Woodland Lights' Ticket Gate Is Becoming a Permanent Building, and This Season Runs Through the Job Site

Last November, you bought your Woodland Lights ticket at a gate between RecPlex East and RecPlex West. That's how WDTN described it when the 2025 season opened. By summer 2026, the same strip of ground between the two buildings held concrete forms for a permanent ticket booth and a splash pad, both part of what Washington Township calls its new Gateway Plaza "Welcome Center."

Woodland Lights returns to Countryside Park at 895 Miamisburg-Centerville Road on Friday, November 20. In its bid notice, the Township said it intends the project rebuilding the park to be finished by December 31, 2026, eight days after the last night on its 2026 Woodland Lights schedule. That puts this season somewhere new for a 34-year tradition. The old layout is gone, the new one isn't finished, and the lights go up anyway.

The Front Door Is the Part Being Rebuilt

Countryside Park has been under construction in phases for a few years. Most of the early work happened in spots a December visitor walking the light path barely notices. The Turtle and Heron ponds were dredged, their banks were stabilized, and a boardwalk and fishing pier now run out into Turtle Pond toward the A-Frame shelter. The Township reported all of that pond work complete as of December 31, 2025. At Bass Lake, crews added a multi-colored lighted fountain, an accessible dock and kayak launch, a lakeside shelter, and a ramp into the historic cabin.

Phase II goes after the part of the park every Woodland Lights visitor walks through. On December 1, 2025, the Township awarded the Phase II contract to Outdoor Enterprises, LLC for $5.97 million. The scope covers the Gateway Plaza, a loop road, the Paragon Road entrance, covered walkways, an outdoor pavilion, a ticket and restroom building, and a 4,800-square-foot maintenance building. Crews had already removed the mound between RecPlex East and West by the end of 2025. In the Township's summer 2026 project update, the ticket booth and splash pad were "already taking shape," and concrete pads were due to start going in by the end of summer.

So the spot where tickets were sold, lines formed and the walk began is the spot under the heaviest construction.

The Calendar Got Bigger Anyway

A reasonable guess would be that a park in mid-rebuild runs a shorter season. The schedule shows the opposite.

The 2025 figures come from WDTN's opening-week story. The 2026 dates come from the Township's events calendar. Counting the dates on each, 2026 has three more full-event nights than 2025 did, and the nightly run before Christmas starts two days earlier. The 2026 listing ends at December 23. The lights-only week that ran December 26–30 last year doesn't appear on it, and the Township hasn't said whether it's coming back.

Which Parts of the Park Were Off-Limits This Summer

The most recent access notice on the Township's Countryside Park page is dated July 2026. It's the best picture available of how the grounds were working mid-construction:

• North section and Bass Lake: closed.
• South sections: no vehicle access for the general public. The playgrounds and A-Frame Shelter stayed open on foot, and the Township told visitors to park in the front lots.
• Between RecPlex East and West: very limited parking and access. Vehicle and pedestrian travel between the buildings was sometimes blocked by construction in the roadway.
• A-Frame reservations: suspended until further notice. The shelter was first come, first served.

That notice is three months old, and it describes summer, not December. It does show which areas the Township was keeping open, and which it was keeping people out of, while work was underway. The Bass Lake area is where crews put in the cabin ramp and lighted fountain in 2024, and in July it was the section listed as closed.

What the Township Hasn't Published Yet

When the 2025 season opened, the Township's senior recreation supervisor told WDTN the change was coming:

"Our park is going to go under Reconstruction starting next year, so this year is the last year you get to see the park in its form."

In the same story, WDTN reported that the Township planned a 2026 light display but that it was "not yet determined how exactly it may look." As of today, the Woodland Lights page still asks visitors to check back for 2026 information. The dates are set. The format isn't public.

Here's what the Township's pages and last year's coverage describe as the usual Woodland Lights. None of it is confirmed for 2026:

• A half-mile paved path with displays spread across 10 acres.
• The Rieck Express, a four-car train seating up to 16, plus a horse-drawn carriage last season.
• Santa in the historic log cabin, with characters like the Grinch making appearances.
• Natalie's Concessions, which had served the event for 32 years as of last season, with hot chocolate, funnel cake and pretzels.
• Hours of 6 to 9 p.m., with entry gates closing at 8:30.
• Prices from a prior season: $9 admission, free for children 2 and under, and $5 for lights only.
• Tickets sold online or at the gate. That gate stood in the space now becoming the Gateway Plaza.

The Township's ticket purchase page didn't list any Woodland Lights details when we checked. Pricing, the entry point and parking will all come from Washington Township's announcement, and that announcement is the one to wait for before planning a night around specific features.

Opening Weekend Shares a Sunday With the Uptown Holiday Walk

The first Woodland Lights weekend overlaps Centerville's own holiday weekend. The City's calendar lists Uptown Holiday Weekend for November 19–22, 2026. Centerville-Washington History has the Uptown Holiday Walk on Sunday, November 22, and says 2026 details are coming soon.

Last year's walk was on November 23, from 2 to 7 p.m. It had an indoor pop-up shop at Benham's Grove with more than 20 vendors and live music, then Santa at 5:30 p.m., then the City's tree lighting. Woodland Lights opened at 6 p.m. on its nights. If both events keep roughly last year's hours, Sunday the 22nd has an afternoon Uptown and an evening at Countryside Park, with Santa scheduled at both. Neither organization has confirmed its 2026 times yet, so that plan depends on two announcements that haven't come out.

What Stays After the Fencing Comes Down

The construction everyone will walk past this December is building the version of the park that future seasons will use. The Gateway Plaza is designed to link the recreation campus with covered sidewalks and to add an interactive spray fountain, an outdoor performance area, public restrooms and shaded picnic areas, all as one central entrance into Countryside Park. Work on the Paragon Road entrance started in spring 2026. It adds a picnic shelter with a water-bottle filling station and a bike-repair station. It also opens a vehicle and pedestrian route through the park that the Township describes as a green corridor from Paragon Road to McEwen Road.

The Township says it had been awarded $3,687,186.33 in grants for the project as of December 31, 2025, including a $1 million One-time Strategic Community Fund grant. The 2022 master plan behind all of this also shows later concepts, including a train depot, a relocated log cabin and a year-round Central Shelter in place of the Stolz Building. Those depend on future funding and priorities.

For Woodland Lights, the ticket-and-restroom building in the Phase II contract is the clearest change. Starting in a future season, the event's front door will be a permanent building instead of a seasonal gate. This year it's a job site, and the Township's target for finishing that job is December 31.

When the Township posts its 2026 Woodland Lights details, I'll be watching for the same things you are: where the entry is, which parts of the park are open, and whether the lights-only week returns. If you're a neighbor curious how the Countryside Park rebuild is changing this corner of Washington Township, or you have family moving to the area who want a local read on the park, Homes by Megan Reed is happy to talk it through. Get in touch.