Wilton's Winterfest Is Still On for Dec. 5. The Parade Down Dillard Road Isn't.

Last December, the Wilton Winter Festival parade left the Wilton Fire Department at noon on a chilly, foggy Saturday and headed north on Dillard Road toward the Community Center. A horse and buggy was part of it, and so was a restored 1955 Buick Century from the CHP Museum. Supervisor Pat Hume and his staff walked, along with Badger Creek 4-H, a local veterans group and Cub Scout Pack 16. Wilton Fire brought Santa in at the end. That was the 17th annual festival. The River Valley Times counted 18 entries, and organizers called it one of the longest parades yet.

This year Dillard Road stays open. The Wilton Community Center says the parade is canceled "due to a shortage of volunteers to help plan and coordinate the parade," and that "WINTERFEST IS STILL HAPPENING!"

The parade's history explains what happened. Its size has always depended on how many neighbors signed up to run it, and this year a few of those neighbors couldn't.

What's still on for Saturday, Dec. 5

The 2026 Wilton Winter Festival runs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Wilton Community Center, 9717 Colony Road. The center lists:

• Santa's Workshop, with free holiday crafts for kids
• Holiday and craft vendors, with an "Apply To Be A Vendor" link on the event page
• Brunch, with the menu still in the works
• Cookies and hot cocoa with Santa

The day is shorter than last year's. The 2025 schedule started at 8 a.m. with a pancake and sausage breakfast, ran kids' crafts until noon, closed roads at 11:30 a.m., held the parade from noon to 1 p.m. and finished with cookies and cocoa from 1 to 2 p.m. This year's listing starts two hours later and has no road closure to plan around. The center hasn't said how Santa will arrive, so check wiltoncommunitycenter.com for updates as Dec. 5 gets closer.

A parade that grew and shrank with its volunteers

The parade has used the same route every year it's been reported on. It starts at the Wilton Fire station at Wilton Road, goes north on Dillard Road past the viewing stand in front of Wilton Bible Church, and ends at the Community Center off Colony Road. The route stayed the same. The number of entries didn't:

1. 2023, the 15th festival. About a dozen entries, including the California Cowgirls Rodeo Drill Team, Rangeview 4-H with goats and chickens, Cub Scout Pack 16, Wilton Animal Rescue, a veterans float and Living Water Church. A sheriff's patrol vehicle led, and Wilton firetrucks and Santa closed it out. The Elk Grove Citizen's coverage noted that the year before had been very rainy.
2. 2024, the 16th. 27 entries, the most since the festival began, with horses, a 1940 John Deere tractor, three classic Studebakers and a 94-year-old CHP Museum patrol car. Corky Donnelly, who managed Shelton Feed & Supply for 40 years, was grand marshal.
3. 2025, the 17th. 18 entries, some with more than one vehicle. Longtime residents Bill and Alice Kutzer were grand marshals, and Sacramento County Sheriff's Office reserve deputies handled road closures.
4. 2026, the 18th festival. No parade.

In 2024, the record year, parade organizer Lynn Holliday told the River Valley Times she was especially happy that a horse group and the 1940 tractor took part.

"I always joke that we must have horses and a tractor because, you know, this is Wilton."

She also said they "kept the roads closed longer than we ever had" that year. A longer closure needs more help, and that help comes from volunteers.

Why losing a few people cancels a parade

The 2024 coverage shows how much of Winterfest depends on individual people. Volunteer Codi Craig organized the craft fair, which had 30 vendors set up on the driveway behind the Community Center. A Dillard Elementary teacher and a team of school volunteers made breakfast and lunch and organized a 10 a.m. school choir concert. The Santa's Workshop was new that year, and festival chair Patsy Nemetz credited volunteer Stephanie Bruce with setting it up and gathering the craft supplies. Each part of the day had one person's name on it, and the parade had Holliday's.

The 2026 appeal says it directly. On its kickoff meeting page for Tuesday, Oct. 20, the Community Center wrote that "several of our longtime volunteers are unable to participate this year" and that without more help, organizers "may have to make some difficult decisions about whether we can hold the event this year." The decision they made was to keep the festival and drop the parade. A parade is the hardest piece to run with a smaller crew. It needs a route plan, entry applications, a lineup at the fire station and road closures with deputies at the barricades. The kids' crafts and the vendor tables stay at the Community Center and don't need any of that.

The center is still asking. A planning meeting is listed for Thursday, Nov. 5, at 5:30 p.m. at the Community Center. Its notice says, "You don't need event-planning experience, just a willingness to lend a hand." The festival page still says the parade is canceled "at this time."

The building has the same backstory

The Community Center itself exists because neighbors stepped up. It used to be the multipurpose room at C.W. Dillard Elementary. When the Elk Grove Unified School District rebuilt the school, it left that room standing, and in 2014 the Wilton History Group asked whether it could be reused, as The Sacramento Bee reported. According to the center's own history, the district transferred the building to Sacramento County at no cost, a nonprofit formed to save the space, and the center had its grand opening on Sept. 30, 2017. The nonprofit works with County Service Area 4B to maintain and schedule the county-owned site and raises money for improvements like lighting, paint, a PA system and a shed. It has been a 501(c)(3) since 2016, according to ProPublica's nonprofit records.

The CSA 4B Council and the Wilton Community Center nonprofit sponsored the 2025 Winterfest. Besides Winterfest and the parade, the center lists the Dillard Fair, a talent show, Master Gardener classes, the Old West Trio Dinner & Raffle and the firefighter chili cook-off, which it co-sponsors. All of those depend on the same small group of volunteers.

The rest of the season around Dec. 5

Here's what else is on the November and December calendar. Most of it is at or near the same building, and most of it is run by local groups:

The Veterans Appreciation Day is a Wilton History Group event. That's the same group that asked about saving the Dillard multipurpose room in 2014 and sold calendars and T-shirts at the 2024 craft fair. Rustic Roots, a family-run certified organic farm, is on the same road as the parade route. It describes its tree rows as a "forest" you can visit "without the drive to the mountains," and it has a 400-year-old oak at the front of the property for picnics. The farm asks visitors to leave pets at home because of its animals, and its site has a tree-care page that recommends cutting 1/4 to 1/2 inch off the base and getting the tree into water right away. Wilton Bible Church at 9697 Dillard Road is where the parade's viewing stand used to be set up. Its Christmas Celebration is Sunday, Dec. 20.

If you want Santa riding up Dillard Road on a fire truck again in December 2027, the Community Center is where to sign up, and it's already asking for help.

At Roenspie + Johnson, we live and work in this part of the county and keep track of how Wilton's holiday calendar changes. If you have questions about the Wilton area, or you just want to talk about how Winterfest is coming together this year, Contact Us for a Local Market Consultation.