The Walkway of Lights Is Free Again in Its First Year Under the City of Marble Falls

The Walkway of Lights opens for its 36th season on November 29 and runs nightly through January 2, 6 to 10 p.m., at Lakeside Park, 305 Buena Vista Drive. Admission is listed as free. For the last two seasons it cost $2 a person. This is also the first season the event belongs to the City of Marble Falls instead of the Marble Falls Area Chamber of Commerce.

The ownership change is what links this year's other news. The free gate, the later opening, the 12 new themed areas, the ice rink that won't return, and a privately funded 250-foot Christmas tree planned for the end of the same peninsula all come from one decision. The city now treats Lakeside Park's holiday season as civic infrastructure it owns and plans around, and the 2026 calendar shows it.

What the City Bought in June

On June 2, the Marble Falls City Council approved buying the Walkway's assets from the Chamber, which had run the event for more than 35 years, according to DailyTrib. The deal covers more than 100 light sculptures and their electrical infrastructure, along with the tunnels, trees and other property tied to the display. Everything transferred "as-is."

The money is laid out like this:

• Total agreement: $175,000
• Paid to the Chamber at closing: $25,000
• Annual payments to the Chamber: $10,000 a year through 2031
• Marble Falls Economic Development Corp. share: $100,000 to cover the remainder

Parks and Recreation Director Lacey Dingman told the council the display draws more than 40,000 visitors and brings in sales tax revenue and business for local merchants. With the event in its hands, the city now chooses the displays, the dates and the price of admission.

Lights Over Add-Ons

The first decisions came in August. On August 4, the council approved a $450,162.23 purchase agreement with Mosca Design for new holiday sculptures and display pieces, DailyTrib reported. The Marble Falls EDC is fronting the cost, and the city will repay it over time to avoid taking on more debt. The purchase adds 12 themed areas, each with several large sculptures and interactive photo spots, built to sit alongside the existing displays.

Measured against the takeover, the new sculptures cost more than two and a half times what the city paid for the whole existing collection. The city is spending its money on light.

The same meeting dropped the ice rink. Mayor Pro Tem Craig Magerkurth explained the reasoning to DailyTrib in that same report: "We are focusing on the lights this year. That area that had the rink it will have a new LED light feature." He also described the handoff as ongoing. Parks and Recreation runs the whole experience for the first time, but "the chamber is still giving their expertise. It will be a gradual handoff."

Three Seasons Side by Side

The 2026 changes stand out once you compare them with the two seasons before.

The $2 fee started in 2024. DailyTrib's coverage that year called it the first admission charge in the event's 34-year history and said parking was free but limited. The fee lasted two seasons, and the city's first season drops it.

The calendar change matters more for anyone planning family time. In 2024 and 2025 the Walkway opened the Friday before Thanksgiving, so it was already lit when out-of-town relatives arrived. In 2026, Thanksgiving falls on November 26 and the Walkway opens the following Sunday. That means Thanksgiving Day and the Friday and Saturday after it pass without it. Guests who are in town for the full holiday weekend get one evening of the Walkway, on Sunday night, before the week starts again.

The Tree Planned for the Same Night

November 29 is also the date the city is targeting to light something new at the far end of the Lakeside Park peninsula. On September 1, the council approved a licensing agreement with The Glory Tree, doing business as World Icon LLC, to use city property for a planned 250-foot artificial Christmas tree, DailyTrib reported. The tree sits outside the usual Walkway footprint. At its planned height, it would be 14 feet taller than the current record for tallest artificial Christmas tree, a 236-foot tree set in Sri Lanka in December 2016. The 250-foot figure was picked to match the nation's 250th anniversary.

The tree would follow the city's new model. Marble Falls supplies the site, and a private company pays for the rest. World Icon will cover design, engineering, construction, installation and removal, plus permanent electrical infrastructure, public safety and security, operations and special events. Preliminary planning put public safety and security costs at about $100,000, which World Icon will also pay. Dingman told the council, per the same DailyTrib story, "What we're really offering if we decide to move forward is access to the space."

What's been reported about the design:

1. A 200-foot lower section with a 50-foot cone on top. The cone could be extended later if another artificial tree passes 250 feet.
2. A display meant to represent all 50 states, with custom photo ornaments that families and businesses can buy. The ornaments go on the tree and are mailed to buyers once it comes down. The project's website lists them from $59 for a Classic Candy Cane to $85 for a Family Photo Ornament.
3. A World Icon-funded community lighting ceremony with live entertainment, followed by a New Year's Eve drone show.

All of this is still a plan. The city's September 3 announcement said the project was moving into final engineering, permitting, site planning and operational coordination. It did not say construction had started. The project's own site says the tree is "already being built," but its events page says the lighting and New Year's Eve schedule is still "coming together." The November 29 date was described as a target that depends on the project staying on schedule. No parking, traffic or shuttle plans have been published for either attraction, and no details on Guinness verification have been released.

What Stays on the Peninsula Afterward

The tree is approved for one season. The longer-term question is what happens to its foundation. Once the tree comes down, the city can require the structural pad to be removed and the ground restored, or it can approve reusing the pad for another public purpose. Dingman told the council that ideas so far have ranged "from a pavilion to if it makes sense to have sports courts."

So a holiday attraction could leave behind a year-round feature at Lakeside Park, paid for by someone else, on land the city already controls. The Walkway works the same way under the new arrangement. The city owns the sculptures and the electrical system, and it now decides what gets added, what gets cut, and what the park looks like after January.

Planning the Season

A few working details for the weeks ahead:

• Rain closures. Wet ground makes the Walkway path unsafe, so the closure call is made by 3 p.m. on the day. Updates go out on the @VisitMarbleFalls Facebook and Instagram accounts, at VisitMarbleFalls.org, or by phone at 830-693-2815.
• Santa. The event page says Santa takes Christmas wishes every day until Christmas.
• Outdated pages. The general Visit Marble Falls holiday FAQ still names the Chamber as host and lists different season dates. The 2026 event page is the current listing.
• The rest of the county's opening week. The Visit Marble Falls holiday page lists Burnet's Lighting of the Square on November 28, the night before the Walkway opens. It also lists the Light Up Christmas Parade on December 3 and Main Street Bethlehem from December 4 to 13.

Put those together and Burnet County's holiday season starts on Thanksgiving weekend's Saturday and Sunday, with Burnet's square lit one night and the Marble Falls lakefront the next. If the Glory Tree stays on schedule, the second of those nights will also be its debut.

At Topper Real Estate, we follow how Hill Country towns invest in their parks and public spaces, because those decisions shape daily life near Lake Marble Falls long after the holidays end. If you'd like a local read on Marble Falls and the rest of Burnet County, schedule your Hill Country consultation.