What's on around Atlanta in November 2026

More lands on Saturday, November 7 around Atlanta than on any other day this year. The Georgia Veterans Day Parade comes down Peachtree Street at 11 a.m., Cabbagetown starts serving chili at 12:30, and Stone Mountain opens its Christmas season. Suwanee and Decatur both pour wine that afternoon, Georgia Tech hosts Louisville, and the symphony and the Hawks both play that night. The holiday light shows open on three straight weekends, with Stone Mountain Christmas on November 7, Garden Lights at the Atlanta Botanical Garden on November 14 and the Magical Nights of Lights at Lake Lanier on November 20. Thanksgiving falls on the 26th, and the election comes before all of it, on Tuesday the 3rd.

I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker licensed in Georgia through C2 Financial Corporation, and I have been in the mortgage business since 1996. My office is in Bluffton, South Carolina. Every date below comes from the organizer, the venue, the city or the state that runs it, as each one has published it for 2026. Anything I could only find on a prior year's listing was left out of this post. I checked all of it on October 20, 2026. If you are looking at homes around Atlanta this fall, the Atlanta area buyer's guide covers the twenty-nine counties here, the in-town and outside-the-Perimeter shorthand, and the questions worth asking about any address.

Tuesday the 3rd is election day

Election day is Tuesday, November 3. Polls in Georgia are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and you vote at the precinct you are assigned to, according to the state's own election day page. You will need an accepted photo ID with you, which can be a Georgia driver's license, a passport or the free state voter ID card. If you are in line at 7 p.m. you still get to cast your ballot. Advance voting around the metro ran October 13 through October 30, as Fulton County's elections department lists it, so the 3rd is the last chance to vote in person. Any race where nobody clears fifty percent goes to a runoff on December 1.

A local question on a Georgia ballot can change what you pay every month, because the county sets the millage rate here and the assessor sets the value that rate is applied to. Two pages on the site walk through how that bill behaves after closing: how escrow accounts work and what happens to property taxes after you buy.

Saturday the 7th is the fullest day of the month

The Georgia Veterans Day Parade steps off at 11 a.m. and comes down Peachtree Street from 15th Street south to 5th Street, which puts it in Midtown rather than downtown. The Georgia Veterans Day Association's parade page says this year's theme honors Global War on Terror veterans and marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of September 11, and it names the Arts Center MARTA station as the closest rail stop. The association's Freedom Ball is that same evening at the Georgia Aquarium, from 6 to 10:30 p.m., and it is separately ticketed.

About three miles southeast of the parade route, Cabbagetown holds Chomp & Stomp the same day, starting at 11 a.m. The festival's own pages give the close as 7 p.m. in one place and 6 p.m. in another, so that is worth checking before you plan a late afternoon. Chili service starts at 12:30 p.m. sharp, when the airhorns blow, and the festival's own site counts about seventy individual chili teams plus a slate of restaurant entries, and roughly twenty-five bands on stages around the neighborhood. The festival is free to walk into. A tasting spoon is sold separately, and that spoon is what gets you into the chili cook-off. The Romp & Stomp 5K runs through the neighborhood at 8 a.m., well before the festival opens.

Up in Gwinnett County, the Suwanee Wine Fest takes over Suwanee Town Center Park. The city's event listing counts more than 150 wines with a Georgia winery section, plus food trucks, live music and local vendors, and the festival is for ages twenty-one and up. North Gwinnett Voice reported the hours as 1 to 4:30 p.m., with VIP ticket holders getting in at noon.

Over in DeKalb County, the Decatur Wine Festival takes the Decatur Square from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m., with the gates open at noon and pouring starting at 12:30. Explore Georgia's listing has it ticketed, for ages twenty-one and up, with the proceeds going to the Decatur Arts Alliance.

There are two home games in town the same day. Georgia Tech hosts Louisville at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field, one of the Yellow Jackets' two November home dates on the team's published schedule. The Hawks host the Brooklyn Nets at State Farm Arena at 7:30 that night, according to the arena's own Hawks page. Kickoff for the Tech game was still listed as to be announced when I checked, so you will want to look that one up closer to the date.

Stone Mountain starts its Christmas season on the 7th

Stone Mountain Christmas opens on Saturday, November 7 and runs on weekends and holidays through January 3, 2027, so the November dates are the front end of a long season. The park's event page describes a Christmas Village, a light show and a Christmas parade that begins at 6 p.m. on the days it runs. The park's ticket page calls the schedule select dates, which means a given weekday may not be open, and admission and parking are charged separately.

Veterans Day is on a Wednesday this year

Veterans Day itself falls on Wednesday, November 11, four days after the parade. If you are shopping for a home around Atlanta with a VA loan, VA loans in Georgia covers how the program works across the state, along with the one closing fee Georgia lets a veteran pay.

Music at Symphony Hall

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has three Delta Classical programs this month, all at Symphony Hall on Peachtree Street with Nathalie Stutzmann conducting. The month opens with Bach and Brahms on Thursday, November 5 and Saturday, November 7, both at 8 p.m., with Anna Geniushene playing Brahms's Second Piano Concerto. Fauré's Requiem comes with the ASO Chorus and a first half of Berlioz. The orchestra's own season announcement puts it on Thursday, November 12 at 8 p.m., Saturday, November 14 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, November 15 at 3 p.m.

Schumann's Piano Concerto paired with Bruckner's Fifth Symphony plays Thursday, November 19 and Saturday, November 21, both at 8 p.m. The orchestra announced in October that Anna Geniushene plays the concerto as its artist in residence. The orchestra's subscription pages and its October release do not agree on when this program lands, so the orchestra's own calendar is the one to go by.

The Botanical Garden lights up on the 14th, Lake Lanier on the 20th

Garden Lights, Holiday Nights opens at the Atlanta Botanical Garden on Saturday, November 14 and shines nightly through January 10, 2027. The garden's own page for the show puts this at its sixteenth year, with entry by timed ticket, the garden open until midnight and last entry at 11 p.m. Discounted Night Light tickets get you in after 9:30 p.m. on any night of the run. Members get a premiere evening on November 12 from 5 to 10 p.m., before the public opening.

North of the metro at Lake Lanier, the Magical Nights of Lights drive-through opens on Friday, November 20 and runs nightly from 5 to 10 p.m. through January 3, 2027. Lanier Islands' own holiday page carries that November 20 opening, and so does the resort's October 1 announcement of an expanded route. Some listings still show a November 15 opening for this one, which no longer matches what the resort says, so I have used the 20th.

Football, and one home game being played in Madrid

The Falcons play one home game in Atlanta this month, against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, November 15 at 1 p.m. Eastern at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, on the NFL's team schedule. The Falcons are also the home team against Cincinnati on November 8, and the team's own schedule story has that game in Madrid, so there is no home crowd downtown that Sunday. Their other two November games are on the road, and they are off during the week of the 22nd.

Georgia Tech's second November home date is Wake Forest on Saturday, November 21 at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Georgia Tech's schedule release closes the regular season at Georgia on November 28, which is an away game.

Holiday markets, and the Festival of Trees

The Atlanta Christkindl Market opens on the Lawrenceville Lawn on Friday, November 20, the Friday before Thanksgiving, and runs through Christmas Eve. Admission is free and no ticket is needed. The market's own Lawrenceville page posts hours of 3 to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Explore Gwinnett's listing adds that the market closes on Thanksgiving Day. A second Christkindl location down in Senoia opens later, on November 27.

A few miles up Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth, the Georgia Festival of Trees runs November 21 through November 29 at the Gas South Convention Center, closed on the 25th and the 26th. The festival runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on opening day and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the last day, according to its own schedule, which also names Street Grace among the partners it raises money for.

Piedmont Park's first lantern parade

The Piedmont Park Conservancy holds Light Up the Season on Sunday, November 22, and this is the first year it includes a parade. A lantern-making party starts at 3:30 p.m. at Greystone, the Holiday Lantern Parade steps off at 5 p.m., and the lighting ceremony follows in the Meadow. Those three times come from the conservancy's own page. Rough Draft Atlanta reported that the Seed & Feed Marching Abominable leads the parade around Lake Clara Meer. The conservancy has the Great Tree, the menorah and the kinara lit in the Meadow after the parade, and the illuminated displays staying up in the park through January 4, 2027. The whole evening is free.

Farmers markets, and the ones that keep going through the fall

Two of the metro's Saturday markets run every weekend this month, which gives you the 7th, the 14th, the 21st and the 28th.

The Peachtree Road Farmers Market in Buckhead is open Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to noon, rain or shine. Its 2026 season runs through December 19, according to the market's own site. Discover Atlanta's listing also describes a Holiday Artists Market between late November and mid-December, with more than twenty-five vendors. Exact dates for that one were not published anywhere I could find, so it is not in the list above.

The Marietta Square Farmers Market is on Saturdays in the Mill Street lot, and Visit Marietta's calendar lists all four November Saturdays. Marietta.com's market page has it running year round apart from a break around the Christmas and New Year's weekends. The two disagree about whether it closes at noon or at 1 p.m., so that is worth settling before you plan a late morning.

Thanksgiving week

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26. The Atlanta Track Club runs its Invesco QQQ Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon that morning, along with a 5K, a mile and a kids' dash, starting and finishing at Center Parc Stadium on Hank Aaron Drive. The club's own race page puts the half marathon off at 7:45 a.m., with the start line closing at 8, the 5K at 8:15 and the mile at 8:25. Some third-party ticketing pages list 8 a.m. for everything, so the club's page is the one to trust on race morning.

The Christkindl Market is closed that Thursday and the Festival of Trees is closed Wednesday and Thursday. The Botanical Garden and Lanier Islands both run their light shows nightly straight through the holiday.

Dates I could not confirm for this year

All of these turn up on November lists around Atlanta, and none of them had published a 2026 date I could stand behind when I checked on October 20. I would rather name them than print last year's date next to them.

IllumiNights at Zoo Atlanta. The zoo's listing has the lantern festival on select nights from November 21 to January 17 without naming the year, and the most recent season I can confirm ran November 21, 2025 through January 18, 2026.

The Castleberry Hill Art Stroll. The district's galleries open for a free, self-guided walk on the second Friday of the month, which would make it November 13. I could not find a 2026 calendar or published hours from the district itself.

Alpharetta's tree lighting. One listing gives November 22 and calls it a Saturday. November 22 is a Sunday this year, which tells me that listing belongs to a previous season.

The Roswell Motoring Festival and the Sugar Hill Chili Cook-Off. Both turn up on third-party festival guides with a November date, and neither had a matching page from the organizer or the city when I looked.

New around the area this year

The top-end I-285 toll lanes got a builder. The AJC reported in mid-October that the State Transportation Board had approved Top End Mobility Group, a group led by Ferrovial, as the developer for phase one of the I-285 East Express Lanes. Phase one adds barrier-separated lanes along the top end of the Perimeter between Henderson Road and Northside Drive. The AJC puts phase one at about nineteen miles, though Ferrovial's own release calls it twenty-one. Atlanta News First carried GDOT's own forecast of construction starting in late 2027 and substantial completion around 2034, paid for with private financing and toll revenue rather than state money. The agreements are not signed yet; commercial close is expected in December.

Weekend closures on the west side of the Perimeter run through November. The I-285 Westside Rebuild has been closing stretches of the interstate in both directions from Friday at 7 p.m. to Monday at 5 a.m. The closures run every weekend through the end of the year apart from Thanksgiving and Christmas weekends, on the full GDOT list Atlanta News First published in September. On that list, the weekend of November 13 closes South Cobb Drive to Bolton Road, and the weekend of November 20 is scheduled without a location named yet. These get postponed for weather, so the project's own page and 511 Georgia are worth a look on a Friday afternoon.

Michelle Obama Park reopened in DeKalb County. Decaturish covered the ribbon cutting at 1600 Constitution Road SE on September 26, after the park had been closed for four years. On Common Ground News put the first phase at $1.8 million, for a paved trailhead and a half-mile trail that connects to Gresham Park and adds access to the ten-mile South River Trail.

A battery plant and headquarters is coming to Walton County. The state's own announcement has DeltaX, a Seoul-based battery energy storage company, building its North American headquarters and manufacturing campus on about twenty-five acres at the Piedmont Regional Industrial Park in Monroe. The state puts the investment at $141 million and the job count at roughly 250. DeltaX starts the campus with a 100,000-square-foot assembly building, then adds component manufacturing and a corporate office after that, according to the Metro Atlanta Chamber.

Keter opened a North American headquarters in Alpharetta. The company's own announcement puts the ribbon cutting on September 16, in a building that holds its executive offices along with a product showroom. Metro Atlanta CEO reported that Mayor Jim Gilvin spoke at the opening alongside the company's North America president.

Two of those matter to a loan file directly. A job that starts here changes which documents a lender reads, and it matters early whether you are taking a salaried position or working for yourself once you arrive. Getting pre-approved in Georgia covers the review that happens before anybody writes a letter, and self-employed mortgages in Georgia covers the tax return side of it.

Common questions

What is happening around Atlanta at Thanksgiving 2026?

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, and the Atlanta Track Club's Invesco QQQ Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon, 5K, mile and dash all start that morning at Center Parc Stadium, as the club's race page lists them. Garden Lights at the Atlanta Botanical Garden and the Magical Nights of Lights at Lanier Islands are both running nightly by then. The Georgia Festival of Trees in Duluth reopens on the 27th after closing for the holiday, and it runs through the 29th.

When is the Georgia Veterans Day Parade in 2026, and where does it go?

Saturday, November 7 at 11 a.m., four days before Veterans Day itself. The Georgia Veterans Day Association runs the route down Peachtree Street from 15th Street south to 5th Street in Midtown, with the Arts Center MARTA station as the closest rail stop.

When do the Atlanta holiday lights open this year?

Garden Lights, Holiday Nights at the Atlanta Botanical Garden opens Saturday, November 14 and runs nightly through January 10, 2027, with a members-only premiere on November 12. Stone Mountain Christmas starts November 7 on weekends and holidays, and the Magical Nights of Lights at Lanier Islands opens November 20.

Which farmers markets around Atlanta are open in November?

The Peachtree Road Farmers Market in Buckhead runs Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to noon through December 19, and the Marietta Square Farmers Market runs Saturdays year round apart from a break at the end of December. Both are open all four November Saturdays.

Are any of these events outside the city of Atlanta?

Most of them are. The Christkindl Market is in Lawrenceville, the Festival of Trees is in Duluth, the Suwanee Wine Fest is in Suwanee, Stone Mountain Christmas is in Stone Mountain, and the Magical Nights of Lights is at Lake Lanier in Buford. The county and the city limits for a home change its tax bill, its homestead exemption and its school district, and a mailing address will not settle any of those on its own. The Atlanta area buyer's guide walks through the things to look up on an address.

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

You'll want to start with the county and the city limits for any address you are comparing. Georgia assesses property at forty percent of fair market value, and then every county and city applies its own millage rate to what is left after exemptions. After that, the Georgia page covers the statewide rules, including the intangible recording tax, which shows up on a Georgia closing and which most other states do not charge.