New Canaan's holiday season starts well before Elm Street lights up. It opens on Silvermine Road on November 7, moves to Oenoke Ridge on November 21, reaches Lukes Wood Road the day after Thanksgiving, and arrives downtown in early December. Over the same weeks, 199 Elm Street runs on a shorter schedule. That's the visitor center for the Glass House, and its 2026 season ends on December 14.
So the order matters. Each market has its own weekend, and the town's best-known cultural site is closing out its regular tour season while the rest of the calendar fills up. Here is the November sequence in the order it happens.
Silvermine Road goes first
Silvermine Arts Center's Artisans Market runs Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with more than 20 makers. The vendor list leans toward handmade objects. It includes Hubbub Glass and Soda Glass House for glass, Holm-Hansen Woodturning, Mount Cornwall Book Bindery, Tug Hill Candles, Lalaa Kanani Block Prints, Knots on Euclid, Solder and Grove, Heike NY, and jewelry from Denisse Aneke Jewelry and Lee Skalkos Jewelry. Silvermine's market page doesn't list an admission price.
The market is the first weekend of a longer stretch. Silvermine's Holiday Salon opens the same day and runs through December 23. It shows work by Silvermine Guild artists, and hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The arts center is at 1037 Silvermine Road, and its galleries are listed as free admission. The Salon stays open for nearly seven weeks, so anything that catches your eye at the market can still be there in mid-December. It's the longest-running item on the town's holiday calendar this year.
Silvermine is open Tuesday through Saturday, and the Glass House runs tours Thursday through Monday. Both are open Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so those are the days that work for an outing combining the two.
The Glass House runs on a shorter clock
The Glass House's 2026 tour season ends Monday, December 14. Tours run Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The site is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and also November 26 through 28 for Thanksgiving.
Tour days also get shorter in November. From April through October, the last tour of the day leaves at 3:45 p.m. on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and at 3 p.m. on Sunday. In November and December the last departure moves up to 2:30 p.m. every tour day. That cuts more than an hour off most weekday afternoons. A plan to stop by after a late lunch on Elm Street works in October but often won't in November.
Every tour starts and ends at the Visitor Center and Design Store at 199 Elm Street, and a shuttle takes visitors to and from the 49-acre site. Standard prices:
| Tour | Weekday | Weekend |
|---|---|---|
| One-hour | $25 | $30 |
| Two-hour | $50 | $60, also holidays |
| Extended | $75 | $85, also holidays |
Members and patrons get 10 percent off tour tickets. All sales are final, with no refunds or date exchanges, and the Glass House recommends booking ahead because tours often sell out. During the tour season, the Design Store is open Thursday through Monday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The season's exhibition, "Tomashi Jackson and Robert Rauschenberg: The Catch One," also closes December 14. The Glass House has also scheduled three November programs, two of them away from the site:
- Wednesday, November 11, 6 p.m. "Places Change People," a Glass House Presents program with author Tom Mayes, held at New Canaan Library, 151 Main Street. The Library co-hosts it, with support in part from the New Canaan Community Foundation.
- Friday, November 13, 1 to 4:45 p.m. A Glass House and Noyes House study tour that starts at the 199 Elm Street visitor center and uses a shuttle between the two houses. It costs $150.
- Saturday, November 21, 4 p.m. An Adam Tendler piano concert at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, which brings the Glass House calendar to Oenoke Ridge on the same day as the Nature Center's market.
Saturday, November 21, on Oenoke Ridge
November 21 is the busiest single day on this calendar. Two events take place on the same road, about 30 house numbers apart.
The New Canaan Nature Center's Holiday Market runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free, and School of Rock will play holiday music. The center is at 144 Oenoke Ridge. The 2026 vendor list hasn't been posted. Last year's roster had 17 vendors, including The Riverfield House, Hurley & Dunn, Succulents By Theresa, A Girl And A Cupcake, New Canaan Watercolors by Katherine Megrue, Betsy Barry Art and Plant Your Peace. Solder & Grove appeared there last year and is also on Silvermine's list this November, so you may see one maker at two markets two weeks apart.
At 4 p.m., about an hour before the market closes, Adam Tendler plays at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 111 Oenoke Ridge, as part of the Glass House's programming. Tickets are $35 general, $50 VIP, $30 for members and $15 for students.
Here's how the rest of that Saturday fits around those two events:
| Time | Where | What |
|---|---|---|
| 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Silvermine Arts Center, 1037 Silvermine Road | Holiday Salon open |
| 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | New Canaan Nature Center, 144 Oenoke Ridge | Holiday Market, free |
| 2:30 p.m. | Glass House Visitor Center, 199 Elm Street | Last tour departure of the day |
| 4 p.m. | St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 111 Oenoke Ridge | Adam Tendler concert |
A morning at the Nature Center, an early afternoon Glass House tour from Elm Street, and the 4 p.m. concert back on Oenoke Ridge all fit in one day. If you take the tour, book the 2:30 departure or an earlier one.
Grace Farms opens the day after Thanksgiving
The Thanksgiving break is the one gap in the sequence. The Glass House is closed November 26 through 28. Grace Farms' Holiday Market opens Friday, November 27, as the Glass House break begins.
The market is a pop-up at 365 Lukes Wood Road. It's free with daily registration and open during Grace Farms' regular business hours. The schedule lists 12 dates. The first three are November 27, 28 and 29, followed by December 1 through 6 and December 8 through 10. The market will have gifts, books, drinks, handmade ornaments, and embroidered work by Nasreen Sheikh and the Empowerment Collective.
Grace Farms runs the market across two weeks, while Silvermine's market lasts one weekend and the Nature Center's one day. Its first weekend is Thanksgiving weekend, when many households have guests in town and the Glass House is closed.
Elm Street comes last
According to the New Canaan Chamber of Commerce's annual events page, the Holiday Stroll takes place on Elm Street on the first Friday evening in December, and Santa's meet-and-greet follows on the first Saturday. On the 2026 calendar, that pattern points to Friday, December 4, and Saturday, December 5. The Chamber hasn't yet published 2026 dates or hours, so check its site before you plan around them. The Chamber's Stroll page lists Santa's arrival, the tree lighting, caroling, entertainment and shops staying open late as parts of the Friday evening.
If the usual pattern holds, the Stroll weekend also falls in the middle of Grace Farms' December 1 through 6 run. The Holiday Salon at Silvermine would still have more than two weeks to go. And the Glass House would be in its final ten days of tours, which leave from 199 Elm Street, the same street the Stroll fills that evening. The regular season's last tour day is Monday, December 14, and "The Catch One" closes the same day. After that, the Glass House FAQ says private and group tours remain available year-round by appointment.
As a lifelong Fairfield County local, I keep my own November calendar for these weekends. If you're hosting family for the holidays or are new to town and want to plan around these dates, I'm happy to share it. Meghan Wall is always glad to hear from New Canaan neighbors. Let's Connect.
