Sneads Ferry has two Christmas celebrations on Saturday, December 12, one from a volunteer council and one from a local coffee shop. The Sneads Ferry Community Council puts on Christmas in the Ferry at the Community Center on Park Lane, where Santa arrives at 8:45 a.m. Coffee Haven runs its 6th Annual Merry Ferry from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Silver Sands Drive.
The building behind the bigger of the two events is also the subject of an Onslow County rezoning case, PREZ-2026-00015, which would allow its event use under county zoning.
Santa Lands on Park Lane at 8:45 a.m.
The Sneads Ferry Community Council's event calendar lists Christmas in the Ferry for Saturday, December 12, 2026, at 126 Park Lane. It runs all day and opens with a warning in capital letters: "COME EARLY - SANTA ARRIVES @ 8:45AM!"
The council's listing gives the day in this order:
- Breakfast with Santa
- Crafts for the kids, a bounce house and Christmas characters
- Lunch
- Craft vendors and performances
- Dinner
- The Festival of Trees, which runs alongside the day's events
The council's contact list also names a chili cook-off. Vendors use [email protected]. General questions and volunteers go to [email protected].
Only In Onslow's holiday roundup lists free admission and free kids' crafts. It also lists free cookies, coffee and hot chocolate, musical performances, photo ops and a free gift from Santa for each child.
Earlier years give a sense of the scale. In 2022, the Jacksonville Daily News reported a 9 a.m. breakfast with Santa: pancakes, sausage and a drink for $5. Star-Studden Voices and Ferry Tales Youth Theater performed that year, and the Festival of Trees lighting, chili cook-off and candy-tree decorating were held the evening before.
The Council Behind the Breakfast Also Runs Bingo Night
The breakfast, vendor tables and dinner all come from the group that keeps the building open the rest of the year. The council says it is "responsible for maintaining the Community Center building and grounds as well as producing the Shrimp Festival, Christmas in the Ferry and other fundraising and community oriented events."
Its stated purpose is to advance the "Civic, Charitable, Social, Historic, Educational, and Economic interests of the Turkey Creek Fire Department District." It also offers the center as a venue for other charities and nonprofits and funds scholarships for area students.
Bingo nights show how the arrangement works week to week. On Friday bingo nights at the center, charities, clubs and organizations raise money "In the Kitchen," local businesses sponsor player bags, and local retailers and organizations donate game prizes.
Here's what remains on the center's calendar from publish day through the holidays:
| Date | Time | What's on at 126 Park Lane |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, December 9 | 7 p.m. | Council general meeting, open to everyone in the community |
| Saturday, December 12 | Santa at 8:45 a.m. | Christmas in the Ferry |
| Friday, December 18 | 6 p.m. | Bingo |
The council describes its general meetings as "fast-paced and informative." The December 9 meeting falls three days before the festival.
A County Rezoning Case Covers the Building
The Community Center hosts Christmas in the Ferry, the Shrimp Festival and Friday bingo, yet county zoning doesn't list event venues as an allowed use on its lot. In an Onslow County staff report, Onslow County Planning & Development calls the center at 126 Park Lane "a nonconforming structure" under its current zoning, Residential 8 Manufactured Housing, or R-8M.
Case PREZ-2026-00015 was filed for the Sneads Ferry Community Council and the Sneads Ferry Volunteer Fire Department. It would rezone 12 acres at 114 and 126 Park Lane to Community Business. Turkey Creek Fire Rescue sits at 114, and the Community Center is at 126. County staff supports the change:
"The proposed rezoning would correct the current nonconforming status of the Sneads Ferry Community Center located at 126 Park Lane. Indoor event venues are allowed by right in the Community Business Zoning District while not currently allowed in the Residential 8 Manufactured Housing Zoning District."
The two districts' use tables line up with what happens on Park Lane in December. R-8M permits government buildings, emergency services, a golf course, parks and open areas, and recreational facilities tied to a residential development. Community Business keeps government facilities and emergency services. It adds indoor event venues, restaurants, outdoor vendor sales and retail uses under 10,000 square feet. On December 12, the center hosts vendors, sells meals and holds a festival indoors.
Staff tied the request to the county's Horizon 2040 Comprehensive Plan. That plan puts the site in the "Waterside Community" category, which covers unincorporated areas tied to working waterfronts. For non-residential uses, the category allows small commercial and service uses for coastal neighborhoods, along with "small civic uses such as churches and other community focused uses."
The report also gives a traffic figure for a day that draws crowds to Park Lane. The 2024 NCDOT counts recorded 5,200 trips a day on Sneads Ferry Road, about 0.4 miles northwest of the site. The road's estimated design capacity is about 10,600 trips a day.
The case went before two public meetings this fall. The Onslow County Planning Board took it up on October 1 as an advisory item. The Board of Commissioners' November 2 agenda included a public hearing on the request and the required consistency statement.
Down Silver Sands Drive, the Sixth Merry Ferry
The second celebration grew out of a coffee shop's own story. Coffee Haven opened on January 4, 2020, in an 8-by-16-foot drive-thru shop. The business has since moved into a 16-by-40-foot building with both a drive-thru and a walk-in counter. That's about five times the floor space. The shop says it serves "our customers, our community, and our neighbors."
The AllEvents listing for the 6th Annual Merry Ferry puts it at 113 Silver Sands Drive on Saturday, December 12, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The rain date is Saturday, December 19. Christmas in the Ferry has no rain date on the council's listing, so only Merry Ferry would move if the weather turns.
Six annual events means the series began in 2021, its second December in business. In 2022 the Jacksonville Daily News covered the second edition, then called Merry Ferry Coffee and Christmas. It drew vendors and live music, and the shop took vendor applications.
Merry Ferry runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., in the middle of Christmas in the Ferry's day, which starts at 8:45 a.m. and ends with dinner. That leaves room for Santa's breakfast on Park Lane, a mid-day stop on Silver Sands Drive and a return for the evening meal and the Festival of Trees.
The Weekends Around December 12
The two Sneads Ferry events land in the middle of a busy month across Onslow County and the coast. Only In Onslow's holiday roundup lists these nearby dates:
- Saturday, November 21: Jacksonville Christmas Holiday Parade on Western Boulevard. The road closes at 9 a.m., and the parade starts at 9:45 a.m.
- Friday, November 27: Swansboro Christmas Flotilla, 5 to 8 p.m., on the waterfront at 102 West Church Street.
- Sunday, December 6: Christmas tree lighting at Onslow Pines Park, 1244 Onslow Pines Road in Jacksonville, 2 to 6 p.m. It features an 80-foot tree, Santa, hot chocolate, vendors and a drone show. The county also displays its own Festival of Trees at Lights Over Onslow that day.
- Saturday, December 12: Christmas in the Ferry at 126 Park Lane and the 6th Annual Merry Ferry at 113 Silver Sands Drive.
- Friday, December 18: Bingo at the Community Center, 6 p.m.
- Saturday, December 19: Merry Ferry's rain date.
Of these, only the events on Park Lane and Silver Sands Drive are run by Sneads Ferry groups on their own ground. The Community Council's December 9 general meeting, at 7 p.m., is open to anyone who wants to help with them.
We work and live on the Crystal Coast, and we follow how Sneads Ferry's community groups and local businesses keep its calendar full. If you have questions about Park Lane or your own corner of Sneads Ferry, NC Coastal Team is glad to talk it over with you. Get Your Home Value when you're ready to see where your home stands.
