On Saturday, Dec. 5, the Vero Beach Christmas Parade will follow its usual route on the island. Floats line up along Cardinal Drive around 6 p.m., turn onto Flamevine, and head north on Ocean Drive to JayCee Park, as the Indian River Guardian reported in late October. One week later, the mainland gets a weekend of its own. Starting Friday, Dec. 11, historic downtown Vero Beach hosts three days of events called Miracle on 14th. On Saturday afternoon there will be snow on 14th Avenue.
Miracle on 14th is new this year. Main Street Vero Beach and Vero Heritage are running it together, and they announced it in a community submission to Vero News on Oct. 19. The whole weekend is built around a grove of donated Christmas trees. The trees are decorated, auctioned, and then go home with buyers or to local families. So the mainland's biggest holiday event this year is one where residents can take part of the decorations home.
Thirty trees, sponsored and then sent home
The plan starts with 30 artificial trees. Vero Heritage's tree sponsorship packet invites businesses, organizations and community groups to sponsor one and decorate it. Sponsorship comes in three sizes:
- A 6-foot tree for $350
- An 8-foot tree for $600
- A 10-foot tree for $1,000
Decorating happens at the Heritage Center at 2140 14th Ave. in the days just before the weekend. The packet lists a Dec. 9 decorating event and a Dec. 10 delivery deadline. When the doors open Friday night, the finished trees fill the building as the Christmas Tree Grove.
Next comes the auction. The sponsor page on Cocoa Tickets says the trees go into a silent auction that runs Friday and Saturday. Winning bidders can take their tree home, or they can authorize it to be given to a local family. A tree decorated by a downtown business on Wednesday could be standing in a mainland living room by the following week.
Friday night at the Heritage Center
Miracles in the Grove opens the weekend on Friday, Dec. 11, from 6 to 9 p.m. It's the only ticketed part of the three days. The event listing describes it as a first look at the tree grove and the auction, with live music from the Ocean Strings Student Orchestra, a performance of The Nutcracker by Vero Classical Ballet, and champagne and light bites.
That makes Dec. 11 a two-Nutcracker night on the mainland. Ballet Vero Beach is staging Nutcracker on the Indian River at Riverside Theatre, with evening shows at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 10 and 11 and a 2 p.m. matinee on Dec. 12. Its Nutcracker for All runs Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. and Dec. 13 at noon. If you want both, you have options. You could catch the full ballet at Riverside on Thursday and walk the Grove on Friday. Or you could see the Heritage Center performance Friday and keep the Saturday matinee for anyone who wants the whole story.
Saturday on 14th Avenue, Sunday at the market
Saturday's event is free and moves outside onto the street. According to its event page, Miracles on Main runs from 1 to 5 p.m. with holiday vendors, Santa, family activities and snow on 14th Avenue. Youth groups perform on three stages in 15-minute slots from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Main Street has invited choirs, bands, orchestras, dance troupes and theater groups to fill those slots. The silent auction is still open on Saturday, so you can stop by the Heritage Center and check your bid between performances.
Sunday's event will feel familiar to anyone who already goes to the Pocahontas Park market. Miracles at the Market runs Dec. 13 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. It's a Pop Up Vero holiday market with local growers, makers, bakers, artisans and small businesses. Pop Up Vero also runs Sundays on the Green at the park with the same 9-to-2 hours, and Dec. 13 is already on that market's calendar. It's a good morning to pick up gifts from the same vendors you might already shop with.
The four weeks that lead up to it
Miracle on 14th is the last part of a longer downtown season. The Vero News announcement says lighting and decorations go up in historic downtown starting in late November. These are the dates between now and the weekend itself:
- Sundays through December. Sundays on the Green is already underway at Pocahontas Park from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Its remaining dates are Nov. 15, 22 and 29 and Dec. 6, 13 and 27.
- Saturday, Nov. 21. The Indian River Chamber's free Tree Lighting Festival takes over Pocahontas Park from 3 to 7 p.m. Expect local vendors, food trucks, holiday crafts, live performances, bubble snow and Santa. Visit Indian River County says Santa will be visiting at the Vero Heritage Center, the same building that hosts the tree grove three weeks later.
- Also through Nov. 22. Riverside Theatre's My Vaudeville Man! runs through Nov. 22, with matinee and evening shows.
- Thursday, Nov. 26. United Against Poverty's 19th annual Trot Against Poverty 5K starts at 7:30 a.m. at Riverside Park, 3280 Riverside Park Drive. Registration opens at 6 a.m., and a children's race goes off at 7:15 a.m.
- Friday, Nov. 27. Downtown Friday returns to 14th Avenue. It's Main Street's free monthly street party with live music, food and vendors. Last year's late-November edition was called Hometown Holidays. It ran from 6 to 9 p.m. with shopping at downtown merchants, food trucks, and music by Johnny & the Blaze, as Vero News listed at the time.
- Sunday, Dec. 6. The Vero Beach Christmas Boat Parade runs from 6 to 7:30 p.m. It starts north of the Barber Bridge and finishes at the Royal Palm Pointe dock. Good viewing spots include the City Marina, Riverside Park and A.W. Young Park.
The Dec. 5 road parade on Ocean Drive is the one big holiday event of these weeks held on the island. The boat parade the next night finishes at a mainland dock, and the three days after that are centered on 14th Avenue and the Heritage Center.
Where the auction money goes
Organizers describe the fundraising as reaching beyond December. Main Street Vero Beach and Vero Heritage wrote this in their Vero News submission:
"Our purpose is to turn holiday generosity into meaningful support that continues long after the holidays are over."
The money goes to a program called Miracles with HART. Its page on the event site describes help for local children with school clothing and uniforms, school meal accounts, achievement incentives, and basic needs for children without stable housing. The page says all proceeds after expenses go to the program. The sponsorship packet calls it the "HART Program - Dodgertown Elementary & Beyond." That connects Saturday's student performers and the Friday orchestra to the same cause the trees are raising money for.
For anyone who wants more than a ticket, the tree program is the simplest way in. A 6-foot tree costs $350 to sponsor. You decorate it before Dec. 10, and the auction decides where it goes. Sponsorship details and the Friday tickets are both linked from miracleon14th.com. Event schedules can change as the dates get closer, so check the organizers' pages before you head downtown.
At The Sutcliffe Group, we keep track of weekends like this one because they're part of what living on the mainland means from November through the new year. If you're considering a home within walking distance of 14th Avenue and want to know what the calendar looks like from its front porch, schedule a consultation.
