Overview Tinsel Trail fills Big Spring Park in downtown Huntsville, Alabama, with more than 400 live Christmas trees, each one reserved and decorated by a local business, group or family, and the trail stays open 24 hours a day, rain or shine, from late November through December 31. Admission is free. Downtown Huntsville, Inc., the organization behind the city center's development studies and events, runs it, and calls it the biggest event it puts on all year. The Downtown47 founded it before DHI took it over. On site The season opens on Black Friday. In the afternoon a Black Friday Market sets up across the park with more than 40 local vendors and food trucks, and at 6 p.m. Downtown Huntsville's Rocket City Tree is lit to open the trail. On opening night in 2025 the Artisan Trombone Quartet and the Alabama Youth Ballet Theatre performed, and Santa and Mrs. Claus sat for photos. After that the trail is simply open: a walk past hundreds of trees, day or night, through the end of December. Track record The 2023 season drew 135,000 visitors, and its opening night brought more than 11,200 people, which DHI says made it the largest free event in Big Spring Park. DHI says Tinsel Trail was voted Best Festival by EVENT Magazine. The tree count grew from more than 440 in 2024 and DHI's 2026 materials counted more than 450. Brand presence Sponsorship comes in two levels. The presenting sponsor gets its logo on all marketing collateral, including the posters and A-frames in the park, its own tent at the Black Friday Market, recognition at the lighting ceremony, eight social posts and tickets to DHI's annual meeting; co-sponsors get collateral logos, a promotional tent at one DHI event and social posts. Huntsville Data Center was named presenting sponsor for 2026. Businesses can also take a tree on the trail and decorate it themselves; tree registration opens each August.