What time does the holiday season in Waconia end each day? Downtown's 2026 events are almost all daytime. D.E.A.R. Day closes at 4 p.m., Homespun Holiday at 5, and Santa's visit to the fire station at 3. The Annual Tree Lighting in City Square Park, the one downtown event after dark, runs half an hour, from 6:00 to 6:30.
The evening events are out on the lake roads. Sovereign Estate's Spirit of Winter light festival on North Shore Road stays open until 9 p.m. Parley Lake Winery's holiday barn concert starts at 7. Taken together, the calendar points somewhere useful. On the weekend after Thanksgiving the two clocks line up almost to the minute, and a few blocks off City Square, a new restaurant is getting ready to bring evenings back downtown.
The calendar, sorted by when it ends
Here is the season sorted by closing time.
| Event | Where | Date | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| D.E.A.R. Day | Participating downtown businesses | Sat., Nov. 7 | 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. |
| Meet Santa | Waconia Fire Station | Sat., Nov. 28 | Noon to 3 p.m. |
| Homespun Holiday | Around town | Sat., Nov. 28 | 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| Annual Tree Lighting | City Square Park | Fri., Nov. 27 | 6 to 6:30 p.m. |
| Puzzle Competition Night | Parley Lake Winery | Fri., Dec. 4 | 6 to 8 p.m. |
| Belfast Cowboys Lite, Concert in the Barn | Parley Lake Winery | Fri., Nov. 27 | 7 to 9 p.m. |
| The Spirit of Winter, opening night | Sovereign Estate | Sat., Nov. 21 | 4 to 9 p.m. |
Downtown's season starts Saturday, November 7. The Waconia Chamber of Commerce's 19th annual D.E.A.R. Day runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The scavenger hunt has shoppers looking for the letters D-E-A-R at participating businesses. Find all four and you're entered to win a "Basket of Waconia" stocked from local shops, bars and restaurants, which the Chamber values at more than $400. Wearing deer hunting orange gets you extra offers, a nice touch given the date.
Downtown doesn't host another big event until Thanksgiving weekend. The lakeshore picks up in between.
The lake roads take the evenings
On Saturday, November 21, The Spirit of Winter opens at Sovereign Estate, 9950 North Shore Road, from 4 to 9 p.m. The winery describes lights and music strung across its 20-acre lakeshore property as a walking tour. Guests can warm up indoors in the Nutcracker Suite and the Polar Bear Lounge. General admission is $10 for ages 3 and up, children under 3 get in free, and you'll need to show your confirmation email at the gate or in the Wine Store.
It isn't a one-night event. Sovereign Estate's events calendar lists Spirit of Winter again on November 22, November 27 through 29, December 3 through 6, December 10 through 13, and December 17 through 21. Hours for those later dates aren't posted, so check the event page before you go. The same calendar has four Sunday holiday dinner concerts:
- November 29: White Christmas and Classics with Ana & Garret
- December 6: Home for the Holidays with Craig T. Olson
- December 13: Christmas Carols with Carol Z. & Friends
- December 20: O Holy Night Sacred Music
On the other side of town, Parley Lake Winery at 8280 Parley Lake Road has two evening events on the books. Belfast Cowboys Lite plays a Concert in the Barn on November 27, with doors at 6 p.m. and music from 7 to 9. Puzzle Competition Night follows on December 4, with doors at 5 and puzzling from 6 to 8. Deardorff Orchards' site says Parley Lake will stay open through December 20 and points visitors to the winery's site for open dates, hours and the music schedule. Deardorff's own pick-your-own apples are done for the year.
Friday, November 27, when the two clocks meet
The day after Thanksgiving is the only night this season when the downtown calendar and the lakeshore calendar connect without a gap. The tree lighting ends at 6:30. Parley Lake opens its barn doors at 6 and starts the music at 7, and Spirit of Winter has November 27 on its calendar too. Here is the weekend in order:
- Friday, 6 to 6:30 p.m., City Square Park. The Chamber and the City of Waconia host the Annual Tree Lighting. The Chamber's press release promises holiday characters, a choir leading carols, hot cocoa and warm fires. The Women of Waconia will collect unopened toys for the Waconia Toy Drive, so bring one or two. True 'N' Fair Tree Care volunteers its time to set up the event and light the fires.
- Friday, 7 to 9 p.m., Parley Lake Winery. Belfast Cowboys Lite in the barn. If you'd rather walk under lights, Spirit of Winter at Sovereign Estate is also on the calendar that night.
- Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., around town. Homespun Holiday, the Chamber's Small Business Saturday, with shopping, dining and a candy-cane hunt.
- Saturday, noon to 3 p.m., Waconia Fire Station. The City's Meet Santa afternoon, with photos and Christmas wishes. The City asks visitors to bring a food shelf item or a toy for the Waconia Toy Drive.
- Sunday, Sovereign Estate. The first holiday dinner concert, White Christmas and Classics with Ana & Garret, on a Spirit of Winter weekend.
The Waconia Toy Drive shows up twice in that list, at the tree lighting Friday and at the fire station Saturday. If the bag of toys doesn't make it to City Square, there's a second chance the next afternoon.
What opens on Second Street around the first of the year
The bigger change to downtown's clock is happening at Second Street between Elm and Olive. That's where The Wilford, a 92-unit apartment and retail building, held its official grand opening and a community block party in October. The Sun Patriot reported live music and food samples from Olive & Elm, the restaurant moving into the building's street-level space, which the paper said is set to open "around the first of the year." An earlier Sun Patriot story had aimed for "later this summer," so the timeline has already moved once. No opening date has been announced.
The building's name honors Wilfred "Will" Yetzer. According to the Sun Patriot's naming story, he spent a long career in Waconia's funeral, furniture and flooring businesses and helped get the hospital built and Island View Golf Club started. His nephew, Steve Yetzer, is a partner in the project.
The people behind the restaurant are what make it relevant to the calendar above. Olive & Elm belongs to brothers Pete and Phil Hoff, who have run NOLO's Kitchen & Bar in Minneapolis's North Loop for nine years, in the old Gardner Hardware building at 515 North Washington Avenue. Both live in Carver County, Phil in Chaska and Pete in Victoria. In the Sun Patriot's restaurant story, Pete Hoff said many people living this far out aren't willing to drive to downtown Minneapolis to eat and drink, so the brothers are bringing NOLO's style of hospitality to them.
The space is big for downtown Waconia. Hoff told the paper it will seat 130 to 140 inside, with patio seating for another 50, on the Olive Street side of the building at Second Street. It's meant for the whole town, with the Sun Patriot quoting his plan for a gathering spot steps from home for Wilford residents and steps from downtown for everyone else.
As of that story, the menu hadn't been written. Hoff described a passion for local ingredients and creative takes on classic dishes. He said he wants an easy atmosphere and dishes with names "that my grandmother can pronounce."
His longer bet comes from the North Loop. Hoff told the Sun Patriot that only a handful of restaurants were in that neighborhood when NOLO's started, before new housing and new dining concepts turned it into Minneapolis's premier dining district. He expects something similar in Waconia "on a more modest level," driven by local housing growth and the draw of the downtown restaurants already here. Set that against this season's calendar. Downtown's events wrap up by 5 or 6:30, and a restaurant that size, run by people who built their name on regulars, is planned for the blocks those events fill.
Smaller dates on the November calendar
If you want something quieter on a weeknight, the Waconia Library has a few programs in the first half of November. Craft & Chat Club meets Monday, November 9, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Activity Room. Read, Stay, Play! fills the Children's area on Saturday, November 14, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Guided Painting, Fall Trees, is Monday, November 16, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
The Carver County Historical Society's CCHS Genealogy Group meets Saturday, November 21, at 10 a.m. at the museum, 555 W 1st St. That's a few hours before Spirit of Winter opens on North Shore Road.
Outdoors, the Sun Patriot reported that about 60 Waconia High School Conservation Club students went back to Bayview Woods on October 2 to keep working on a multi-year restoration there. If you followed the summer changes around the lake, our look at how Nickle Dickle weekend spread to three places covers the same downtown-and-shoreline split in warmer weather.
At The Hancock Group, we keep an eye on what opens on Second Street and what lights up along North Shore Road because those changes shape daily life here. If you live near downtown or the lake and are curious how this kind of change affects your home's value, request a free home evaluation and we'll go through it with you.
