Tonight on Harding Road, the Belle Meade Historic Site & Winery opens its holiday season with a free evening. No ticket, no timed entry, and the restaurants and gift shops stay open until 8 p.m. Eight days later, Cheekwood opens Holiday LIGHTS with timed-entry tickets bought online in advance, peak and non-peak pricing, and a $5 parking charge.
The two estates run their holidays on very different models, and at both, the newest material this year sits inside the historic houses and around their tables. Cheekwood's million-plus lights are mostly returning favorites, while its Mansion has been rebuilt room by room around a new French theme. At the Historic Site, the season is built from small, seated, ticketed sessions on top of one free night. For someone who lives a few minutes away, much of the best of 2026 happens indoors, and much of it happens in daylight.
Tonight at the Historic Site: the season's free door
The Holiday Open House at Belle Meade Historic Site & Winery runs Thursday, November 12, from 5 to 8 p.m. It is open to all ages and costs nothing. The evening includes:
- Meet-and-greets with Santa and Mrs. Claus
- Walkthroughs of the decorated Mansion, first come, first served
- Christmas carolers and live holiday music
- Crafts and activities for children
- Wine and bourbon tastings, seasonal food pairings and holiday cocktails
- Shopping in the gift shops and dining at the on-site restaurants
The event runs indoors and outdoors, and the site asks guests to dress for the weather. The Mansion walkthroughs are the one part with a natural queue, so arriving near 5 p.m. gives the most time inside.
Tonight also previews how the rest of the Historic Site's season works. After the open house, its holiday calendar turns into a short run of small sessions built around a table. The bourbon bar and restaurants that stay open late tonight go back to daytime hours.
Cheekwood's Mansion goes French
Holiday LIGHTS runs Friday, November 20, 2026 through Sunday, January 3, 2027, from 4:30 to 10 p.m. Outside, the familiar pieces come back. The 28-foot Pixel Pine returns to the center of the Bradford Robertson Color Garden. The one-mile walking path still includes the Peppermint Path, the Star Field and the Enchanted Esplanade, and the Sparkling Serpentine again crosses the Mansion lawn with 600 linear feet of color.
The new work is inside. For her third year at Cheekwood, Holiday Artistic Director Laura Dowling, the former White House Chief Floral Designer, has turned the Historic Mansion into Un Noël Enchanté, or An Enchanted Noel. She designed it with Paris- and Dubai-based Guest Artistic Advisor Mauricio Clavero Kozlowski. Last season's Mansion theme was "Sweet Dreams."
Each room takes a different French reference, from countryside châteaux to Versailles. The rooms include a vintage-inspired hot air balloon handcrafted by Studio Cera Marie, a French holiday banquet, jewel-toned salons, an orangerie of citrus and winter greenery, and a pastoral hameau inspired by Marie Antoinette. Baccarat supplies crystal and Arcadia tableware for the table scenes. Le Meurice, the Paris palace hotel, is also a partner, and French antiques and furnishings are on loan for the exhibition.
In Cheekwood's season announcement, published by Visit Music City, Dowling described how she hopes the rooms will feel:
"My hope is that, as visitors move through the Mansion, the experience unfolds almost like a dream—one beautiful and unexpected world after another, filled with a sense of wonder, discovery and the enchantment of the holiday season."
Outdoors, the one newly themed piece is Cheekwood's TRAINS! exhibit, which gets a North Pole Butterfly Garden makeover this year.
The daylight version of Holiday LIGHTS
Because this year's main draw is inside the Mansion, the gardens' evening hours are only part of the event. Guests can tour the Mansion during the day from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., or in the evening from 4:30 to 10 p.m. while Holiday LIGHTS runs. Docent-led tours of Un Noël Enchanté start at 11 a.m., Tuesday through Sunday, from November 24 through January 3, and they are included with admission. For a room-by-room design installation with this many named collaborators, a guide at 11 a.m. covers more than an evening walk through.
Santa has also moved to daytime hours this year, with more of them. Daytime visits run December 12 through 24 in the Historic Stable and Tack Room in the Frist Learning Center. Hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends, and there is a mailbox for letters to Santa. Dog Visits with Santa, sponsored by Veterinary Emergency Group, take place in the Frist Learning Center courtyard on December 13 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and December 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The courtyard has a new café for its first holiday season. Perenn at Cheekwood, an all-day café and bakery in the former Café 29 space, opened May 1, 2026, serving pastries, breads, café dishes, espresso and tea. During Holiday LIGHTS, Perenn's evening hours are 4:30 to 8 p.m., with hot chocolate, warm spiced cider, fresh-baked cookies and rotating seasonal treats. After 8, the s'mores kits sold at the Holiday Marketplace and bar kiosks can be roasted on the Frist Learning Center terrace.
What a ticket costs, and when it costs less
Cheekwood's evening pricing changes by night and by whether a ticket includes the Mansion. These are the 2026 nonmember prices on the Holiday LIGHTS event page:
| 2026 nonmember ticket | Non-peak night | Peak night |
|---|---|---|
| Adult, Gardens Only | $26 | $29 |
| Adult, Gardens + Mansion | $29 | $32 |
| Youth, Gardens Only | $20 | $23 |
| Youth, Gardens + Mansion | $23 | $26 |
Add a $2 service fee per ticket bought in advance or $3 at the gate, plus $5 parking per vehicle. Timed-entry tickets bought online in advance are required again this year. For a non-peak night, the Mansion costs an adult nonmember $3 on top of a garden ticket. Since the Mansion holds this year's new work, the add-on is easy to justify.
Two more options sit at each end of the price range. Late Night LIGHTS is an 8:30 p.m. Gardens Only entry on select Monday through Thursday nights. It costs $20 for nonmembers, $17 for member adults and $13 for member youth, and it isn't offered on peak nights. At the high end, the new Igloo Experience offers heated private seating for up to eight people, with blankets, a charcuterie or dessert board, and champagne. Reservations cost $350 for a 5:30 to 7 p.m. or 7:30 to 9 p.m. seating, or $250 as an add-on to a proposal package. The returning Merry & Bright package costs $130 for members and $155 for nonmembers. It includes two adult Gardens + Mansion passes, two drink tickets, two s'mores kits and 10% off at the Holiday Marketplace.
The rest of the season, by date
Once tonight's free event is over, the Historic Site's season continues as small seated sessions, and its dates fit around Cheekwood's:
- Thursday, November 19, 4:30 p.m. Cheekwood hosts Designing Iconic Places for the Holidays: Les Décors d'Exception in Massey Auditorium. Dowling and Clavero Kozlowski talk through large-scale holiday design with Margot Shaw, founder and editor-in-chief of Flower magazine.
- Thursday, November 19, 6:30 to 8 p.m. The Wine Workshop pt. 2 at the Historic Site pairs sparkling wine with holiday foods. Tickets are $35 for ages 21 and up, with an optional personal charcuterie board for $15 or a large board for $30.
- Friday, November 20. Holiday LIGHTS opens to the public.
- Tuesday, November 24. Cheekwood's 11 a.m. docent tours of the Mansion begin.
- Sunday, December 6. Deck the Halls: Holiday Wreath-Making Workshop at the Historic Site. There are two sessions, 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3 p.m. Tickets start at $95 with materials included, and last year's sessions sold out.
- December 12 through 24. Daytime Santa visits at Cheekwood, plus Dog Visits with Santa on December 13 and 22.
- Sunday, January 3, 2027. Last night of Holiday LIGHTS.
From mid-November through December, the Historic Site also offers a Holiday Family Tour. It is a Christmas-themed walk through the Mansion, room by room, and children take home crafts such as paper ornaments and letters to Santa. The site's regular family tour pricing is $15 for students ages 5 to 17 and $20 for adults.
The Historic Site's restaurants and bar stay on their usual daytime schedule. The Belle Meade Meat & Three is open daily from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Bonnie's Bourbon and Wine Bar is open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Coop 'N Scoop is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Fox Run Cafe is open Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. An 11 a.m. docent tour of the French rooms at Cheekwood followed by lunch at the Meat & Three makes a full holiday outing that ends before the gardens light up.
For clients hosting family this season, a CHORD Real Estate Concierge can help plan the season around these dates, from a morning docent tour of Un Noël Enchanté to a seat at the Dec. 6 wreath workshop before it sells out. CHORD Real Estate knows this corner of Nashville well. Request your personal Real Estate Concierge.
