Zionsville's Christmas Season Is a Shopping Calendar With a Parade in the Middle

You can't buy tickets to the Zionsville Showchoir Holiday Home Tour at a box office. They're sold at Fivethirty Home, Great Lakes Ace Hardware and Village Mattress, or by show choir students, for $25. On the day of the tour, the homes themselves take cash at the door. That small detail explains how the whole season works. Christmas in the Village starts with a shopping weekend and puts its two evening events on Thursday nights built around store specials. Most of the rest happens on the brick blocks of Main Street, during daytime hours that bring people into the shops.

The season runs from November 27 through December 24. As of this week, that's still more than two weeks away, so there's time to plan the dates that tend to fill up.

It opens with a shopping weekend, and the parade comes in the middle of it

The first event in the Christmas in the Village lineup on the Main Street Zionsville calendar is Small Business Weekend, November 27 through 29. The parade and tree lighting fall on its middle day.

The Zionsville Chamber of Commerce parade listing has it on Saturday, November 28, from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. The parade starts at Eagle Elementary at 5:00, heads down Main Street and finishes at Old National Bank on South Main around 6:00. Santa and Mrs. Claus then light the town tree.

That timing is the first sign of how the season is laid out. A 5:00 start on the Saturday of Small Business Weekend means a family can spend the afternoon in the Village, claim a spot along Main as it gets dark, and still be home for dinner once the tree is lit. In practice, the parade wraps up the shopping weekend.

The Santa House keeps four-hour days at Cedar and Main

Once the tree is lit, the season's anchor is a single corner. Santa and Mrs. Claus visit the Santa House at Cedar and Main Streets on weekends from Thanksgiving weekend through December 20, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. You take the pictures yourself on a phone or camera, and Chamber volunteers are there to help. The Chamber's Santa House Selfies page lists every date.

Do-it-yourself photos keep the line moving, and an 11-to-3 window keeps families in the middle of Main Street at midday. If you're coming with little kids, a late-morning stop at Cedar and Main fits easily before or after an hour in the shops nearby.

December 5 puts four events on one Saturday

The busiest day of the season is the first Saturday in December. Here's how it lays out by start time:

1. 9:00 a.m. to noon: Open-Air Maker's Market. Zionsville Parks & Recreation runs it on the brick Main Street as part of its Winterfest winter program, with local makers and artists, food trucks, seasonal music and carolers. The Main Street Zionsville calendar calls it the Zionsville Parks Winter Market.
2. 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.: Showchoir Holiday Home Tour. The tour used to be called Carol of Homes. It includes six decorated private homes, with Zionsville Community High School show choir students singing holiday solos and small-group numbers inside. Tickets are $25, and kids 10 and under get in free. You'll find details on the Holiday Home Tour website.
3. 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.: Santa House selfies at Cedar and Main, the same as every weekend in the season.
4. Tri Kappa Santa Breakfast. This ticketed event is hosted by Zionsville Tri Kappa, a women's philanthropic group that supports Boone County nonprofits and Zionsville Community Schools. Tickets went on sale November 1.

Set out in order, the times overlap but don't compete. The market ends at noon, Santa is there until 3:00, and the home tour runs until 4:00. You can do the market and Santa downtown in the morning, then spend the afternoon on the tour. Because tour tickets are sold at three Village stores, many people will make a stop on Main Street before December 5 anyway.

The evenings belong to two Thursdays

The season has no weekend evening events after the tree lighting. The two evening events are both Thursdays, and both are built around what the shops and restaurants put on.

Ladies Night is Thursday, December 10, from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. The Chamber's Ladies Night listing describes it as an evening of shopping and dining on Main Street, with specials at participating businesses.

The Christmas Crawl is a week later, Thursday, December 17, from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. It's for ages 21 and up, with seasonal specials at shops and restaurants and an ugly sweater contest at participating spots starting at 8:00 p.m. The Christmas Crawl page has the full details.

The two dates line up with the last stretch of holiday shopping. December 10 lands in the middle of the gift-buying weeks, and December 17 is the last Thursday before Christmas week. Each one gives the Village shops a busy weeknight on top of the weekend traffic Santa already brings in.

The smallest market starts a week before the season does

One shopping event opens before Thanksgiving. SullivanMunce Cultural Center's Teeny Tiny Art Market runs from Friday, November 20, through Saturday, December 19. Every piece of original art in it measures 6 by 6 inches or smaller. SullivanMunce has been an art, history and genealogy resource since 1973, and it also houses the Town of Zionsville's Welcome Center.

A market of pieces that small fits right in with the rest of the season. Everything sized to tuck into a stocking, sold a week ahead of Small Business Weekend, makes it the first stop of the gift calendar.

The Main Street this calendar runs on changed this year

The season's events land on a downtown that looks a little different from last December. Our Place Coffee at 65 S. Main St. closed for good on August 8, according to Current in Zionsville. Bub's Burgers & Ice Cream closed its Zionsville restaurant on November 1, Current reported.

Some of the newer spots are out on the US 421 corridor. Stella's Ice Cream held its grand opening October 24 at 11100 US 421, Suite 120. Its hours are noon to 10:00 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and noon to 11:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday, per Current's report on the opening. Pizza Uncommon, almost next door at 11145 US 421, Suite 110, has been open since the end of April. Stella's late hours on Thursdays mean a Ladies Night or Crawl evening could end with a scoop on the drive home.

For the weekdays between, a new trail

Christmas in the Village leaves most weekdays open. The newest place to spend one is at Overley-Worman Park, 6040 Godello Circle. About 3 new miles of mountain bike trail opened there October 3, bringing the park's system to about 4 miles.

The original trail had a reputation as a hard ride. The new section in the back of the park is beginner friendly, and the stretches along the creek are rated for beginner and intermediate riders. Trails are color-coded like ski runs, green, blue and black, and new signs show which section you're on. The Indy Trail Collective, a chapter of the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association, maintains the trail with Zionsville Parks & Recreation. Lead trail steward Brett Johnson told Current, "Beyond adding mileage, we've worked to improve the flow of the trail, making it more enjoyable to ride and creating a better overall experience."

With green-rated loops now in the park, a kid who just got a bike can ride there on an open weekday, then pose for a Santa selfie at Cedar and Main that weekend.

If you're hosting family in the Village this season or thinking about a move once the holidays are over, Scott Harmeyer knows how Zionsville's calendar shapes the weeks around Main Street and is glad to talk it through over coffee. Book a consultation whenever it suits your December.