Over four weekends, Hockessin's holiday calendar has an event at almost every price. The Hometown Holiday Market on Lancaster Pike is free. The Artisan Show up Snuff Mill Row costs $5 at the door, and children under 12 get in free. Holiday Trains at Auburn Heights costs $25 per adult if you register ahead and $30 if you pay at the gate. None of these is put on by a town government or a big promoter. A bookstore, a church congregation, an arts center, a public garden and a steam museum each run their own piece of the season. One brewery shows up in two of those pieces, which gives Creek Road a real claim to being the center of it.
Here is how the season lays out from Nov. 21 through Dec. 13, in order, with the details that affect your plans.
Nov. 21 and 22: The Artisan Show Opens the Season on Snuff Mill Row
The Center for the Creative Arts holds its 45th Annual Artisan Show at 410 Upper Snuff Mill Row in Yorklyn on Saturday, Nov. 21, and Sunday, Nov. 22. The show features more than 40 regional artisans and handmade goods. It runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Nonmembers pay $5. CCArts members and children under 12 get in free, and one admission covers both days. So you can look on Saturday and come back Sunday for the piece you kept thinking about without paying again.
That Saturday also starts the season at the other end of town. From 10 to 11 a.m. on Nov. 21, Hockessin BookShelf holds a Local Author Showcase with Rebecca Gould Baeurle and Heather Lin. The showcase ends an hour after the Artisan Show doors open, so you can do the bookstore first and then drive to Yorklyn.
Sunday, Nov. 22, overlaps with a third host. Mt. Cuba Center holds a Garden Share Guest Pass Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with two-for-one general admission. Tickets are sold onsite. If out-of-town family arrives early for Thanksgiving, that Sunday gets you a garden walk for two at the price of one and an afternoon at the Artisan Show, which stays open until 4.
Nov. 28: Small Business Saturday Moves to Lancaster Pike
The Saturday after Thanksgiving belongs to Lancaster Pike. Town Square Delaware reports that the first Hometown Holiday Market opens Nov. 28 at Hockessin United Methodist Church, 7250 Lancaster Pike, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free. The Hockessin Gossip Girls are sponsoring it, and The Fairy Potter is curating it. More than 30 regional makers will sell pottery, fine art, custom jewelry, woodworking, stained glass and alpaca products. Food vendors will bring small-batch chocolates, baked goods, honey, caramels and coffee. For lunch, Holy Grounds Café will serve dishes made by the church parish. Organizers say they hope the market becomes an annual tradition.
Hockessin BookShelf holds its own Small Business Saturday the same day, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It will have holiday merchandise, raffles, and two guest booksellers, novelist Marisa de los Santos and children's author Erin Entrada Kelly. The bookstore stays open two hours after the church market closes, so you can shop the makers' tables in the morning and visit the bookstore late in the day.
What Needs a Ticket, and What Doesn't
Only one event this season rewards buying early. The rest are free or paid at the door.
| Event | Date | Cost | How to get in |
|---|---|---|---|
| CCArts 45th Annual Artisan Show | Nov. 21 and 22 | $5 nonmembers; members and children under 12 free | One admission covers both days |
| Mt. Cuba Garden Share Guest Pass Day | Nov. 22 | Two-for-one general admission | Buy onsite |
| Hometown Holiday Market | Nov. 28 | Free | Walk in |
| Holiday Trains at Auburn Heights | Dec. 5 and 6 | $25 ages 13 and up in advance, $30 at the gate; $15 ages 12 and under; infants free | Advance sales close at noon Friday, Dec. 4 |
The two Yorklyn venues draw their age lines in different places. A 12-year-old is past the free cutoff at the Artisan Show and pays $5, but the same child still gets the $15 under-13 rate at Holiday Trains. If you're bringing kids to both, that difference affects the total.
Dec. 5 and 6: The Season Moves Up Creek Road
The first weekend in December is the busiest stretch on Creek Road. Holiday Trains at Auburn Heights runs Saturday, Dec. 5, from 3 to 6 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 6, from 1 to 4 p.m. The event takes place at 3000 Creek Road in Yorklyn. It includes model train layouts in the museum and rides on the 1/8-scale Auburn Valley Railroad. Santa photos in one of the museum's antique automobiles are free, and the first floor of the 1897 Auburn Heights mansion is open for tours. The Olde Town Carolers and the University of Delaware's Vocal Point perform live, and the Yuletide Market sells handmade gifts from local vendors connected with the Center for the Creative Arts.
Tickets have been on sale since Nov. 1. Advance sales end at noon on Friday, Dec. 4, or sooner if tickets run out, and the page marks availability as limited. Holiday Trains is a fundraiser. Members of Friends of Auburn Heights get 20% off only if they register in advance, and members who show up without registering pay full price at the gate. All proceeds go to Friends of Auburn Heights and the Marshall Steam Museum.
The event page also lists a local food truck and beer and wine from Dew Point Brewing. That's the first of two December appearances for the brewery.
Mt. Cuba has hands-on workshops the same weekend. The Elegant Winter Container Workshop is Dec. 5 and uses native winterberry, magnolia and evergreens. Yule Log: A Luminary Arrangement is Dec. 6. Start times are on Mt. Cuba's event pages, so check the one you want before you plan the train ride around it.
Dew Point Is the Common Thread
Dew Point Brewing is at 2878 Creek Road in Yorklyn, in the historic Garrett Snuff Mill. It pours at the steam museum's biggest weekend and hosts the bookstore's evening event, so its taproom shows up on two different hosts' holiday calendars.
The second appearance is Thursday, Dec. 10. Hockessin BookShelf and Dew Point hold Books and Brews, an adult book fair, at the brewery from 5 to 8 p.m. The brewery's Thursday hours run 4 to 9 p.m., so the taproom opens an hour before the book fair starts and stays open an hour after it ends.
The rest of Dew Point's posted week matters on train weekend:
- Wednesday and Thursday: 4 to 9 p.m.
- Friday: 3 to 10 p.m.
- Saturday: 1 to 10 p.m.
- Sunday: 1 to 7 p.m.
On Saturday, Dec. 5, the taproom is open before and after the 3-to-6 train session, so you can have dinner on Creek Road after the last ride. On Sunday, the train session ends at 4 and the brewery closes at 7.
The bookstore has another evening event before Books and Brews. On Wednesday, Dec. 2, at 6:30 p.m., Hockessin BookShelf hosts an author discussion and signing with Andrea Chalupa and Olga Lautman. Between the Dec. 2 signing and the Dec. 10 book fair, the bookstore has two December evening events about a week apart, one at the shop and one in Yorklyn.
Dec. 13: The Garden Has the Last Date
Mt. Cuba Center's Solstice Celebration on Sunday, Dec. 13, is the last date on the calendar. It runs from 1 to 5:30 p.m. Winter garden tours start at 1, and a concert runs from 3:30 to 5:30. The program also includes music, dance and ornament-making. The concert ends close to the year's earliest sunsets, so plan on driving home in the dark.
A Season Planner, Date by Date
- Before noon, Friday, Dec. 4: Register for Holiday Trains if you want the $25 adult rate. Friends of Auburn Heights members need to register ahead to get their 20% discount.
- Saturday, Nov. 21: Local Author Showcase at Hockessin BookShelf from 10 to 11 a.m., then the Artisan Show on Upper Snuff Mill Row until 5.
- Sunday, Nov. 22: Mt. Cuba's two-for-one Guest Pass Day from 10 to 4, then the Artisan Show on the same admission until 4.
- Saturday, Nov. 28: Hometown Holiday Market at 7250 Lancaster Pike from 10 to 4, then Small Business Saturday at Hockessin BookShelf until 6.
- Wednesday, Dec. 2: Andrea Chalupa and Olga Lautman at Hockessin BookShelf at 6:30 p.m.
- Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 5 and 6: Holiday Trains at 3000 Creek Road and the Mt. Cuba winter workshops. Dew Point is open both days.
- Thursday, Dec. 10: Books and Brews at Dew Point from 5 to 8 p.m.
- Sunday, Dec. 13: Mt. Cuba Solstice Celebration from 1 to 5:30 p.m.
Every event on that list is put on by a local organization a few miles from your house, and the free ones need no planning at all. At Harrison Properties Ltd, we follow Hockessin's calendar for the same reason we follow its market, because both are local. If you're curious what your Hockessin home is worth before the new year, ask us for a free home valuation, and we'll send you a number based on local sales.
