"Here comes Santa Claus!" is how Henrico County opens its listing for the 2026 Henrico Holiday Express Tour. It describes a parade of decorated Recreation and Parks, Police, Fire, DPU and Library vehicles "bringing Santa Claus right down Santa Claus Lane." Most of Henrico's December calendar happens at a plaza, a shopping center or an arts campus. The Holiday Express runs on county roads, with one group of magisterial districts each night. That's why the date matters less than the night assigned to your part of the county, and why the 2024 and 2025 routes are the best guide to where this year's parade is likely to go.
Three nights, three parts of the county
The 2026 tour runs Tuesday through Thursday the week of Dec. 8, from 5 to 8 p.m. each night. The county lists a venue for each night.
| Night | Districts | Venue on the county listing |
|---|---|---|
| Tue, Dec. 8 | Three Chopt & Tuckahoe | Deep Run Recreation Center, 9910 Ridgefield Parkway |
| Wed, Dec. 9 | Varina | Dorey Recreation Center, 2999 Darbytown Road |
| Thu, Dec. 10 | Brookland & Fairfield | Eastern Henrico Recreation Center, 1440 N. Laburnum Avenue |
Each night ends with families meeting Santa at the final stop. Henrico Recreation and Parks started the tour in 2020 as a way to keep people connected during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the county's own video of the 2023 tour, the evening starts at a library at 5 p.m., stops at schools along the way and finishes around 7:30 p.m. at a community building. That basic plan has held since, and the county's route PDFs from the last two years show how each district group carries it out.
The roads Santa used the last two Decembers
The county posts a turn-by-turn route for each night. In both 2024 and 2025, each district group started and ended at the same kind of place, and many of the same main roads came up both years.
Three Chopt & Tuckahoe. Both years the parade left Twin Hickory Library and finished at Deep Run Recreation Center.
- 2024 roads included Twin Hickory Road, Nuckols Road, Gayton Road, Gaskins Road and Ridgefield Parkway.
- 2025 roads included Hickory Bend Drive, Hickory Park Drive, Nuckols Road, Three Chopt Road, Gayton Road and Gaskins Road.
Varina. The 2024 parade went from Varina Library to Henrico Theatre. In 2025 it started at Dorey Park and Dorey Recreation Center at 5 p.m. and reached Henrico Theatre around 8 p.m.
- 2024 roads included Williamsburg Road, Naglee Avenue, Brittles Lane, New Market Road and Darbytown Road.
- 2025 roads included Brittles Lane, E. Union Street, Masonic Lane, Darbytown Road, Willson Road, Beulah Road, E. Williamsburg Road and E. Nine Mile Road.
Brookland & Fairfield. Both years the parade left Libbie Mill Library and finished at Eastern Henrico Recreation Center.
- 2024 roads included Libbie Lake South Street, Libbie Lake West Street, Libbie Mill West Boulevard, Bethlehem Road, Kirkwood Street and Penick Road.
- 2025 roads included Libbie Lake S. Street, Coopers Walk Lane, Libbie Mill W. Boulevard, Libbie Avenue, Bethlehem Road and Richmond Henrico Turnpike.
Some roads showed up both years: Nuckols, Gayton and Gaskins in the West End, Brittles and Darbytown in Varina, and Libbie Mill West and Bethlehem north of Broad. Other parts of each route changed from year to year. The route PDFs also note that routes can change because of traffic or other conditions. The 2024 and 2025 maps show the general area each night tends to cover.
What changed from 2024 to 2025
The routes stayed close to the same, but the evening around them grew. In 2024 the route PDFs had the parade reaching the finish at 7:30 p.m. In 2025 the arrival window moved to 7:45 to 8 p.m. The start points also opened early. The West End parade staged at Twin Hickory Library from 4:30 to 5 p.m., where families could see the floats up close, do a craft and see Santa. At Deep Run, the finish ran 7:45 to 8:30 p.m. with a hot chocolate bar, outdoor games and indoor crafts. Brookland and Fairfield followed the same timing, with a 4:30 to 5 p.m. start event at Libbie Mill Library and letters to Santa at the Eastern Henrico finish. In Varina, Dorey had pre-parade activities from 4 to 5 p.m., and the evening ended at Henrico Theatre with a tree lighting.
The finish events have their own traditions. In 2024, Deep Run had a photo spot by the fireplace. Henrico Theatre started showing movies at 6 p.m., and the theatre lit up when Santa arrived. Eastern Henrico had cookies, music and photos with Santa and the vehicle crews. These are details from past years. The 2026 listings so far say only that Santa will meet families at each night's ending location.
The 2025 listings also linked a Santa Tracker, the county's live map, which went active when the tour began and didn't require a sign-in. The county has run a tracker since before 2025, and its video of the 2023 tour mentions one. With the tracker, you could follow the parade from home instead of guessing when it would reach a corner.
Weather was the other change last year. The West End night was first set for Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. After a winter storm earlier that week, the county moved it to Friday, Dec. 12, and the West End went last.
How the 2026 calendar compares
This year the West End goes first, on Tuesday, Dec. 8. That's the same first-night spot it had in 2024, when it ran on Dec. 10 before Varina and then Brookland and Fairfield. The 2026 venue for the West End is Deep Run Recreation Center, where the parade has finished both of the last two years.
The 2026 Varina listing names Dorey Recreation Center as its venue and is tagged with Henrico Theatre. Those were the two ends of the 2025 Varina route. Brookland and Fairfield list Eastern Henrico Recreation Center, which was their finish in both 2024 and 2025.
If you plan to drive to a finish, check the lot sizes. Deep Run's lot holds 196 vehicles, and Eastern Henrico's holds 276. Those are the facilities' everyday capacities, not numbers set aside for the event. Each finish draws a whole district's worth of families in under an hour, so watching from a spot along the route can be easier than driving to the end. The county's event pages are where the route map and tracker link appeared last year. For questions, the Recreation and Parks events team is at [email protected].
The rest of Henrico's season, in date order
The Holiday Express is the event that travels through neighborhoods. Henrico's other holiday dates happen at fixed locations, and several land within a few days of the parade nights.
- Fri, Nov. 13, 6 p.m. Grand Illumination in the Main Plaza at Short Pump Town Center, with live music and Santa lighting the tree.
- Sat, Nov. 28, 4 to 8 p.m. The free holiday tree lighting at West Broad Village, 2250 Old Brick Road in Glen Allen, with Santa, hot chocolate, music and photo spots.
- Sat, Dec. 5, 4:30 to 7 p.m. The free 28th annual tree lighting at the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen, presented with Henrico Recreation and Parks. Santa lights a new cedar tree at the Center Field stage. From 5 to 7 p.m., the center opens "Illumination – A Festival of Trees," which stays on display through Jan. 4, 2027.
- Tue through Thu, Dec. 8 to 10, 5 to 8 p.m. The Henrico Holiday Express, one district group per night, as laid out above.
- Sat, Dec. 12. Santa Paws returns to Short Pump Park. Bring your dog for a free photo with Santa, taken by county staff on your own phone or camera, plus vendors and concessions for sale.
For West End families, Dec. 5 through Dec. 12 is a full week: the Glen Allen tree lighting on Saturday, the parade toward Deep Run on Tuesday and Santa Paws at Short Pump Park the next Saturday. Varina, Brookland and Fairfield families get their own parade nights midweek, and each finishes at a county building in their part of the county.
If you'd like to know which part of the county a street falls in, or which night of the Holiday Express is yours, The Lemus Group is happy to help, in English or Spanish. We'll be watching the Santa Tracker from home too.
