The Naples Improvement Association lists the 2026 Naples Island Holiday Boat Parade for Saturday, December 12. The 2025 parade ran on Saturday, December 20, so this year's comes eight days earlier. So far the listing gives a date, a time and a location, and nothing more for 2026. The entry form, theme, deadline and skippers' meeting that come up each December are all still online in their 2025 versions.
The holiday calendar on the island has moved about a week earlier, and the only instructions available are last year's. Anyone planning to run a boat, paddle a kayak or light up a canal-front home is setting a timeline before the 2026 rules are out.
What's Actually on the Record for December 12
On NIA's events page, the parade is set for Saturday, December 12, 2026, from 7 to 8 p.m., at "Alamitos Bay / Naples Canals." The same page lists one other upcoming event: a general membership meeting at Long Beach Yacht Club on Tuesday, November 17, 6 to 8 p.m. That meeting is the next scheduled time NIA members will be together before parade night.
Visit Long Beach lists the parade for December 12 too, without a year printed beside the date, and gives 6 p.m. as the start. Neither page explains why the times differ. The 2025 entry form may account for it, since it started large boats at 6 p.m. and small boats at 6:30 p.m. Under that format the first boats would be on the water an hour before NIA's listed start. Until NIA confirms a 2026 schedule, the start time is unsettled.
The parade's history is better documented than this year's details. NIA dates its founding to 1928. The parade came later. The Press-Telegram called the 2019 edition the 73rd annual, and NIA's 2025 page called that year's the 79th, which puts the start around 1947. By that count, 2026 would be the 80th. NIA's 2026 listing doesn't say so, though.
A Tighter December on the Water
The earlier date matters more next to the rest of the local holiday calendar. The Belmont Shore Business Association has its 42nd Christmas Parade on Saturday, December 5, 2026, from 6 to 9 p.m. along East Second Street. That makes the two Second Street parades back-to-back Saturdays this year. The boat parade also comes eight days before Christmas Caroling in Long Beach Yacht Club's October 2026 newsletter.
| Date | Event | Where | Source status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue., Nov. 17 | NIA General Membership Meeting, 6–8 p.m. | Long Beach Yacht Club | NIA events page, 2026 |
| Sun., Nov. 29 | LBYC Christmas tree lighting | Long Beach Yacht Club | LBYC newsletter, Oct. 2026 |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Belmont Shore Christmas Parade, 6–9 p.m. | East Second Street | Belmont Shore Business Association, 2026 |
| Sun., Dec. 6 | LBYC Children's Christmas Party | Long Beach Yacht Club | LBYC newsletter, Oct. 2026 |
| Sat., Dec. 12 | Naples Island Holiday Boat Parade | Alamitos Bay and Naples canals | NIA lists 7 p.m.; Visit Long Beach lists 6 p.m. |
| Sun., Dec. 20 | LBYC Christmas Caroling | Long Beach Yacht Club | LBYC newsletter, Oct. 2026 |
The newsletter announces the LBYC events as club activities and doesn't say whether nonmembers can attend. They're in the table because the yacht club is where the parade's logistics have been handled in the past, as the next section shows.
Last Year's Rulebook Is the Only One Posted
The old parade page on naplesislands.org still shows the "79th Annual Boat Parade" for "Sat, Dec 20th, 2025," with the theme "A Tropical Winter Wonderland." That theme belonged to 2025. NIA hasn't announced one for 2026.
The 2025 entry form is the most detailed participation guide online. Every item below comes from it or from the 2025 instruction sheets. None of it is a confirmed 2026 rule.
- Deadline and meeting: Entries were due Wednesday, December 17, the same evening as a mandatory skippers' meeting at 7 p.m. at Long Beach Yacht Club.
- Fees: $30 for a kayak and $50 for a boat.
- Parade numbers: The form said only boats with official parade numbers would be allowed in the canals.
- Small boats: Started at 6:30 p.m. and had to fit under the bridges, with an 8-foot maximum height. Cigarette and offshore boats weren't allowed in the canals.
- Large boats: Started at 6 p.m.
- Judging: Boats were judged on theme, lights, music, costumes and originality, with a best overall award.
In 2025, the deadline and skippers' meeting fell on the Wednesday three days before the parade. That's how last year worked, not a rule for this year. If NIA keeps the same spacing, the Wednesday before December 12 is December 9, which would move the whole sign-up window up by about a week. The 2025 form listed boat parade chairman Alex Beltran as the contact for questions. No 2026 contact has been posted.
Two Routes, Built Around the Bridges
The parade has really been two parades, and the 8-foot clearance rule decides which one a boat joins. In 2025, small boats started at the Appian Way Bridge, ran along Bayshore and the Naples seawall, and entered the canals at Treasure Island's west entrance. From there they looped clockwise through the main canal and left by the Colonnade, with judges stationed along Rivo Alto Canal.
Large boats stayed out of the canals. Their 2025 route ran through Alamitos Bay, turned before the Second Street Bridge and headed east toward Seal Beach. It then came back through the marina basins and past Long Beach Yacht Club to Appian Way.
Because of that split, canal-front homes on Rivo Alto mostly see the small boats and kayaks up close. Homes and docks facing the bay and the marina see the larger boats.
Decorated homes have long been part of the event. The Press-Telegram reported in 2024 that homes along the canals competed for NIA prizes. A 2014 report described NIA judges walking the island and giving house awards in categories including lights, originality, design and craftsmanship. The same report noted that the separate Naples Islands Business Association gave prizes to its member businesses. No 2026 home contest or entry process has been posted. With the parade a week earlier, homes would need to be decorated about a week earlier too.
Parade Night From the Shore
Visit Long Beach suggests watching from bridges and waterfronts around the island, including the Second Street Bridge, the Appian Way Bridge and Alamitos Bay Marina. It lists parking at the Mother's Beach lot at 5839 Appian Way and the Basin 4 lot at 6001 Appian Way near Long Beach Yacht Club. The island closes to nonresident traffic during the event. The listing doesn't give closure hours. In 2024, the Press-Telegram reported street closures on Naples and Treasure Island starting at 5 p.m. Residents with guests coming on the 12th will want guests to arrive before the 2026 closure starts, once its time is announced.
The 2026 parade also has new local businesses that the 2025 one didn't. Mike O'Toole's Gondola Café, a dockside coffee and breakfast-pastry business at 5437 E. Ocean Blvd., had opened by the Press-Telegram's April 2026 report. On Second Street, The Small Cafe owner Megan Wright and partner Annie Ludwig opened The Small Market at 5666 Second Street, two doors from the cafe. Neither has announced parade-night hours or events, so check with them closer to the date.
A Work Crew at the Mouth of the Bay All Season
The parade isn't the only thing happening on the water this winter. The City of Long Beach's Alamitos Bay Entrance Channel Dredge Project starts construction in mid-October 2026 and is expected to finish in February 2027, weather permitting. It's the first dredge of the entrance channel in more than 20 years. According to the city, sand has built up in the channel and created shallow spots that make navigation harder. The project will restore the federally authorized depths for boats heading to Marine Stadium, Spinnaker Bay, Davies Launch Ramp, Naples Island and Alamitos Bay Marina.
Usable dredged sand will be pumped to Peninsula Beach between 62nd Place and the jetty at 72nd Place. Parking in the main public lot at 72nd Place will be reduced for contractor staging, but access stays open and the overflow lot remains fully available. The work is at the entrance channel, not in the Naples canals. The city's page doesn't mention the parade.
For the island's boat owners, the dredge and the parade run on the same stretch of calendar. The dredge will be working at the bay's entrance when the decorated boats come out on the 12th, and it's scheduled to continue for about two months after the parade is over.
If you live on the island and have a holiday listing in mind, or are wondering what your canal-front home is worth heading into 2027, Cynthia Voss and Nathan Walter would be glad to talk it through, whether that's before or after parade night. Request a Free Home Valuation, and we'll give you a clear, local read on where your home stands this season.
