"80% of our incoming revenue is parking and VIP offers in town. Only 20% is raised by sponsorships," Michelle Myers told the Middleburg Eccentric in its October 30 report on this year's event. She organizes Christmas in Middleburg with her husband, Doug.
That one sentence explains most of what a parade-goer runs into on the first Saturday in December. It explains the paid lot a mile outside the village, the shuttle bus, the price that goes up as the date gets closer, and the empty curbs along Washington Street. The Middleburg Hunt's horses and hounds and the mile-long parade behind them are paid for mainly by the people who drive in to watch. This year, with the sponsor money running short, more of the cost lands on those cars.
Where the $150,000 Comes From
Christmas in Middleburg is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and it files a budget and a statement of activity with Middleburg Town Council every year. Those filings show an event that costs about $150,000 to produce. For 2025, it reported $151,529 in income against roughly the same in expenses and finished about even.
Here are the 2025 income lines the Eccentric reported:
| 2025 income source | Amount |
|---|---|
| Parking | $53,400 |
| VIP parking, seating and viewing | $33,025 |
| Sponsorships | $27,300 |
| Town of Middleburg grant | $10,000 |
Taken together, parking and VIP sales came to $86,425, about 57 percent of 2025 income. Sponsorships came to about 18 percent. For every sponsor dollar in 2025, the event took in more than three dollars from parking and VIP sales. When sponsors fell short of their budgeted amount last year, individual donations and VIP sales made up most of the difference.
The event has also gotten much bigger. When the Eccentric covered the 2016 parade's finances, income was $78,000, including $9,000 from the Town. The 2025 figure is nearly twice that. Myers told Council last October that costs rise "5 to 7% every year." The tradition started in 1979, when Mayor Loyal McMillin suggested the town needed a Christmas celebration. In 1980, Dudley and Cissy Bunn and Tyler Gore put together the first modern parade. Jim Herbert led it through the 2010s and made it a nonprofit in 2011.
Why the Cars Park a Mile Out
The biggest single expense is the system behind the biggest source of income. Buses that shuttle visitors from lots outside the village cost $40,857 in 2025, under a $39,000 contract. That is more than a quarter of the event's spending. According to Myers, the buses became even more important after the Town closed in-town street parking to parade visitors when the event came back from its 2020 COVID cancellation. The Town has also asked organizers to cap parking at 1,000 cars.
The other line items are smaller. Barricades and portable toilets cost about $15,000, and insurance about $6,000. The nonprofit also pays Loudoun County Sheriff's deputies to direct traffic off Route 50 and buses out of Mickie Gordon Park, and it makes a donation to the Aldie Ruritans, who help run the parking there.
The organizers give money back as well. In 2025 the nonprofit donated $13,923, nearly 10 percent of its spending, to local schools, churches and charities, including the Hill School, Foxcroft, Middleburg FISH and the Middleburg Hunt.
So the shuttle works both ways. It keeps Washington Street clear for horses, hounds and floats, and every car that takes it pays toward the bus fleet, the deputies and the barricades. With a 1,000-car cap, the money parking can raise has a hard limit unless the price per car goes up.
The Sponsor Line Shrank First
Sponsorship is the part of the budget that has slipped. The 2025 budget counted on $57,000 from sponsors, including $35,000 from a presenting sponsor. Sponsors gave $27,300. PenFed, the federal credit union, was presenting sponsor in 2024 and 2025. As of the Eccentric's October 30 report, no company had been confirmed in its place for 2026.
Doug Myers told Town Council on September 24 that sponsorships were running at "about half of the usual," leaving an approximate $20,000 shortfall. He said that "without significant financial support, this event is in real risk of ending." On October 28, Michelle Myers told the Eccentric she was "in active talks with a potential sponsor that will fill the gap, but no confirmation yet," and said the organizers would return to Council in November if needed. Middleburg Town Council's November meeting is scheduled for November 12.
The Town has a defined role. Under a memorandum of understanding Council approved unanimously in July 2025, the nonprofit is responsible for "All financial and contractual obligations, including fundraising and sponsorships." The Town provides police and staff, and it provides money "only as approved and appropriated by the Town Council." The Middleburg Police chief sets the parade route and makes the final call on whether it goes on. For 2026, Interim Town Manager Will Moore said the Town has budgeted a $12,000 sponsorship, up from $10,000, plus police overtime, officers from other jurisdictions and public works support.
At the September meeting, Mayor Bridge Littleton suggested that the Middleburg Business and Professional Association ask each of its members to "chip in 200 bucks." Council member Pam Curran pointed the organizers to the Middleburg Charitable Foundation, which takes grant applications in October.
How Thin the Cushion Is
The nonprofit is not broke, and the Eccentric's figures show why the gap still matters. In February, the organizers filed a statement with Council showing $79,180 in the bank as of February 23, 2026, and no debts. About $66,000 of that is the operating account, which Myers said gets each year's event started. "We spend anywhere from $40,000 to $60,000 in advance payments before we start selling parking in September," she said. The remaining $11,900 or so funds the production of the annual ornament and the charitable donations.
The Eccentric worked out what that leaves. After $40,000 to $60,000 in advance payments come out of the $66,000, the cushion for absorbing a missing $20,000 sponsor is somewhere between $6,000 and $26,000. At this year's posted $60 rate for the Mickie Gordon Park lot, $20,000 equals about 333 cars, a third of the 1,000-car cap.
The organizers are cutting costs too. Myers said they will move out of their office space at the end of 2026 and reduce social outreach and admin support.
Saturday, December 5, From Breakfast to the Last Bus
The event is confirmed for Saturday, December 5. The organizers say it goes on rain or shine.
- Breakfast with Santa, 8 to 11 a.m., per Northern Virginia Magazine.
- The Middleburg Hunt Review, 11 a.m., with horses and hounds leading off down Washington Street.
- Carolers and a kids' zone at the Middleburg Community Center between the two processions.
- The community Christmas parade, 2 p.m.
Shuttles run from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. The event's official parking page lists three options.
- Priority parking at Mickie Gordon Park, about a mile east of town on the north side of Route 50. Turn north onto Oakham Road, then left onto Carters Farm Lane; the park entrance is on the right.
- VIP parking at Lost Barrel Brewing, about a mile west of town on the north side of Route 50.
- Free accessible parking behind Middleburg United Methodist Church at 15 West Washington Street, for vehicles with a valid DMV sticker or hang tag.
The price per car rises as the date gets closer. When sales opened October 1, Northern Virginia Magazine reported $50 per car at Mickie Gordon Park and $110 at Lost Barrel Brewing, and noted that both would go up. By the end of October, the official page listed $60 and $150, and both prices include the round-trip shuttle. Washington Street reserved viewing, grandstand seats and the Oyster Bar are sold through the same TicketLeap event page. Those are the VIP sales that brought in $33,025 last year.
Salamander Middleburg's event calendar lists a Christmas in Middleburg BBQ that day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and The Santa Experience on Friday, November 27. The organizers also sell the annual Christmas in Middleburg ornament through their online shop. The ornament is produced from the same donation account that funds the event's local giving.
Under this budget, the decisions that most affect whether the parade continues are the ones parade-goers make before December 5: which lot to buy, whether to sit in the grandstand, and whether to pick up an ornament. Council's November 12 meeting is the next public point where the sponsor question could come back up.
Cindy Polk has spent her life in Hunt Country's equestrian community, and the Hunt Review on Washington Street is one of the traditions Horse Farms & Country Homes values most. If you're thinking about a country property within an easy drive of the parade, we'd be glad to talk about it. Book an appointment.
