Cherry Creek's holiday season has two hosts, and they do not start together. Cherry Creek Shopping Center opens first, indoors, with Santa on Nov. 7 and a tree lighting on Nov. 14. Five days after the tree lighting, Cherry Creek North opens its Holiday Market on Fillmore Plaza and the season moves outdoors. The two sides of 1st Avenue run as a relay, with the handoff on Thursday, Nov. 19.
Seen as a sequence, the two calendars cover about eight weeks, from the first Santa visit in early November to the last day the Giving Machines run in January. Each host sets its own hours and fills its own part of the calendar.
The Mall Takes the First Two Weeks
The Santa Photo Experience at Cherry Creek Shopping Center opens Saturday, Nov. 7, and runs through Christmas Eve. That makes the mall's Santa season the longest single run of holiday programming in the neighborhood. It starts nearly two weeks before anything opens on Fillmore Plaza.
The first big date is the Annual Tree Lighting Celebration on Saturday, Nov. 14. It works as an afternoon-into-evening event: a Holiday Bazaar opens at 2 p.m., entertainment starts at 5 p.m., and then Santa lights the tree. If you plan to go, a mid-afternoon arrival gets you the bazaar before the evening crowd builds toward the lighting.
The mall's season-long program, called "It's a Holiday Thing", adds two dates that are easy to miss because they fall on Sunday evenings later in the season. Pet photos with Santa take place in Grand Court on Nov. 29 and Dec. 13, from 5 to 7 p.m. each night, and no reservation is required. A sensory-friendly Caring Santa session is set for Sunday, Dec. 6.
The Full Order, Both Sides of 1st Avenue
Laid out by date, the relay looks like this.
| Date | Host | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Sat., Nov. 7 | Cherry Creek Shopping Center | Santa photos begin, running through Dec. 24 |
| Sat., Nov. 14 | Cherry Creek Shopping Center | Holiday Bazaar at 2 p.m., tree lighting after 5 p.m. entertainment |
| Thu., Nov. 19 | Cherry Creek North | Holiday Market opens on Fillmore Plaza; Giving Machines arrive |
| Thu., Nov. 26 | Cherry Creek North | Thanksgiving market hours, noon to 3 p.m. |
| Fri., Nov. 27 to Mon., Nov. 30 | Cherry Creek North | Small Business Weekend across the district |
| Sun., Nov. 29 | Cherry Creek Shopping Center | Pet photos with Santa, 5 to 7 p.m., Grand Court |
| Sun., Dec. 6 | Cherry Creek Shopping Center | Caring Santa, sensory-friendly session |
| Sun., Dec. 13 | Cherry Creek Shopping Center | Pet photos with Santa, 5 to 7 p.m., Grand Court |
| Fri., Dec. 18 to Wed., Dec. 23 | Cherry Creek North | Final-week extended market hours |
| Thu., Dec. 24 | Both | Last day for Santa photos and the Holiday Market |
| Mon., Jan. 4, 2027 | Cherry Creek North | Giving Machines' last day |
The mall's programming leans toward early November and Sunday evenings. The district's programming fills the weeks after Nov. 19 and the long Thanksgiving weekend.
Nov. 19 Is the Handoff
The seventh annual Cherry Creek Holiday Market opens Thursday, Nov. 19, on Fillmore Plaza, the stretch of Fillmore Street between 1st and 2nd avenues. It runs through Christmas Eve. Admission is free and all ages are welcome. The market is part of Cherry Creek North's Winter Wanderland, the district's set of free outdoor holiday events, with more than a million lights spread across its 16 blocks.
The market is run by Fetch Concepts. Its own visitor page describes dozens of rotating local makers, along with a full bar of seasonal drinks in the Mistletoe Lounge. The lounge sits near 1st Avenue and Fillmore. It also serves coffee, espresso and tea, and it hosts most of the live music. Strolling carolers are the exception. In practice, the Mistletoe Lounge is the market's meeting point, so it's the easiest place to tell guests to find you.
Hours depend on the day of the week. Monday through Wednesday the market is open noon to 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday it is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and the same longer hours apply every day of the final week, Dec. 18 to 23. On Thanksgiving, Thursday, Nov. 26, the market opens for a short window from noon to 3 p.m.
The market's food and drink vendors are all local businesses. The operator's 2026 lists name:
- Prepared food: Sunflower Foods, Tom's Waffles, Gochilandia and Casa Crobu
- Wine, cider and spirits: Cliff Dweller Wine Co., Haykin Family Cider, The Family Jones and Uncle Tim's Cocktails
That lineup marks the clearest difference between the two hosts. The mall's season centers on Santa, the tree and the stores under its roof. The district's season centers on Colorado makers, Colorado producers and a bar on the street.
The Giving Machines Outlast Everything Else
The Giving Machines arrive at the market's entrance, 2nd Avenue and Fillmore Street, on the same day the market opens. They stay well past it, running around the clock from Nov. 19 through Monday, Jan. 4, 2027. These are vending machines that sell charitable gifts. Gifts support local organizations including Women's Bean Project, Special Olympics Colorado, Urban Peak and Young Americans Center.
Because the machines run 24 hours a day, they are the one holiday stop in the neighborhood with no closing time. They also stay on Fillmore Plaza for 11 days after the market vendors pack up on Christmas Eve, which carries the district's season through New Year's.
Thanksgiving Weekend Belongs to the District
The week after the market opens, Cherry Creek North holds Small Business Weekend from Friday, Nov. 27, through Monday, Nov. 30, across the whole district. The district's page tells shoppers to check each store's hours in advance and says participating businesses and deals will be posted closer to the weekend.
That gives the long weekend its own order. The market's short Thanksgiving hours on Thursday come first, followed by four days of district-wide independent shopping, and on Sunday evening the mall holds its first pet-photo night in the middle of that run. Few weekends of the year put both hosts' programming this close together.
Saturday Night Lights Has No 2026 Dates Yet
As of mid-October, the district's Winter Wanderland listing includes the market, Small Business Weekend and the Giving Machines. It does not yet list Saturday Night Lights. The 2025 edition ran on Fillmore Plaza from 5 to 8 p.m. on Dec. 6, 13 and 20, 2025. It had live DJs and dancing, a light-up dance floor, a 40-foot light tunnel, photo-booth keepsakes, free hot chocolate, visits from Santa and Mrs. Claus, and horse-drawn carriage rides that were new last year.
If it returns in a similar form, it will fall on December Saturdays. The mall's late-season extras are on Sundays, so the two hosts would keep their busiest evenings apart.
What's Changing Behind the Lights
The season also arrives in the middle of real changes to Cherry Creek's businesses, mostly on the mall side.
The Cherry Creek Shopping Center homepage lists Crate & Barrel and Studs as "Now Open." Another home-furnishings brand is on the way. BusinessDen reported on Oct. 8 that Pottery Barn plans to take over the 13,400-square-foot space Arhaus occupied, with a $1.3 million renovation plan.
On the residential edge of the district, one long-running business is moving at the end of the season. BusinessDen reported on Oct. 14 that Cherry Creek Dance will stop operating at 2625 E. 3rd Ave., its home since 2009, at the end of the year after a sale of the property. It is moving to the Galleria at Cherry Creek, 720 S. Colorado Blvd. in Glendale, about two miles away. For families whose weekly routine runs through that studio, this holiday season is the last one with it on 3rd Avenue.
The street between the two holiday hosts is also part of a longer project. The city's 1st Avenue Redesign is still in design. It proposes widening the Cherry Creek Trail between Downing and University from its current 8 to 9 feet toward a 12-foot regional standard, and no construction timeline has been set. For this winter, nothing changes on that stretch of trail.
For homeowners deciding whether to sell around the holidays or wait for spring, Stuart Crowell can prepare a private market valuation for your Cherry Creek home or share off-market opportunities that come up this winter.
