What's on around Birmingham in November 2026

The Christmas Village Festival takes over the BJCC in the first week of November. It runs five days with hundreds of vendors, and the Wednesday morning is a VIP session before the doors open to everyone. A week later the oldest Veterans Day parade in the country steps off at 18th Street and Ninth Avenue North, because Birmingham is where the holiday was invented. November 2026 around Birmingham turns on three dates: the Christmas Village Festival from the 4th to the 8th, the National Veterans Day Parade on the 11th, and the holiday lights opening on the 20th and 21st.

I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in Alabama through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. I work out of Bluffton, South Carolina, and I have not been to these myself. Every date below comes from the organizer, the venue, the city or the team that runs it, as each one has published it for 2026. Anything I could only find on a previous year's listing was left out of the dated list. I checked all of it on October 23, 2026. If you are looking at homes anywhere from downtown out past the 280 corridor this fall, the Birmingham area buyer guide covers the seven counties here and the cities inside them. It also covers what happens to an Alabama property tax bill after a home sells.

Election day is Tuesday, November 3, and polls are open from seven in the morning to seven at night. WBHM walked through what is on the ballot earlier this month: the U.S. Senate seat and the governor's race at the top of it, then lieutenant governor, attorney general and the public service commission.

Four statewide constitutional amendments are on it too, and WBHM covered all four. Three concern public schools: a process for county school boards to merge, the Pledge of Allegiance and student-led prayer, and playing the first stanza of the national anthem at least once a week. The fourth is the technical one, and it would let the state hold a 2028 election if the lieutenant governor elected this year leaves office, and let the Legislature set the pay of the lieutenant governor and the legislative officers. In Jefferson County the sheriff's race is on the ballot and all five county commission seats are up.

Ballots differ by address. Alabama's Secretary of State posts the Jefferson County sample ballot, and you will want a photo ID with you. If you are closing on a home here this fall, the Alabama homestead exemption after you buy covers the filing that has to happen in your own name rather than the seller's.

The Christmas Village Festival fills the BJCC for five days

The festival's own show information runs it from Wednesday, November 4 through Sunday, November 8 at the BJCC. Wednesday is VIP day, nine in the morning to four, and it needs a VIP ticket. Thursday through Saturday opens at ten and closes at seven, and Sunday runs noon to five. That same page also lists Early Shopper hours, nine in the morning Thursday through Saturday and eleven on the Sunday, and those are an earlier entry rather than the general opening.

Over on Fourth Avenue North, the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame has a Jazz Happy Hour with Jose Carr at the Carver Theatre on Thursday, November 5, from five to seven.

The Vulcan Run and a UAB home game land on the same Saturday

The Birmingham Track Club has run the Vulcan Run since 1975, when 221 runners turned out for what was then the Bicentennial Run. The club's own registration page starts the 10K at eight in the morning on Saturday, November 7, with a 5K alongside it, and this year's 10K carries the RRCA Alabama state championship. Packet pickup is at The Trak Shak in Homewood on Friday the 6th, from eleven in the morning to six. Race morning is at Rosewood Hall in Homewood, and the older listings that put the course in downtown Birmingham belong to earlier years.

UAB is home twice at Protective Stadium, and the schedule UAB Athletics published has Charlotte on Saturday the 7th and UTSA on Saturday the 21st, both conference games. Kickoff times for both were still unannounced when I checked, and UAB's own release says every date and time can still move, so the kickoff you plan around should come off the athletics site. The road games either side are Temple on the 14th and North Texas on the 28th.

The Magic City Classic, for anyone timing a visit, is just outside this month. Alabama A&M and Alabama State meet at Legion Field on Saturday, October 31, and the kickoff time had not been announced when I checked.

The oldest Veterans Day parade in the country

Veterans Day is Wednesday, November 11, and the holiday itself started here: Birmingham held the first National Veterans Day parade in 1947, and Alabama Tourism's listing for the 79th puts this year's from one in the afternoon to 4:30 downtown. The organizers say it steps off at one, rain or shine, and the foundation holds its awards dinner at Boutwell Auditorium the evening before, doors at five and dinner at six.

The National Veterans Day Foundation's own parade page is worth reading before you go. The listings give the start point as 18th Street and Ninth Avenue North, and no 2026 route or street-closure plan had been published when I checked, so that page is where the walking and parking detail will land.

If you are buying here with a VA loan, VA loans in Alabama covers how your benefit works across the state.

The symphony plays four programs, and a fifth from the youth orchestra

The Alabama Symphony's own concert calendar has Levity at Jemison Concert Hall on Friday the 6th at eleven in the morning and again at seven, then Saturday the 7th at seven. Daniel Cho conducts, the program opens with Jessie Montgomery's Starburst, Tessa Lark plays Bernstein's Serenade, and it closes with Brahms' Second Symphony.

The youth orchestra plays its fall concert on Saturday the 7th at two in the afternoon in the same hall. Mutations is Thursday the 12th at seven at the Avon Theatre, with Daniel Cho conducting again. English Light closes the month's run on Friday the 20th and Saturday the 21st at seven, and Molly Turner conducts Elgar's Enigma Variations and Brahms' Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn.

The arena, the concert hall and the theatres

The BJCC's concerts archive has The Red Clay Strays at Legacy Arena on Sunday, November 1, and one travel listing puts them on October 31 instead. The BJCC's event calendar has The Phil Collins Story at the Concert Hall on Tuesday the 3rd at seven.

The Jonas Brothers moved. The tour was booked into Legacy Arena for October 9 and now plays Friday, November 6 at 7:30. The BJCC says tickets already bought stay valid, with refunds available at the original point of purchase until five o'clock on Thursday the 5th.

Charlie Berens is across the street at The Lyric on Friday the 6th at seven. Disney On Ice brings Magic of Family to Legacy Arena from Thursday the 12th through Sunday the 15th, with seven o'clock shows on the Thursday and Friday and matinees through the weekend.

The Alabama Theatre's own calendar has The Nutcracker on Saturday the 21st at three in the afternoon, and Christmas with Chris Tomlin on Monday the 30th at seven, a second show added after the first one sold out. The BJCC's calendar has Nick Cannon's Wild 'N Out Live at Legacy Arena on Tuesday the 24th at eight in the evening, and the tour's own announcement and Ticketmaster both give the same date.

Five Birmingham Bulls home games out in Pelham

The Bulls play minor league hockey in the Southern Professional Hockey League, at the Pelham Civic Complex down in Shelby County, and the schedule the club announced has five home dates this month, all at seven in the evening:

• Knoxville, Friday the 6th.
• Macon, Thursday the 12th.
• Evansville, Friday the 20th.
• Pee Dee, Saturday the 21st.
• Macon again, Friday the 27th.

The holiday lights open on the 20th and the 21st

Lights of Noel goes first. Its own site opens the drive-through at the Birmingham Race Course on Friday, November 20 and runs it to January 3, and it is billed as Alabama's largest drive-through animated light show.

Glow Wild opens the next night. The Birmingham Zoo's own event page starts the lantern festival at five in the evening on Saturday, November 21 and carries it on select nights to January 3. Select nights means the calendar has gaps in it, so the zoo's ticketing page is where the night you want gets confirmed.

The Pepper Place market runs all month, and into December

The Saturday market at Pepper Place does not take November off. Its own market information runs the 2026 season to December 12, Saturday mornings from seven to noon, rain or shine, holiday weekends included. Snapshots with Santa is a fundraiser for Children's Harbor on Saturday the 21st, and the market is open on the Saturday after Thanksgiving as well. Two third-party guides describe a reduced winter schedule and different hours, and neither matches what the market publishes about itself.

Thanksgiving morning at the CrossPlex

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26. The City of Birmingham's own event listing has its Turkey Trot 5K and Family Fun Run that morning at the Birmingham CrossPlex, from seven to ten. A second listing for a CrossPlex trot the same morning names a different beneficiary, so the registration page you land on is the one to read before paying.

Events I could not confirm for this year

Five things that turn up on November lists around Birmingham are not in the dated list above, because this year's date was not published where I could read it on October 23.

Zoolight Safari ran at the zoo for years, and no 2026 season is posted for it. Glow Wild is the zoo's holiday event now and it is in the list above. The Ross Bridge Turkey Trot out in Hoover shows only last year's Thanksgiving date. Mamma Mia! appears on aggregator calendars for the BJCC Concert Hall on November 17 and not on the venue's own calendar. The Birmingham Legion postseason turned up nothing for this year. Tree lightings and holiday parades in Hoover, Mountain Brook, Trussville and Homewood are the fifth, and the dates I found for all four belong to last year and fall in December anyway.

If you search for a Birmingham tree lighting, you will probably be offered a Winter Markt and a 41-foot tree in Shain Park in early December. That one is in Birmingham, Michigan, about 750 miles from here.

New around the area this year

The widened stretch of U.S. 280 between Shades Creek Parkway and I-459 opened in September, after sixteen months of work. 280 Living covered the opening of the $53 million job, which took three miles of the road from three lanes each way to four. Homewood, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook and Birmingham all backed it. Still to come on that corridor are a third left-turn lane from 280 West onto I-459 South and a third through lane across I-459. Resurfacing from Rosedale Drive to Shades Creek is on the list too, along with the Pump House Road bridge, which was due later in the fall. If you have looked at a home along 280 before and ruled it out over the drive, this is the stretch that changed.

ALDOT has eight projects worth more than $300 million going on across central Alabama. WBRC laid out the timeline back in the spring. All three lanes each way on I-59 at Trussville were expected open by early fall, and the diverging diamond interchange at Highway 59 and I-20 in McCalla was due this fall. A diverging diamond briefly crosses the lanes to the opposite side of the road so left turns do not have to wait on oncoming traffic. The I-20/I-59 interchange downtown shuts for bridge work later this year, with its new pattern expected open in late 2027. Down in Shelby County, ALDOT's I-65 widening from Alabaster to Calera is a $143 million job taking four lanes to six and replacing eight bridges, on track to finish in April 2028.

Birmingham no longer has an NBA G League team. WBRC reported the move on March 30: the New Orleans Pelicans took their affiliate from Legacy Arena to Kenner, Louisiana, and renamed it the Laketown Squadron for the 2026-27 season. The Birmingham Squadron played its last season at Legacy Arena and finished it on March 27.

Breeze Airways started flying out of Birmingham-Shuttlesworth in July. The Birmingham Times covered the launch of twice-weekly nonstops to Fort Lauderdale and Raleigh-Durham on Mondays and Fridays. If a new job brought you here, or is about to, the documents we will need look a little different depending on how you are paid. For a salaried position, we will need your offer letter and your pay stubs covering the last 30 days, please. If you will be working for yourself, we will need your complete income tax returns, all pages and schedules, for the past two years, for you personally and for any business that you may have an interest in, please. Getting pre-approved in Alabama covers what gets reviewed before anybody writes a letter, and self-employed mortgages in Alabama covers the returns side of it.

Common questions

What is happening around Birmingham at Thanksgiving 2026?

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26. The City of Birmingham runs its Turkey Trot 5K and Family Fun Run that morning at the Birmingham CrossPlex from seven to ten. Lights of Noel at the Birmingham Race Course and Glow Wild at the Birmingham Zoo are both open by then. The Market at Pepper Place is open on the Saturday after, and the Birmingham Bulls host Macon in Pelham on Friday the 27th.

When is the National Veterans Day Parade in Birmingham in 2026?

Alabama Tourism's listing for the 79th puts it on Wednesday, November 11, from one in the afternoon to 4:30 in downtown Birmingham. The organizers say it steps off at one, rain or shine, and the foundation's awards dinner is the evening before. Birmingham held the first one in 1947, which is where the national holiday came from.

When is the Christmas Village Festival at the BJCC in 2026?

Wednesday, November 4 through Sunday, November 8. The festival's own show information makes the Wednesday a VIP day from nine to four, opens Thursday through Saturday from ten to seven, and closes on Sunday from noon to five. The earlier times on that same page are Early Shopper entry rather than the general opening.

Are these events all inside the city of Birmingham?

Several are not. The Vulcan Run starts in Homewood, the Birmingham Bulls play in Pelham down in Shelby County, and the McCalla road work is out in western Jefferson County. The two things to find out on any address you are serious about are which city limits the home is inside and which school system serves it. The city sets the occupancy and inspection rules, and both of them feed the tax bill. The Birmingham area buyer guide goes through it place by place.

I am moving to the Birmingham area this winter. Where should I start?

You'll want to start with the county and the city, because this metro spreads across seven counties and dozens of separate municipalities, and a Birmingham mailing address does not tell you which one you are in. The Alabama page covers the statewide rules, including the mortgage recording tax that shows up as a real line at closing. One more thing worth reading early is the Alabama fortified roof wind insurance discount, because homeowners insurance is a large line in an Alabama monthly payment. Then please give me a call and tell me which cities you are looking in, and I can tell you what your numbers look like in each of them.