Downtown Stamford's Holiday Crowds Head for Bedford Street This Year. Park Somewhere Else.

At the corner of Bedford Street and Forest Street, a parking lot has become a 9,500-square-foot plaza. It has trees, public seating, raised crosswalks and room for restaurant tables. The city held the ribbon-cutting in late July, so this is the plaza's first holiday season. On December 6, Santa and his friends will march past it on the way to the tree lighting in Latham Park.

The Bedford Street Garage, on the same street, is a different story. Stamford Downtown's own event page for Heights & Lights tells visitors to park somewhere else this year because of construction around it. The tree lighting draws the crowd to the Bedford Street end of downtown, and organizers recommend that drivers park in garages elsewhere downtown.

Two Sundays downtown, then Mill River Park

The calendar is short. The two big downtown events fall on Sundays two weeks apart, and Mill River Park's events run alongside them and after them.

The parade times and the balloon party come from the Stamford Downtown event listing. The start and end points come from Hey Stamford's 2026 parade guide. Neither source had a street-by-street route or a list of road closures for 2026 at the time of writing. Last year's guide ended the parade at Atlantic and Tresser, and the 2026 listing ends it at Atlantic and Federal. Last year's route may not match this year's, so check the Stamford Downtown page again in the days before November 22.

Heights & Lights has a date but no start time yet. The listing still says "Check Back for More Information!" The program itself is set. Santa, Rudolph, the Grinch and friends rappel 22 stories down Landmark Square. Fireworks follow. Then the group marches up Bedford Street to Latham Park for holiday music and the lighting of Stamford's Holiday Tree.

The garage advice changed between 2025 and 2026

Last year, Hey Stamford's 2025 parade-day guide listed the Bedford Street Garage first among its free-Sunday parking options. It mentioned both the Broad Street and Forest Street entrances, along with Summer Place, Stamford Town Center and Landmark Square.

This year, the Heights & Lights listing says, "Due to ongoing construction around the Bedford Street Garage we recommend using one of the garages listed above instead." It names four other garages:

• Stamford Town Center
• Bell Street Garage
• Summer Street Garage
• Landmark Garage, entered from Atlantic Street

On its construction notifications page, Stamford Downtown says the F.D. Rich Company is building The Coastline at 130 Broad Street. The building will have 13 stories, 200 rental apartments and 4,400 square feet of ground-floor retail, and the developer expects to finish by November 2027. The same page says the project "will impact westbound traffic along Broad Street and access to the Bedford Street Garage during construction." That timeline runs through next year's holiday season as well as this one.

The city's public parking page still lists Bedford among the municipal garages. Both big events fall on Sundays, and the page lists city garages as free on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Check the page again before you count on free parking. Heights & Lights includes fireworks and a tree lighting, and its start time hasn't been posted yet, so it isn't clear whether the evening falls inside that free window. The noon parade does.

The Landmark Garage recommendation shares a name with Landmark Square, where the rappel starts, and the parade ends on Atlantic Street, the street organizers name as the way into that garage.

What the march to Latham Park now passes

For five years before this summer, the small lot at Bedford and Forest served as temporary outdoor dining space. Then the city's Transportation, Traffic & Parking Department made it permanent. The plaza was paid for with a $2 million state grant and $1 million from the city, Patch reported after the July ribbon-cutting. At the ceremony, Luke Buttenwieser of the department described the change this way, according to Patch:

"About 12 months ago, this whole area was a parking lot - a parking lot, right in the heart of our downtown, space for vehicles. Now we're at a 9,500 square foot public plaza here for people to enjoy themselves, outdoor dining with restaurants, new green space, and really just a new place in the heart of our downtown."

The plaza matters on December 6 because of how it connects to Latham Park. The Stamford Downtown project description calls for a 50-foot-wide raised crosswalk across Forest Street that joins the plaza and Latham Park into "one cohesive public space." It says the old crossing at Forest and Prospect had one of the highest pedestrian crash rates in Stamford. The same plan calls for new traffic signals and raised crosswalks where Bedford meets Spring Street and Forest Street. Both corners are on Bedford Street, the street the Heights & Lights march follows to Latham Park.

For the five years the corner was a dining lot, the march passed a parking lot. On December 6 it will pass the finished plaza for the first time.

Eating near the Latham Park end

The restaurants around this end of downtown have changed since last December, and some long-standing spots are gone.

• Uncorked opened July 23 at 167 Bedford Street, in the space that used to be Bari167, according to Patch. It is the newest name on the stretch of Bedford the march covers.
• Bar Rosso at 28 Spring Street has closed after more than 15 years, Patch reported on October 22. The owner said relocation or partnerships were under consideration but no plans were final. Bedford and Spring is one of the two corners where the plaza project calls for a new signal.
• Quartiere at 51 Bank Street closed after five years. The Stamford Advocate reported in September that Fiesta on Main planned to move from 249 Main Street into that space, aiming to open around October 1. Before you head to Bank Street, check which address is open.

If you park at Stamford Town Center, On The Brew opened a café on the mall's third floor at 100 Greyrock Place this summer. It serves coffee, tea, pastries and breakfast burritos, Hey Stamford reported. Stamford Town Center is one of the four parking options the organizers recommend, which makes the café an easy stop before a noon parade.

Mill River Park carries the season into mid-December

Mill River Park's holiday events start before the tree lighting and run past it. The Cohen rink at the Display Fountain reopens in late November for the 2026–27 season. The Mill River Park skating page hasn't posted an opening day yet.

The Mill River Park Holiday Market runs Saturday and Sunday, December 12 and 13, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Whittingham Discovery Center, 17 W. Park Place. Santa and Mrs. Claus are scheduled from 1 to 4 p.m. both days. The park also lists the Nissen Carousel at 30 West Broad Street as open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on December 12, with The Rich Pantry open alongside it. Check ride prices on the carousel listing closer to the date.

If the holiday walk up Bedford Street has you thinking about which part of downtown Stamford fits your daily routine, I'm glad to walk those blocks with you. Let's talk about your next move. Contact Randy Musiker for a consultation.