The Library Raffle That Pays for the Lights on Billerica Common

The trees on Billerica Common light up on Saturday, Dec. 5, but the fundraising behind them starts weeks earlier, $5 at a time, at a raffle table inside the Billerica Public Library. The Home for the Holidays Display & Raffle opens Nov. 21. The Billerica Holiday Festival calls it its main fundraiser. The display is free to walk through, and raffle tickets are sold right next to it.

That order matters if you live in town. The tree lighting gets the crowd and the newspaper photos. But the season starts in the library's rooms, and what happens there between Thanksgiving and early December helps pay for what happens on the Common.

Where the money for the Common comes from

On its donation page, the committee says monetary gifts go toward maintaining, servicing and lighting the trees on the Town Common and nearby areas. When it posted last year's winners, the group said ticket buyers had supported its main fundraiser for stringing lights and decorating the Common.

The library is a formal partner in this, too. The Billerica Public Library's fundraising policy specifically allows the Festival to hold both its annual display and raffle and its Holiday Reception in the building, as long as it follows library policies and coordinates with the Library Director. For about three weeks a year, the library doubles as the money-raising end of the town's biggest winter event.

Nov. 20: the reception opens ticket sales

The season starts on Friday, Nov. 20, with the Holiday Reception at the library from 6:30 to 9 p.m. It's for adults 21 and over, and you need a ticket. The Eventbrite listing prices tickets at $40 plus fees. Guests get the first look at the display and the first chance to buy raffle tickets, and the listing says reception proceeds support the Festival's free family events and holiday lighting.

A reception ticket costs eight times as much as a raffle sheet. In return you see the trees and baskets a night before everyone else, and you can put tickets on the item you want before the Saturday crowd shows up.

What's on the tables, and who brought it

According to the Festival, donations range from gift baskets and tabletop items to fully decorated Christmas trees. Individuals, organizations and businesses can all donate. School trees work a particular way. The Festival supplies the tree, the school or its PTO or PTA picks a theme and decorates it, and the winner takes home the tree plus everything on it and under it.

The 2026 donor list, posted Sept. 6, reads like a directory of Billerica's civic life. Display donors include:

• Local businesses: 968 The Shop Barbers, Elmore Bookkeeping, Mallory Portraits, Raven & Dove Apothecary, Hampton Inn Boston Bedford Burlington, the Billerica branches of Rockland Trust, and StonehamBank
• Community groups: Billerica Garden Club, Billerica Community Farmers Market, Billerica Community Pantry, Billerica Lions Club Charities, Billerica Knights of Columbus, Billerica Scholarship Foundation, and Billerica Access Television
• Youth and school groups: Billerica Girl Scouts and Girl Scout Troop 62691, Billerica Pop Warner, Billerica SEPAC, the BMHS Athletic Association, the BMHS Class of 2027, the Ditson Elementary School DSA, and the Dutile Elementary School PTO
• Town and faith organizations: the Billerica Veterans Department and First Congregational Church Billerica

The 2025 winners list gives a sense of what these donors bring. Last year's prizes included wreaths and floral arrangements from Candlelight & Roses, a Billerica Garden Club basket, a snowman pallet tree from Marshall Middle School, a "Toy Story" tree from Parker Elementary, and a hiking-themed tree from Scout Troop 11. This year's tables will look different, but the mix should be similar: classroom projects next to small-business baskets, all in rooms where people usually return books.

Buying tickets around Thanksgiving week

You can look at the display any time it's up. Tickets, though, are sold only during set hours. Sheets cost $5 for 21 tickets, and if you buy five sheets you get a sixth free. That works out to $25 for 126 tickets. The Festival notes that its hours may change without notice.

Here are the weekend and event-day sales windows posted on the 2026 raffle ticket schedule:

On weekdays, sales happen in shorter morning, afternoon and evening blocks, which are listed on the same schedule page.

The gap over the holiday matches the library's own calendar. The library's events page shows it open only from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesday, Nov. 25, and closed on Thanksgiving, Nov. 26, and Friday, Nov. 27. If you have family visiting for Thanksgiving and want to show them the trees, Saturday, Nov. 28, is your first chance after the holiday to view and buy tickets.

The week before, the library adds an all-ages extra. Its drop-in Thanksgiving Make-N-Take craft runs Friday, Nov. 20, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 21, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. No registration is needed. Saturday the 21st is also the display's first public day, so kids can make a craft and then walk through the decorated trees during the same visit.

Dec. 5, when the lights come on

The Winter Festival runs from 2 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5, with games and activities in the area between the library and the Senior Center. The 28th Annual Tree Lighting program on the Common starts at 4:25 p.m., and the Festival stresses "sharp." It features Bruins anthem singer Todd Angilly. Santa and friends arrive around 5:15 p.m., and the trees are lit right after.

That same afternoon, raffle sales at the library close at 3:30 p.m., also marked sharp. Ticket sales end 55 minutes before the program begins outside. If you want tickets on lighting day, buy them before you get a spot on the Common.

Last year's lighting gives a preview. The Lowell Sun reported that Billerica started its 2025 season on Dec. 6 with Victorian carolers at the Billerica Historical Society, minutemen in colonial dress, Todd Angilly singing, Santa and Disney characters, and a Billerica Access Television reporter puppet "covering" the evening. The paper called the lighting of the Common the highlight of the night. Billerica Access Television also shows up on this year's display donor list, so it's part of both the fundraiser and the celebration.

The last week, and the drawing

The tree lighting isn't the end of the raffle. The display stays up for another eight days, and four more dates finish the season:

1. Saturday, Dec. 12: Free photos with Santa from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Billerica Council on Aging / Senior Center, 25 Concord Road in Billerica Center, sponsored by North Billerica Smiles. The line closes at 2 p.m., and you have to be in line by then to get a photo. Raffle sales at the library that day run until 4 p.m., so you can do both in one trip through the town center.
2. Sunday, Dec. 13: The last sales window, 1:30 to 4 p.m. After that, the display closes.
3. Tuesday, Dec. 15: Raffle winners are drawn.
4. Wednesday, Dec. 16: Winners are announced.

The winners get announced 11 days after the trees on the Common go up.

The money side of this is what Juan Concepcion pays attention to all year, whether it's a holiday raffle that keeps the Common lit or a family budget that keeps a Billerica home affordable. If you're planning for 2027 and want a clear look at what owning a home here would actually cost you, schedule a consultation and we'll go through the numbers together.