For the past two years, the Hopkins Business & Civic Association held Holiday in Hopkins on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. That was also Small Business Saturday, so the shopping and the festival happened on the same afternoon. This year they are a week apart. Small Business Saturday on Mainstreet is November 28. Holiday in Hopkins is Saturday, December 5.
Moving the festival creates a second Saturday on Mainstreet. Shoppers and families no longer have to fit everything into one afternoon. The week in between already has events of its own, several of them at the Hopkins Center for the Arts.
Two Saturdays Where There Used to Be One
Last year's city calendar listing described Holiday in Hopkins as a celebration held "on Small Business Saturday." It ran from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. on November 29, 2025. The 2024 edition also fell on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, November 30. Its gingerbread house activity was held with Kiddywampus. The 2026 schedule is different.
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Small Business Saturday | Nov. 29, combined with the festival | Nov. 28, on its own |
| Holiday in Hopkins | Nov. 29, 1:00–5:00 p.m. | Dec. 5, 2:00–4:45 p.m. |
| Tree lighting | Part of the festival day | Elks Lodge tree lighting, 5:00 p.m., Dec. 5 |
| Gingerbread | Kits purchased in advance, sign-up through Kiddywampus | Gingerbread Decorating Contest on the activity list |
| Carriage rides | Offered in past years | Not returning |
The city's calendar entry for the 2026 festival runs 2:00 to 4:45 p.m. on Saturday, December 5, and links to the HBCA's own event page. On the HBCA calendar, Small Business Saturday sits a week earlier as its own Mainstreet entry.
December 5, Minus the Horses
The HBCA's Holiday in Hopkins page lists these activities for the afternoon:
- Photos with Mr. & Mrs. Claus
- A Gingerbread Decorating Contest
- Ornament decorating
- A coloring contest
- A hot cocoa station
- Letters to Santa
- Fire pits and s'mores
The festivities end at 4:45 p.m., and the Elks Lodge Tree Lighting is at 5:00 p.m.
The horse-drawn carriage rides are gone. The HBCA says its longtime driver has retired, and other providers are either booked years in advance or retiring too. That leaves an open spot in the afternoon, and the association is asking for help filling it. Its page invites businesses and organizations to host an activity, sponsor or volunteer, and says it is always looking for new activities for kids and adults. A Mainstreet shop or local group with an idea has about three weeks before December 5 to offer it.
On December 5 the festival also overlaps with a show already in its run. Stages Theatre Company's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical opens November 20 and runs through December 27. If you have a performance that weekend, you can plan the s'mores and the tree lighting around showtime. That makes the festival part of a longer December afternoon rather than all of it.
November 28 Is the Shopping Saturday Now
Small Business Saturday no longer shares its date with the festival, so the Saturday after Thanksgiving is now simply about the shops. Several are within a short walk of each other.
Kiddywampus is at 1023 Mainstreet. In 2024 and 2025 the toy store ran the gingerbread house sign-ups for Holiday in Hopkins.
Cream & Amber is at 1605 Mainstreet. It sells new and used books and serves local craft beer.
The Hopkins Center for the Arts gallery has a show in its last weekend. The exhibition featuring Roya Nazari Najafabadi, Michael Schmidt and Shakuntala Maheshwari runs through November 29. Small Business Saturday is the day before it closes. Check the Arts Center calendar for gallery hours.
For holiday food, one more stop sits just off Mainstreet.
The Grocery Store a Block Off Mainstreet
Driskill's Downtown Market is at 25 11th Ave. N., one block north of Mainstreet. Its own site lists an on-site smokehouse, a scratch bakery, a deli and a floral and gift department. It is the only grocery store in Hopkins and has operated downtown for more than 30 years.
This fall, the Sun Sailor reported that store management put the sales decline at 20% to 25% since the beginning of the year. The store also shared a letter with customers on social media on October 15.
The same story says the store employs more than 50 people, many of them local. According to the Sun Sailor, community members responded on Facebook and Instagram by promising to do more of their shopping there, and other local businesses and city officials shared the letter. The Sun Sailor describes the meat as hand-cut and the deli as mostly made from scratch, and says staff recognize regular customers.
Hosting this year means a Thanksgiving grocery run, then Small Business Saturday, then Holiday in Hopkins a week later. Driskill's is close enough to Mainstreet to fit into each of those trips.
The Week Between, Day by Day
The gap between the two Saturdays is already full. Starting from Thursday, November 12, here is the downtown Hopkins calendar through the end of the season:
- Sunday, Nov. 15, 4:30 p.m. Bella Lumina performs All the World with Joyful Sounds at Gethsemane Lutheran Church.
- Friday, Nov. 20. Stages Theatre Company opens Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical.
- Saturday, Nov. 28. Small Business Saturday on Mainstreet.
- Sunday, Nov. 29. Last day of the Najafabadi, Schmidt and Maheshwari exhibition at the Arts Center.
- Tuesday, Dec. 1. Cream & Amber holds a used-book-buying day at 1605 Mainstreet. That evening at 7:00, Hopkins Community Cinema's Tuesday Night Movies shows Harriet in the Arts Center's Jaycees Studio.
- Saturday, Dec. 5, 2:00–4:45 p.m. Holiday in Hopkins on Mainstreet, followed by the Elks Lodge Tree Lighting at 5:00 p.m.
- Sunday, Dec. 27. Rudolph closes at Stages.
On December 1, you could sell a bag of books to Cream & Amber in the afternoon and see Harriet at the Arts Center that evening. On December 5, the Claus photos, the fire pits and the tree lighting all happen within about three hours on the same street.
If two Saturdays on Mainstreet have you wondering what your home is worth heading into 2026's final weeks, Stafford Family Realtors would be glad to help. Get your complimentary home valuation, and we'll put together a careful, local estimate for your home.
