South Florida’s holiday season has an unofficial kickoff date, and it’s closer than you think. On Tuesday, December 1, 2026, the Las Olas Association hosts the 64th Annual Christmas on Las Olas, turning East Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale into one big holiday block party from 5 to 10 p.m. Admission is free, and the evening is built for families: live entertainment on multiple stages, local vendors serving up food and drinks, visits with Santa, and holiday characters and activities woven in along the boulevard.
It’s one of Broward County’s longest-running holiday traditions, and the timing makes it easy to build into a longer South Florida trip rather than a single-night stop. If you’re already planning a December getaway to escape colder weather up north, bookending it around December 1 means you can catch the boulevard lit up for the holidays and still have days left over for the beach, the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk, or a boat tour out of Port Everglades.
Where to Stay
East Las Olas Boulevard sits a short drive north of Hollywood, FL, which makes Kismet Getaways’ Hollywood properties a practical home base for the trip. If you’re traveling as an extended family or combining multiple households for the holidays, Total Oasis — our flagship five-unit property that sleeps up to 30 — lets everyone stay together instead of splitting across separate hotel rooms. Kids can move between units during the day, adults get their own space at night, and there’s no need to coordinate multiple reservations. For couples or smaller families who want the same location without the extra square footage, our Sunrise and Sunset units are a good fit.
A couple of practical notes if you’re making a night of it: admission is free, but the event listing doesn’t include on-site parking details, so check the Las Olas Boulevard website’s parking page ahead of time or plan to rideshare in from Hollywood — it saves you from circling blocks on a night when the boulevard sees festival crowds.
December is one of the busiest booking months for South Florida short-term rentals, with the holidays, Art Basel, and events like Christmas on Las Olas all drawing visitors into Broward and Miami-Dade around the same stretch of weeks. If this one’s on your list, it’s worth locking in dates sooner rather than later.