billericay.

What happened in 2025 was a late shopping evening on Thursday 27 November, 5pm to 9pm, across the High Street, the top of Western Road and Radford Way. The BID listed walkabout entertainment, live singing from Dance Steps Academy, shops staying open late with offers, and free seasonal treats in many of them. Its press release added a candy cane trail, with free trail sheets handed out from the Your Billericay gazebo outside the Red Lion. Free parking ran from 5pm to 9pm, with no parking restrictions in the Waitrose car park and free parking behind Iceland.

That parking point still matters in 2026. The council’s car parks in Billericay went free at weekends in April 2026, but Late Night Light Up is a Thursday, so the weekend rule does not cover it. Whether the BID repeats the evening waiver has not been published. Our parking in Basildon page sets out which car parks are council-run and which are not.

Basildon town centre: the big one, and it is a whole day

Basildon’s town centre event is the largest in the borough and it is not really a switch-on either. In 2025 it ran as Magical Christmas on Saturday 15 November, from 10am to a fireworks finale at 6pm, in the heart of the town centre.

Basildon Council’s own account of the day listed a Christmas market, Creative Basildon craft workshops, live choirs, the Towngate Theatre panto cast appearing in the town, a free Christmas grotto and festive mini golf taking donations for St Luke’s Hospice, and a firework extravaganza at 6pm. The main stage ran from 4.05pm with Lennox Children’s Cancer Fund, Spectrum Five, Flex Youth Club and The Big Sing before the fireworks.

The event is a partnership between the council, Eastgate Shopping Centre, Creative Basildon, Towngate Theatre, Gateway 97.8 and Basildon Town Centre Management.

No 2026 date has been published. The council’s events listing currently runs no further than late September, and its September news round-up carries nothing festive. On the 2025 timing, an announcement in October would be normal.

Wickford: Light Up, Thursday 19 November

Light Up Wickford is on Thursday 19 November 2026, from 4pm to 7pm, in a High Street closed to traffic. Rachel Voller, manager of Wickford Together, the town’s Business Improvement District, confirmed the date to Basildon Today.

It includes a countdown to the lights switch-on, carol singing and visiting choirs, and the Salvation Army band is hoped for but not yet confirmed. The event is organised by Wickford Town Council, which pays for the Christmas tree, the lights and the street lights. This year Wickford Together is joining in with late night shopping and street entertainment.

Sunday 29 November is a separate event: the annual Wickford at Christmas market, run by a different group. There is no lights switch-on at the market.

Updated 28 September: this section previously said no 2026 date had been announced for Wickford. The switch-on is Thursday 19 November, not 22 November.

Corrected 30 September: Wickford at Christmas is on Sunday 29 November, not 22 November as we first reported.

How it ran in 2025

Wickford is the borough event that does what people search for. In 2025 the council described it as music acts on the main stage from 2.30pm and the Lights Switch-On at 4.30pm on Saturday 22 November, “plus FREE car parking all day”.

That free parking was formalised: the council published a list naming Wickford Main and Ladygate car parks as free on 22 November for the switch-on. Free parking for the 2026 event has not been announced.

Laindon: Shine ON

Creative Basildon runs Shine ON Laindon, which in 2025 was Saturday 22 November, 11am to 3pm, described by the council as art, music and Christmas cheer as Laindon lights up. In 2025 it shared its date with Wickford. No 2026 date yet.

What to watch, and when

The pattern across 2025 was Basildon town centre first in mid-November, then Wickford and Laindon the following Saturday, then Billericay on the Thursday after that. For 2026, Wickford moves to Thursday 19 November and Billericay follows a week later on Thursday 26 November.

Expect the council to publish the rest in October. We will update this page as each is confirmed. For the roads, the only one of these that historically closes a street is Billericay, and the closures are published late; our roadworks and travel page tracks what is live.

Sources