Guatemala City Christmas Parades 2026: Float Parade, Festival Navideño Ice Rink and Firefighters' Parade (2025 Dates, 2026 Not Announced)

Guatemala City has three different Christmas events, and they are easy to confuse. The Municipalidad’s float parade goes to a different neighbourhood every night from early November. The Festival Navideño is a fixed Christmas village, with an ice rink and a slide, in Plaza de la Constitución, zona 1. And the Bomberos Voluntarios (volunteer firefighters) run one big parade of their own along the Periférico ring road on a single Saturday.

None of the three had announced 2026 dates as of September 29, 2026. Everything below is the 2025 edition, with the source for each fact, so you can see how the season runs and what to watch for. The 2025 calendar came out on November 3-4, 2025; we will update this page when the 2026 one lands.

Quick summary (2025 edition): City hall float parade (Desfile Navideño): opened Saturday, November 8 at the Palacio Municipal, zona 1, then a different zone each night until December 8, 19:00-21:00 on route nights. Festival Navideño, Plaza de la Constitución: inaugurated November 21 at 19:00, then November 22 to December 22, 10:00-22:00, free, with ice rink and lit village; cathedral light show December 19-22. Navidad Encantada, Mapa en Relieve (zona 2): until December 21, Q5 for Guatemalans and Q25 for foreigners. Firefighters’ parade (Guardianes de la Navidad): Saturday, December 6, from USAC at 16:00 to colonia 4 de Febrero, zona 7. 2026 dates: not announced as of September 29, 2026.

The three events side by side

1. The city hall float parade (Desfile Navideño)

In 2025 the parade opened on Saturday, November 8 at the Palacio Municipal, 22 calle 6-77, zona 1, per Soy502 and TV Azteca. From there it went out to a different part of the city every night until the last route on December 8. Prensa Libre, citing the Municipalidad, counted 25 different routes in 2025. The themed floats that year were called Navidad Encantada and La Villa de los Duendes, with Santa Claus, Mrs Claus, elves and characters from the film Cars, per Prensa Libre.

Opening-night hours differ by outlet. Soy502 and TV Azteca reported 18:00 to 21:00 for November 8, 2025; Guatemala.com reported 19:00 to 21:00. For the neighbourhood routes, the Municipalidad’s schedules as published by AGN and Prensa Libre ran 19:00 to 21:00. If you want the opening, be there by 18:00.

How to find tonight’s route. Soy502 reported that residents could check the route in their zone on the social media of the Municipalidad and of the local auxiliary mayor’s office (alcaldía auxiliar). AGN reported on November 24, 2025 that the Municipalidad had posted the routes for November 24 to 30 on its social media. That is how the parade works: a weekly poster, not a fixed annual calendar.

One week of 2025 routes, as AGN published them (all 19:00-21:00):

Source: AGN, November 24, 2025, from the Municipalidad’s posts. The 2026 routes will be different; use this table to understand the format, not to plan a 2026 evening.

2. The Festival Navideño in Plaza de la Constitución

This is what people in the capital call the Christmas village of zona 1. In 2025, per Soy502, it opened on November 21 and closed on December 22, open 10:00 to 22:00 every day, at 6a to 7a avenida and 6a to 8a calle, zona 1. Guatemala.com reported the opening concert on Friday, November 21 at 19:00, with the Municipalidad’s Big Band and Marimba Orquesta, and the festival itself running November 22 to December 22.

What was there in 2025, per Guatemala.com:

• Pista Granizada, the ice rink (in front of the Catedral Metropolitana, per Soy502 and La Hora), and the Tobogán Congelado, a frozen slide
• Casa de Santa (Santa’s house), the Villa Navideña Iluminada (lit Christmas village) and the Trencito Navideño, a small Christmas train
• A monumental nativity scene and family cinema at the Portal de la Sexta, with showings at 11:00, 14:00, 17:00 and 20:00
• A Christmas light show projected on the Catedral Metropolitana on four nights only, December 19 to 22, at 19:00, 20:00 and 21:00 (the same dates and times appear in La Hora)

Cost: Rocío Penados, the Municipalidad’s social development manager, told Prensa Libre that these activities were free.

Around the festival (2025)

Navidad Encantada is the one paid event of the city’s season. La Hora put it plainly: Este sí tiene un costo (this one does cost money). For the start date, Guatemala.com reported November 20 to December 21, while Soy502 reported November 29 to December 21, from 15:00 to 22:00. Both place it at the Mapa en Relieve, the giant relief map of Guatemala in zona 2. Check the Municipalidad’s announcement before going in late November.

Two school-band parades

Two different band parades were reported for 2025:

• Desfile Navideño de Bandas Escolares, 12th edition (Comunidad de Bandas de Guatemala): Saturday, November 29, 2025, 16:00 to 22:00, on Paseo La Sexta, per TV Azteca.
• Desfile de Bandas Navideñas, 13th edition: Sunday, December 14, 2025, 16:00 to 19:30, from Parque Jocotenango to the Municipalidad, per Guatemala.com, which reported that the bands that register donate toys that are handed out at the Christmas Eve dinner.

3. Guardianes de la Navidad: the firefighters’ parade

The Cuerpo de Bomberos Voluntarios’ parade is a single evening, and a big one. In 2025, its third edition, per Prensa Libre:

• Date: Saturday, December 6, 2025 (also reported by TV Azteca, which noted that in earlier years the floats set off from zona 12)
• Start: Universidad de San Carlos (USAC), zona 12, at 16:00
• Route: the Anillo Periférico through zonas 7, 11 and 12, about 8 kilometres, south to north
• Finish: the 49th Company of the Bomberos Voluntarios, colonia 4 de Febrero, zona 7, with concerts and clowns at the end
• Floats: water tankers and ambulances turned into floats, with at least 10 school bands. Prensa Libre gave almost 60 floats on November 3 and more than 70 on December 4, 2025.

Traffic that day (2025). Amílcar Montejo of Emetra, the city’s traffic authority, told Prensa Libre to avoid the Periférico between USAC and colonia Bethania and to use calzada Aguilar Batres, avenida Petapa and calzada Atanasio Tzul to El Trébol instead. He expected the event to end around 23:00, said the auxiliary lane at colonia 4 de Febrero would close from 20:00, and warned that Transmetro Line 7 could be interrupted from 16:00. For closures in force on the day, see our road closures page.

If you are visiting, or back home for December

• The float parade comes to the neighbourhoods, not the other way round. The Municipalidad programmed 25 different routes in 2025 (Prensa Libre). If you are staying with family in a zone of the capital, watch the Municipalidad’s weekly route poster for your zone.
• The Festival Navideño is the easy one for a visitor. It is in one place, it was announced for 10:00-22:00 daily in 2025 (from November 22), and it was free. Soy502 and La Hora placed the ice rink in front of the Catedral Metropolitana; the cathedral light show was scheduled for the last four nights before the festival closed.
• The firefighters’ parade is the big-crowd evening. It runs on the Periférico, and in 2025 Emetra expected it to end around 23:00.
• The same season in the capital: the Árbol Gallo tree lighting at the Obelisco opened the lights on November 15, 2025, a week after the first float parade.

What we did not find

• 2026 dates for any of the three events (checked September 29, 2026). In 2025, Soy502 and TV Azteca reported the Municipalidad’s calendar on November 3-4.
• Brand-sponsored parades in the capital with a published 2025 date and route from a Guatemalan source we could verify. TV Azteca reported that Productos B&B posted a covered float on social media and that users speculated about a trolley ride or a parade; the company had not confirmed a parade, so we do not list it.

Related

• Christmas in Guatemala: the whole December calendar, Nochebuena at midnight and what closes
• Quema del Diablo, December 7 and Virgen de Guadalupe, December 12
• Árbol Gallo tree lighting, Plaza del Obelisco
• A legal Christmas tree: the pinabete and its tag
• New Year’s Eve in Guatemala
• Road closures

Sources: Soy502, November 3, 2025 (Municipalidad calendar); TV Azteca, November 4, 2025 (four parades); AGN, November 24, 2025 (routes); Guatemala.com, 2025 (parades and Festival Navideño); Prensa Libre, November 3, 10 and 30 and December 4 and 5, 2025; La Hora, December 4, 2025. Read September 29, 2026.