Novato's Holiday Season Is Mostly Decided in the First Two Weeks of November

The North Pole mailbox at the Novato Gymnastics Center, 950 7th St., opens Monday, November 9, and its mail slot is open around the clock until December 4. The weekend before it opens, the same building hosts the Novato Classic, where the Novato Gymnastics Team welcomes gymnasts from across the Greater Bay Area on November 7 and 8. So Novato's Christmas season starts at a gym on 7th Street, one week into November, with a mailbox.

The festive part of the season lands on Saturday, December 5. The registrations and deadlines behind that day all fall in early November, though. Two registrations opened this week. The mailbox opens Monday. The first holiday shopping evening on Grant Avenue is next Thursday. If you plan by event date, you may find the Santa photo slots already gone. If you plan by sign-up date, you get the whole season.

Two sign-ups have already opened

The City of Novato's Parks, Recreation and Community Services department runs the two holiday events that require registration, and it opened registration for both before the first full week of November ended.

Photos with Santa opened registration on November 2. The session runs Saturday, December 5, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Margaret Todd Senior Center, 1560 Hill Road. It costs $5 per family and each photo comes with a goodie bag. Only one person per family needs to register. The city says time slots are limited, and you can find the registration link on the city's events page.

The Gingerbread Build opened registration Tuesday, November 3, through the city's recreation portal. It takes place Saturday, December 12, at the Margaret Todd Senior Center, with sessions at 9:30 and 11 a.m. that include holiday music, hot chocolate and coffee. This year there is also a new 1 p.m. session designed to be sensory friendly. It is open to all ages with disabilities, sensory sensitivities or other access needs, and it has quiet music, a smaller group and a space for breaks. Kits cost $20 for up to four people and $16 for each additional kit.

Every other event on Novato's holiday calendar is open to drop-ins. These two are the exceptions, and their registrations opened on consecutive days this week.

The season by sign-up date

The mailbox rule that matters most

The Letters to Santa program has one requirement that families tend to miss. A letter only gets an answer if a self-addressed, stamped envelope is tucked inside it. The city flags this in capital letters on its events page.

The closing date matters too. The mailbox stops accepting letters on December 4, the day before Santa makes his two public appearances in town. Letters written after a child meets Santa on December 5 are too late for this program. Early November, before the December weekend fills up, is the easiest time to sit down and write one.

A Thursday evening on Grant Avenue

Downtown's holiday shopping season starts on a weeknight. The Novato Holiday Shopping Kickoff runs Thursday, November 12, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Made Local Marketplace, 881 Grant Ave., and admission is free. Made Local Marketplace presents the evening, and MarinArts sponsors it. MarinArts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that promotes the county's arts and culture.

The shop itself is the reason to go. Made Local Marketplace stocks handcrafted home goods, apparel, gifts, art and specialty foods from North Bay artisans and makers. At the kickoff, you can expect original art, handmade jewelry, festive drinks and treats, and the chance to meet the makers whose work is on the shelves. It's a good night to buy gifts for people who are hard to shop for, while the selection is still full.

Sixteen days later comes Small Business Saturday on November 28, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Visit Novato says local businesses may hold special events, discounts and sip-and-shops that day. Taken together, the two dates give Novato more than three weeks of downtown holiday shopping before the tree is lit.

December 4: the deadline and opening night

The Friday before the big weekend does two jobs. It is the last day to mail letters to Santa, and it is opening night for the city's Holiday Crafts Faire, which runs from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Margaret Todd Senior Center.

The faire brings together more than 50 artisans selling jewelry, ceramics, specialty foods, wreaths, ornaments, and bath and body products. Food and entertainment run throughout, and admission is free on both days. The city recommends bringing cash, because not every vendor can take cards. If you want first pick of the wreaths and ornaments, the Friday evening session gives you three hours before the Saturday crowds arrive.

Saturday, December 5, in order

Santa makes two public stops in Novato on December 5, and they happen at different ends of the day. Here's how the day lines up:

1. 10 a.m. to noon: Photos with Santa at the Margaret Todd Senior Center, 1560 Hill Road, for families who registered.
2. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Holiday Crafts Faire, day two, in the same building. You can park in the senior center's main lot, in the overflow lot at the Hill Education Center, or in the parking for the Hill Recreation Area bocce and pickleball courts.
3. 4 to 7:30 p.m.: Community Tree Lighting Festival downtown. The Downtown Novato Business Association says Old Town streets close to cars for live performances, artisan vendors, food and drink, kids' craft projects and the tree lighting. Santa arrives by fire truck to hear children's wishes.

The faire closes at 4 p.m., the same hour the festival opens, so the whole day can run from one event to the next without a break.

For the evening, last year's schedule is a useful guide. In its 2025 announcement, the City of Novato said the festival it presents with the DNBA was held on Sherman Avenue. The Novato Fire District brought Santa in on its ladder truck at 5 p.m., and the tree was lit at 5:30. Santa and his elves greeted visitors in Santa's Village, and the evening also had live music, community dance performances, arts and crafts, and cookie decorating. SFGate's coverage of the 2025 festival reported that the Grant Avenue and Sherman Avenue intersection was closed, and that the big tree stood across the street from City Hall. If this year follows the same pattern, getting downtown by about 5 p.m. puts you there for the fire truck and the lighting half an hour later.

For families who had a morning photo slot, that means seeing Santa twice in one day: once posed for a photo on Hill Road, and once arriving on a fire truck in Old Town.

After the fifth

The calendar keeps going after the big weekend. The Gingerbread Build fills the next Saturday, December 12, for families who registered this week. The season ends downtown on December 31 at noon with the Bouncy Ball New Year Countdown, when thousands of small bouncy balls are dropped onto the street from a ladder truck 40 feet up. Each child gets a souvenir "hard hat" and can keep as many balls as their pockets and buckets will hold. Because the countdown is at noon, younger kids get a New Year's celebration without staying up until midnight.

The final event needs no sign-up at all, just like the gymnastics meet that opened the season. Only two events in between require registration, and both opened registration this week.

At Zamira Knows Marin, we love the weeks when Novato's calendar fills up with neighbors at the craft tables and on Sherman Avenue. If a move is on your mind for the new year, we'd be glad to talk it through over a cup of cocoa once the tree is lit. Start your Marin home search with us whenever you're ready.