{"id":203382,"date":"2026-03-24T03:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T03:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/203382\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T03:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T03:06:14","slug":"nights-of-lights-dates-permanently-changed-in-3-to-2-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/203382\/","title":{"rendered":"Nights of Lights dates permanently changed in 3 to 2 vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. \u2013 On Monday, St. Augustine city commissioners voted 3 to 2 on a resolution that would permanently shorten Nights of Lights<\/a> for the upcoming holiday season and beyond.<\/p>\n

Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline and Vice Mayor Barbara Blonder were the two no votes.<\/p>\n

After community push back, commissioners amended the resolution to start Nights of Lights the Saturday before Thanksgiving and end on Martin Luther King Day. <\/p>\n

Originally commissioners considered starting the popular event on the second Saturday before Thanksgiving and ending it on the second Sunday of January. <\/p>\n

Some people argued that cutting dates from January hurt business owners who rely on the event to get them through a slower time frame. Other argued that Nights of Lights had run its course. Additionally some residents were okay with keeping the event length at eight weeks if the city found ways to improve their experience.<\/p>\n

Scott York, a St. Augustine resident and business owner, was in favor of finding a compromise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the business community wants Nights of Lights longer and wants to get more out of it, they have to get the residents to embrace Nights of Lights again,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what it\u2019s all about for me, is getting the residents to embrace nights of lights and enjoy it again. Because I enjoy it every single night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aaron Jockers is also a St. Augustine resident and business owner. He was one of several residents asking for a longer event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d like to go back to our 10-week schedule, if possible. And I know that\u2019s not necessarily popular, but people think that by shortening Nights of Lights, it\u2019s going to make people go away,\u201d he shared. \u201cPeople aren\u2019t going to go away, they\u2019re just going to keep coming back, and they should, we hope they do. We just wanna manage it effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

The measure also permanently fixes those dates without requiring the commission to revisit them annually.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Nights of Lights will start on November 21 and end on January 18.<\/p>\n

In 2025, city commissioners voted to shorten the event from 65 days to 57<\/a> after residents expressed concerns about large crowds and traffic.<\/p>\n

For last year\u2019s event, St. Johns County invested an additional $850,000<\/a> to help manage the crowds, mitigate traffic and ensure safety. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. \u2013 On Monday, St. Augustine city commissioners voted 3 to 2 on a resolution that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,57753,2663],"class_list":["post-203382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-nights-of-lights","tag-st-augustine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}