Santa Comes First This Year: How Lafayette's Holiday Calendar Fills In Around the Shoppes' Tree Lighting
The Christmas Village at The Shoppes at Lafayette runs in a different order this year. On Saturday, November 28, Santa photos run from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., and the tree is lit at 5 p.m. Last year the order was reversed. The tree was lit on the Green at 4 p.m., and Santa took photos afterward, from 4 to 6 p.m.
The change matters because the Christmas Village is one date among several. The village farmers market closed its regular season on October 25. From now through December, the season runs on two Thursday nights, two more market Sundays, a firehouse gathering, and a set of state park walks that start and end a few miles from Route 15. Most of it sits along a stretch of highway that NJDOT is rebuilding.
The 2026 Christmas Village & Small Business Saturday runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 75 NJ-15, organized by The Shoppes At Lafayette Craft Fair. The event page lists local vendors, seasonal food and warm drinks, a cocktail garden, live music, Santa photos, and the tree lighting.
Here is how the two years compare:
| 2025 | 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Saturday, November 29 | Saturday, November 28 |
| Village hours | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Santa photos | 4 to 6 p.m., after the lighting | 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., before the lighting |
| Tree lighting | 4 p.m. on the Green | 5 p.m. |
Under the new order, families can do Santa photos in the afternoon, shop the vendors, and stay for the lighting, without a line for Santa forming right as the tree comes on. In 2025, Santa was in Building K-1 at Cedar + Sage. The 2025 village also had more than 50 craft vendors in the lower level of Building A, on the Green, and along the walking paths. Food trucks and farmers market food vendors were in the north parking lot, and there were Clydesdale rides. The Advertiser News included the event in its holiday roundup last November. Last year's layout shows how the village spread the day out across its buildings and grounds.
The village is also bigger than it was a year ago. The Shoppes list Vernon Threads Clothing, which sells men's and women's fashion, as new in Space C-7. The Lafayette Mercantile, which sells apparel, gifts, books, and homewares, is listed in Space I-2 after moving over from Lafayette Central. Vernon Threads posts its Lafayette hours on its own site.
The Christmas Village is the busiest day, but the Shoppes' 2026 events calendar adds two evening shopping nights that fall on either side of it:
The November night has its own event page with a Friendsgiving theme, listing themed activities, food, vendors, and shopping. Arc & Alloy is a permanent-jewelry studio in Building G-2 that does custom-fit clasp-less pieces and engraving. It also co-hosted the Witches Night Out shopping evening on October 15. The December 17 date is the last Thursday night before Christmas.
November 19 starts much earlier. Kittatinny Valley State Park's Early Bird Breakfast Walk runs from 8:30 to 11 a.m. that morning, starting at the gravel Warbasse Junction parking lot, about 0.3 mile up Warbasse Junction Road from Route 94. The group walks the Sussex Branch Rail-Trail to Millside Cafe in Lafayette, stopping now and then to look and listen for birds. Everyone pays for their own breakfast, and the group walks the same stretch of trail back to Warbasse Junction, 2.5 miles in all. The walk is for adults. The park asks walkers to bring cash for the meal, tax, and tip, bring binoculars if they have them, and follow the written directions instead of GPS. So on November 19 you can walk the rail-trail to breakfast at Millside Cafe in the morning and shop the village after dark.
The regular farmers market ran from May 17 through October 25, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Two special market dates follow on a shorter schedule:
Both run an hour shorter than the summer market. The December market has no fixed date yet because of the weather, so check the Shoppes' calendar the week before.
The one weekly event that runs straight through the holidays is Cars & Coffee, every Saturday from 9 to 11 a.m., hosted by Laughing Goat Café. The Shoppes' directory lists the café as serving baked goods, specialty coffee, and lunch. On November 28, Cars & Coffee wraps up an hour before the Christmas Village opens at 10 a.m. On the other Saturdays, the village is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The park holds one more event that week. On Friday, November 27, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Kittatinny Valley State Park leads its OptOutside: Andover Loop Hike, a 7.5-mile hike that starts at the Visitor Center, 199 Goodale Road. The Christmas Village is the next morning.
Parking at the Visitor Center is set up differently than it used to be. According to NJDEP's park page, the paved spaces next to Goodale Road have been closed since August 15, 2025, while a bathroom facility is built. The dirt lot, the Twin Lakes lot, and the Visitor Center lot are open.
The hike falls during hunting season. The same page says hunting is not allowed from any trail in the park. Bow hunting for deer is allowed only in a limited area in the core of the park, west of Limecrest Road and east of Goodale Road. The 20-mile Sussex Branch Trail and the 27-mile Paulinskill Valley Trail both run through the park as multi-use rail-trails. The Sussex Branch Trail is also the route of the November 19 breakfast walk.
Before Thanksgiving, the park also runs a Rid Litter Day on Friday, November 20, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Volunteers pick up litter along 2.5 miles of Goodale Road, starting from the same 199 Goodale Road address.
The one holiday date on the township's own calendar is in the middle of the bridge work. Lafayette Township's Special Events listing has a Christmas Gathering at the Lafayette Firehouse on December 5, 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., with a 2026 flyer linked.
The firehouse marks one end of NJDOT's Route 15 work zone. WRNJ reported on September 25 that the temporary traffic signals between the Lafayette Fire House and Morris Farm Road were scheduled to come out by 7 a.m. on September 26. Traffic would then go back to one lane in each direction on a newly built temporary bridge over the Paulins Kill. That shift lets crews tear down and rebuild the old bridge, which NJDOT says is in poor condition. The project costs $4.7 million, and completion is expected in fall 2027. A township notice from September 15 lists the end date for this stage of work as January 22, 2027.
When the township first announced the project, it forecast a May 2026 opening and said the work had been planned around the summer traffic of the Sussex County Farm and Horse Show, Skylands Park, and drivers heading to the Poconos. The schedule has since moved into a second construction season. This holiday season, drivers will still be on the temporary bridge.
The work also changes how you get into Lafayette Pond Park. WRNJ reported that the park's regular driveway stays closed until the project is finished, and drivers use a temporary driveway built earlier in the project. NJDOT plans a wider bridge when the work is done. It will have a 12-foot travel lane, an 8-foot shoulder, and a 6-foot sidewalk northbound, and a 15-foot travel lane and a 7-foot sidewalk southbound. New ADA-compliant sidewalks on the southbound side will run to the driveway of the Lafayette Center Preservation Foundation's Ludlum-Mabee House. Those sidewalks will connect a stretch of Route 15 in Lafayette's center that people now have to drive.
NJDOT says the schedule can change with weather and other factors and asks drivers to slow down and expect delays in the work zone. If you're headed to the firehouse on December 5 or the village on November 28, leave a few extra minutes.
If you're staying in Sussex County for the holidays and thinking about what comes next for your home, The Sold Collective is local, and we'd be glad to sit down with you whenever it suits you, even if that's after the tree is lit and the markets are packed up for the year. Book an appointment when you're ready.
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