The walk starts at the Lenox MARTA station on East Paces Ferry Road. It runs 0.44 miles along Lenox Road beside Lenox Square to Peachtree Road on an elevated path 10 to 12 feet wide, with new pedestrian lighting and some shade from the trees. That stretch used to be a sidewalk squeezed against one of Buckhead's busiest roads. Buckhead Community Improvement District declared the $15.6 million Lenox Boardwalk finished and open at the end of September, as Urbanize Atlanta reported.
That makes this the first holiday season with the boardwalk open. Santa photos, Black Friday doors, the free opera afternoon and the evening hot chocolate crawl all fall along the stretch the boardwalk now connects to a train station. For the first time, you can plan the busiest weeks of the Lenox and Phipps season around MARTA instead of a parking deck.
What finished on Lenox Road in September
Two projects were declared done in the same announcement. The first was the boardwalk, which is phase one of the Lenox Road Complete Safe Street project. Buckhead CID has worked on that project for about nine years. Construction was expected to start in late 2023 and again in spring 2024 before it was pushed back. The full overhaul is expected to cost $82 million, with the Georgia Department of Transportation, the City of Atlanta and MARTA as partners.
The second was a few blocks north, where Wieuca Road meets Phipps Boulevard. Buckhead CID calls the $4 million roundabout there Atlanta's first multi-lane roundabout. It has bike lanes, crosswalks and placemaking signage, plus an 85-foot landscaped island that replaced an asphalt expanse the size of a small parking lot. The City of Atlanta and Buckhead CID paid for it.
Buckhead CID's own description of the boardwalk, as quoted by Urbanize Atlanta, states what it was built for:
"a safer, more direct connection between the Lenox MARTA station, Lenox Square, and the surrounding retail, hospitality and business community."
That retail, hospitality and business community is exactly where the holiday calendar sits.
The season's calendar runs along the same stretch
Santa's Lenox Square season starts Saturday, November 14, and photo sessions run through December 24. Simon's Lenox Square page takes reservations. At Phipps Plaza, Buckhead Bar's Santa's Tavern pop-up has been open since November 1 and runs through December 31 during mall hours.
Here is what's still ahead on the Lenox and Phipps side of Peachtree:
| Date | Where | What | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu., Nov. 26 | Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza | Both closed for Thanksgiving | Closed |
| Fri., Nov. 27 | Lenox Square | Black Friday hours | 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. |
| Fri., Nov. 27 | Phipps Plaza | Black Friday hours | 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
| Thu., Dec. 3 | Phipps Plaza, The Green | Grinch on The Green outdoor movie | See Simon listing |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Lenox Square, Luxury Wing | The Atlanta Opera, free and open to all | 1:30 p.m. |
| Sun., Dec. 6 | Lenox Square | Caring Santa, sensory-friendly, reservation required | 9:30 to 11 a.m. |
| Sat., Dec. 12 | Lenox Square, Phipps Plaza and Peachtree Road | Livable Buckhead Hot Chocolate Crawl | 4 to 7 p.m. |
Of these, the December 12 crawl fits the boardwalk best. Livable Buckhead's Miracle on Peachtree page bills it as a holiday stroll along Peachtree Road, with Lenox Square, Phipps Plaza and nearby shops as the backdrop. Participating stops serve hot chocolate and specialty cocktails, and live performers play along the route. Admission is free. Eight dollars plus tax gets you a commemorative campfire mug, with the money going to Livable Buckhead. The crawl runs 4 to 7 p.m. on a December Saturday, so you'll be walking home in the dark. That makes the boardwalk's new pedestrian lighting worth a lot that evening.
The malls' extended hours stretch the late-shopping window through the last weeks before Christmas. Lenox stays open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. December 14 through 19, then 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. December 21 through 23. Phipps is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on December 20 and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. December 21 through 23. On Christmas Eve, Lenox is open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Phipps 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Phipps' regular hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, so check the Phipps Plaza hours page before a weekday trip.
Planning the trip around the train
MARTA's 2026 holiday schedule runs Sunday service on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, buses run a Saturday schedule and rail runs a modified Saturday schedule. That means a 6 a.m. Black Friday start at Lenox Square comes with reduced rail service, so look up departure times on MARTA's holiday operating schedule the night before.
If you live in Buckhead but not within walking distance of a station, the Lenox station has another use. It sits on the Gold Line and has a surface lot and a parking deck, and MARTA lists free daily parking there. MARTA lists no parking at Buckhead station, which makes Lenox the closer park-and-walk option for the shopping corridor. Check the Lenox station page for current parking details before you count on a space.
Here's how a crawl evening can work without the mall decks:
- Park free at the Lenox station lot or take the Gold Line in.
- Leave the station at East Paces Ferry Road and pick up the boardwalk on Lenox Road.
- Follow the elevated path along Lenox Square to Peachtree Road, about 0.44 miles.
- Join the crawl stops along Peachtree between 4 and 7 p.m., then walk the same lit path back.
If you drive past Phipps on the way in or out, the Wieuca Road and Phipps Boulevard intersection is now the roundabout described above. If your usual route uses that intersection, you'll be driving it for the first time in holiday traffic.
December 5 belongs to the Village
The first Saturday in December pulls two ways. At 1:30 p.m. the Atlanta Opera performs in Lenox's Luxury Wing. Later that day, Livable Buckhead's Miracle on Peachtree moves to the Buckhead Village District, the walkable cluster around Charlie Loudermilk Park:
- Wreath Decorating for Atlanta's Heroes, noon to 2 p.m. at the Veranda in Buckhead Village. Volunteers decorate wreaths and sign cards for all 43 Atlanta fire rescue stations and police precincts, and first responders pick them up from 2 to 3 p.m.
- Miracle on Peachtree Holiday Market, 3 to 7 p.m. at Charlie Loudermilk Park, with artisans, makers and specialty vendors.
- Village District Hot Chocolate Crawl, 5 to 7 p.m., with local musicians playing through the district.
- Holiday Tree and Menorah Lighting, 7 p.m. at Charlie Loudermilk Park, where Livable Buckhead lights a 24-foot tree from Traditions. The event is free.
So December 5 is the Village's night, and December 12 is the night for the Lenox and Phipps corridor. The two crawls are a week apart, so you can do both, and the Peachtree Road one is the one with a new boardwalk from the train.
Where the walk still runs out
The boardwalk ends at Peachtree Road. The next stretch, Lenox Road between Peachtree and Phipps Boulevard including the entrance to Alliance Center, is phase two. Buckhead CID describes it as a stretch that anchors some of Buckhead's top shopping and dining destinations. That roughly $10 million phase is in final engineering and still needs right-of-way acquisition and permits, with groundbreaking expected in 2027. Plans call for wider sidewalks, upgraded ramps and staircases, traffic flow and streetscape upgrades, and more lighting.
Phase three is a bigger project. It's a planned elevated pedestrian and bicycle bridge spanning 0.62 miles where Lenox Road meets Georgia 400, at a point where the Buckhead Loop is 10 lanes wide. Buckhead CID says it will close "one of Buckhead's hardest gaps for anyone not in a car," in the words Urbanize Atlanta reported. The bridge is in active design with a projected cost of $40 million to $56 million, partly funded by a $10 million federal grant. Groundbreaking is now expected in 2028, a year later than earlier projections. It would connect to PATH400 and to HUB404, the future park planned to cap Georgia 400.
PATH400 is close to done on its own. Livable Buckhead reported in September that nearly five of its 5.2 miles are open. The section north of Loridans Drive is expected to be finished in early 2027, when it will connect to Sandy Springs.
For this season, the walkable piece is the stretch from Lenox station to Peachtree Road. That covers the Lenox Square Santa set, the Luxury Wing opera afternoon, Black Friday at 6 a.m. and the December 12 crawl.
If the new boardwalk has you thinking about how these projects affect your own block, Kenna Daws is happy to talk through what's planned around Lenox, Phipps and PATH400 and what it could mean for your home's value. Get your instant home valuation, then let's compare it with what's coming down Lenox Road over the next few years.
