Thomasville turns 200 on December 22. Thomas County was created by legislation on December 23, 1825, and Thomasville was named the county seat on December 22, 1826. That puts the anniversary on a Tuesday this year, eleven days after the 40th Victorian Christmas wraps up and three days before Christmas.
The timing changes how this season reads. All year the bicentennial has run under the City's slogan, "Thomasville 200: Honoring our History, Inspiring our Future." From the Holiday Open House on November 22 through Victorian Christmas on December 11, every downtown holiday event lands in the last weeks before the date the whole year has been counting toward. The organizations running those events have milestones of their own, too. Victorian Christmas is turning 40, and so is Thomasville Center for the Arts.
Why December 22, and Not Another Date
You may have seen 1831 on older plaques and in histories. According to the City of Thomasville, Thomasville was incorporated by an act of the Georgia Assembly on December 26, 1831. The bicentennial counts from 1826, when the town became the seat of the new county. Both the county and the city take their names from Major General Jett Thomas, a War of 1812 veteran who built the Old State Capitol at Milledgeville.
The 1825 legislation that created the county was introduced by Thomas Jefferson Johnson, owner-builder of Pebble Hill Plantation. That's why Pebble Hill keeps coming up in this year's programming, and why it sits on the December calendar below.
The City's bicentennial page lists a long roster of partners. It includes Pebble Hill Plantation, the Jack Hadley Black History Museum, Thomasville Landmarks, the Thomasville History Center, Thomasville Center for the Arts, Discover Thomasville, the Thomas County Public Library, Imagine Thomasville and Hands On Thomas County, among others. Several of them have events between now and mid-December.
November 22 Puts Two Anniversaries Downtown on the Same Afternoon
The season opens on a crowded Sunday. The Downtown Thomasville Holiday Open House runs Sunday, November 22, from 1 to 5 p.m. Shops and restaurants keep extended hours, participating businesses offer a beer or wine to sip while you shop, and the City of Thomasville trolley gives free rides around downtown. Five people will each win $100 in Downtown Dollars gift certificates.
That same Sunday is the last day of the 31st Annual Wildlife Arts Festival, which is open free to the public from noon to 4 p.m. The Thomasville Times-Enterprise reports that this year's festival brings more than 50 wildlife artists to town while Thomasville Center for the Arts marks its 40th anniversary. The City's bicentennial page says the Center chose the theme "200 works of art for 200 years" for its summer Collective Exhibition because of the double milestone.
The two events overlap from 1 to 4 p.m., which makes one afternoon work for both. The festival's free hours also include Saturday, November 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Over the weekend there are family activities: the Land & Lore Speaker Series, live animal demonstrations and Youth Wildlife Walkabout stations. Speaking to the Times-Enterprise, Executive Director Erin Wolfe Bell said, "We want everyone to know that they're welcome here."
The festival's ticketed evening is the Bird Dog Bash. It runs Saturday, November 21, at 7 p.m. at Sugar Hill Barn on Pebble Hill Plantation, and tickets are $200 per person. If you're downtown before or after the festival, Voices of the Pineland is at the UnVacant Lot. It's a public art installation by Tall Timbers and local artist Dave Junker, with guest creatives Elva Rubio and Jenny Wrenn, and it stays on view through January 25, 2027.
The Run-Up, Date by Date
From the open house on, the calendar gets busier with each December weekend.
| Date | Event | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Nov. 21 | Wildlife Arts Festival, free public day | Thomasville Center for the Arts | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
| Sat., Nov. 21 | Bird Dog Bash, $200 | Sugar Hill Barn, Pebble Hill Plantation | 7 p.m. |
| Sun., Nov. 22 | Wildlife Arts Festival, free public day | Thomasville Center for the Arts | Noon to 4 p.m. |
| Sun., Nov. 22 | Holiday Open House | Downtown Thomasville | 1 to 5 p.m. |
| Thu., Dec. 3 | Yuletide Champagne Evening Tours, $75 | Pebble Hill Plantation, 1251 US-319 | Entry 5 to 6:30 p.m. |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | First Friday with Mixtape, an 80's tribute band | The Ritz Amphitheater | 8 to 10 p.m. |
| Mon., Dec. 7 | YMCA Downtown Christmas Parade | Clay and Broad to the Farmer's Market | 6:30 p.m. |
| Thu. and Fri., Dec. 10 and 11 | 40th Annual Victorian Christmas | Broad and West Jackson streets | 6 to 9 p.m. nightly |
| Tue., Dec. 22 | 200 years since Thomasville became the county seat |
Pebble Hill's champagne tours on December 3 run about an hour each, with entry times from 5 to 6:30 p.m. The Mixtape First Friday the next night follows the City's usual format for the series: free, family-friendly, with food trucks.
The Parade Is Where the 200th Gets Its Theme
The YMCA Downtown Christmas Parade is the event on this list that names the bicentennial outright. This year's theme is "A Bicentennial Christmas: 200 Years of Cheer." The parade steps off Monday, December 7, at 6:30 p.m., following the YMCA's first-Monday-in-December tradition.
It starts at Clay and Broad. Vehicles finish at the Farmer's Market, and walking groups disband in the All Saints Episcopal Church parking lot at 443 S. Hansell St. If you live or park near the route, the YMCA Thomasville parade page lists the police closures, which start well before the first float:
- Broad Street closes at 3:30 p.m., with no parking.
- Smith and Hansell close at 5 p.m.
- The Smith and Kern intersection closes at 6:30 p.m.
Police won't let non-parade vehicles onto Broad Street. The YMCA asks parents dropping off participants to come in by the nearest side street and walk the rest of the way. Judging starts at 5:30 p.m., and the parade starts promptly at 6:30. There will be just one Santa, and the YMCA handles him.
Victorian Christmas Started as a Downtown Merchants' Idea
Three days after the parade, downtown hosts the event most people associate with a Thomasville December. The City's history of the festival says downtown merchants founded Victorian Christmas in 1986 to promote local shopping and dining during the holidays. It started as a marketing idea and now draws more than 30,000 people a year. The City picked the Victorian theme because of the Victorian homes and downtown buildings around it. Those same streets are what the 200th celebrates.
The 40th Annual Victorian Christmas runs Thursday, December 10, and Friday, December 11, from 6 to 9 p.m. each night, centered on Broad Street and West Jackson Street. The City's Victorian Christmas page says most downtown shops and restaurants are open both nights. The program includes:
- Visits with St. Nick
- A Christmas movie
- Train rides for children
- A blacksmith demonstration
- Carriage rides and live reindeer
- Performances of the Nutcracker
- Photo spots, among them a 22-foot Christmas tree, oversized wreaths and larger-than-life nutcrackers
In its sponsorship announcement, the City called the 40th edition a milestone that celebrates four decades of holiday tradition in Thomasville. For questions, the City's events office is at (229) 227-4136 or [email protected].
Between Events, the 200 Years Are Still on View
On the evenings without a scheduled event, you can still see the bicentennial. At Pebble Hill Plantation, "Pebble Hill Plantation: A 200-Year Legacy" is listed as currently on exhibit in the Elisabeth Ireland Poe Gallery. The exhibition traces the property back to Thomas Jefferson Johnson, who established his home there in 1825. If you're going out for the December 3 champagne tours, it's a reason to arrive a little early.
The City's video series on its bicentennial page covers local history in short clips. Topics include Jett Thomas, Lieutenant Henry Flipper, the Lapham-Patterson House, why pine air mattered to Thomasville, and the Bob White quail. The same page invites groups to join the Bicentennial 200 Initiatives challenge with a project tied to the number 200, such as planting 200 flowers, singing 200 songs or cleaning 200 blocks. It also asks people to share photos with #thomasvillega200, #thomasville200 or #tville200. A holiday group project can still count.
If you're planning a visit to the Thomasville History Center at 725 N. Dawson Street, check the dates first. It's closed November 25 through 28 for Thanksgiving and December 21 through 26 for Christmas, so the doors will be closed on the anniversary itself. To see its collection before the 200th, go in early December.
We're glad to have a hometown that marks its 200th with a parade, a festival of wildlife art and two nights of carriage rides on Broad Street. If the bicentennial has you thinking about your own place in Thomasville's story, Intown Focus Realty is here year-round from our Thomasville office. When you're ready to know what your home is worth, Request Your Home Valuation and we'll put together a clear, local picture for you.
