Harlem Holiday Lights Return Tuesday: What To Know

HARLEM, NY — Harlemites can ring in the holiday season on Tuesday with a time-honored neighborhood tradition: the Harlem Holiday Lights celebration and parade.

Back for the 29th year, Tuesday's event kicks off kicks off at 6 p.m. on the corner of 125th Street and Broadway, where a caravan of lighted floats will gather before heading east along 125th and looping down to 116th Street.

This year's parade will also extend northwards, running up Lenox Avenue to 135th Street before circling back down to 125th and concluding at Morningside Avenue.

Originally set for last week, the parade had to be postponed due to rain — and forecasts call for clear skies Tuesday night. If you can't make it, the festivities will be livestreamed on Facebook by the 125th Street Business Improvement District, which organizes the event.

As for grand marshals, the procession will be led by two notable Harlem natives: rapper-producer Doug E. Fresh and restaurateur Melba Wilson, owner of Melba's Restaurant, who will "help bring the joy of the holidays to the community that they love and know so well, at a time when it is most in need of cheers," organizers say.

Indeed, this year's celebration has a serious theme: Unity and Peace for Harlem, which will include calls to end gun violence and better support people who are homeless or mentally ill, organizers say.

Along the route, as in previous years, local businesses will host special programming and information stations. The parade will also include a tree lighting ceremony at Marcus Garvey Park and a special blessing at Mount Morris Park Ascension Presbyterian Church.

"It is most appropriate for the business community to lead this celebration that recognizes the immediate needs and challenges we are facing for the community while at the same time making sure we do not lose the need to celebrate during our holidays," said Barbara Askins, president of the 125th Street B.I.D.

Learn more about the 2022 Harlem Holiday Lights on the event website.