Downtown Ardmore's two big holiday events this year are eight days apart, and both happen at the same intersection. The tree lighting on Friday, November 27, takes place at Schauffele Plaza. The Holiday Market on Saturday, December 5, fills the corner of Cricket and Lancaster Avenues. They're really one location. Lower Merion Township describes Schauffele Plaza as the paved pedestrian area along Lancaster Avenue where it meets Cricket Avenue.
Two different organizations put the events on. The corner they share is also where much of downtown Ardmore's 2026 turnover has happened. That makes this holiday season a good way to see what changed on these blocks this year.
Two Organizations, One Plaza
The tree lighting comes from the Ardmore Business Association, a volunteer group that has spoken for Ardmore businesses for 75 years and runs community events. The association used Schauffele Plaza as the hub for Ardmore Day on October 17, its 75th-anniversary celebration. It set up the day so visitors would move out from the plaza into the surrounding streets. ABA President Nina Greberman told Main Line Media News that the association is "a group of volunteers that has resiliently been the voice of the Ardmore businesses for 75 years."
The Holiday Market comes from the Downtown Ardmore District, which is a different kind of group. The township set it up as a municipal authority. It provides services such as street cleaning inside a defined district and is funded by an assessment on property owners there. You may know it by its old name, the Ardmore Initiative. Main Line Media News reported in July that executive director Alec Hersh renamed it after hearing the same question over and over: "What's the Ardmore Initiative? What do you do?" The district covers Lancaster Avenue, Rittenhouse Place, and parts of Ardmore, Greenfield, and Cricket Avenues. Its A-Team handles cleanup and greening and works as downtown ambassadors. The team is out Sunday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. In 2025 it collected 13,500 bags of trash and planted more than 460 trees, plants, and shrubs.
So the volunteer group handles the tree and the assessment-funded district handles the market. They hold their events at the same corner on back-to-back weekends.
The Calendar Around the Corner
Here is the late-November and early-December lineup within walking distance, in date order:
- Wednesday, November 25: Splintered Sunlight at Ardmore Music Hall.
- Friday, November 27, 6 p.m.: The ABA Annual Holiday Tree Lighting at Schauffele Plaza, listed at 99 Cricket Terrace. Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive on a firetruck, and hot chocolate and cookies are free. The association asks people to RSVP through Ticketleap so it brings enough for everyone. Huffamoose and Hezekiah Jones play the Music Hall later that night.
- Saturday, November 28: Boat House Row at the Music Hall.
- Thursday, December 3: Daniel Donato's Cosmic Country at the Music Hall.
- Saturday, December 5, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: The Ardmore Holiday Market, curated by Art Star Bazaar, with more than 20 local craft vendors and live music at Cricket and Lancaster.
- Sunday, December 6: Nate Smith ft. Kiefer & CARRTOONS at the Music Hall, followed by Come Together on December 10 and Mihali on December 11.
Right next to Schauffele Plaza, Township Lot 6 has 72 public parking spaces. The timing helps on tree-lighting night. Lower Merion's parking rules enforce metered lots and curbs Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with parking free after 6 p.m. and all day Sunday. A 6 p.m. Friday start lands right as the meters stop. The Saturday market runs during enforcement hours, so plan on meters that day.
Cricket Avenue Is Where the Year Showed Up
Both events put shoppers at the foot of Cricket Avenue. That side street has picked up several new tenants this year.
The biggest is Vintner's Table, the third location from Folino Estate Winery. It opened in October at 24 Cricket Ave., in the space that used to hold the Twenty One Pips board game café. According to Savvy Main Line, the building holds four businesses in one:
- A 70-seat restaurant and 12-seat bar, plus private dining for 48 on the mezzanine
- A bottle shop selling the same Folino wines poured at dinner, which come from the winery in Kutztown
- The Andrea Folino boutique, with Italian shoes, handbags, and clothing, open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- A menu with small plates from $9 to $19, homemade pasta from $22 to $26, and weekend brunch plates from $14 to $18
Savvy Main Line reported that the opening had originally been targeted for the previous fall. It ended up arriving in time for the first holiday season since the district's rename.
Farther up the street, Bored Trading Café held its grand opening at 43 Cricket Ave. in January, and Raffs Italian Cuisine opened at 65 Cricket Ave. in April. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in July that EMei's planned expansion at 98 Cricket Ave. had slipped because of permitting and architecture issues.
The district's own numbers put this in context. Eleven businesses opened in the district in all of 2025. By July 2026 another ten had opened, one short of the previous year's full count with five months still to go, and three more were on the way.
The district is also trying to steer foot traffic off Lancaster Avenue. In September it announced a $68,000 grant from Pennsylvania's Local Share Account program for five pedestrian wayfinding kiosks along Lancaster, Anderson, and Cricket Avenues. Merje Design of West Chester designed them, and completion was expected by the end of 2026. In the district's announcement, Ardwood Civic Association President Garrett Elwood said the kiosks will point visitors to "the businesses along the side streets and connecting avenues," which he said have historically drawn less foot traffic than the main corridor. Each kiosk will have a downtown map with parking lots on one side and local history on the back. The kiosk planned near Ardmore and Lancaster Avenues will tell the story of the Autocar Co. factory. Founded in 1899, it was once the township's largest employer and closed in 1953.
A holiday market at the mouth of Cricket Avenue does the same job as those kiosks. It brings people to the corner and puts the side street in front of them.
The First December With the New Station
This is the first holiday season with the rebuilt Ardmore Station at 39 Station Ave. SEPTA started service there on March 23, 2026, and held the ribbon-cutting on April 10. The station now has elevators, ramps, high-level platforms, a new inbound building, and outbound shelters. The $60.6 million project began in 2019. SEPTA said the pandemic, supply-chain problems, and nighttime-only work all slowed it down. Amtrak also marked the project complete in April.
Expect construction on part of Lancaster Avenue this winter. The Piazza at Ardmore broke ground in May at 100 W. Lancaster Ave., between Greenfield and Ardmore Avenues. It is a $187 million building with five stories, 270 apartments, and 30,000 square feet of retail, replacing former car dealerships and a shuttered IHOP. Completion is scheduled for around February 2028, so it will be under construction for this holiday season and the next one.
December 5, Start to Finish
Market Saturday is the easiest day to see all of this at once. It also connects downtown to Suburban Square.
Start at the Ardmore Farmers Market in Suburban Square, 120 Coulter Ave. Its regular hours are Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The newest counter there is Taco Heart. Owner Nano Wheedan's South Philadelphia shop at Seventh Street and East Passyunk Avenue is known for Austin-style breakfast tacos on fresh flour tortillas, and the Ardmore stand is its first expansion. It was first announced for October 5. In early November the Philadelphia Inquirer reported it was soft-opening with a limited menu and limited hours. "Baby steps," Wheedan said. Fillings include eggs, potatoes, beans, bacon, and brisket, and the tortillas are made fresh on site in Ardmore.
From there, walk to Cricket and Lancaster for the Art Star Bazaar vendors, who are set up from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Then head up Cricket Avenue. Inside Vintner's Table, the bottle shop sells the wines served in the dining room, and the Andrea Folino boutique, through an archway, keeps daytime hours. After that, Bored Trading Café at 43 and Raffs Italian Cuisine at 65 are both a short walk up the block. If you want to make a night of it, Nate Smith ft. Kiefer & CARRTOONS plays Ardmore Music Hall the next evening.
If you're thinking about how downtown Ardmore's changing blocks fit into your own plans, from Cricket Avenue's new tenants to the long Piazza build on Lancaster, the team at Philly Home Advisors tracks Lower Merion at the street level. Schedule a consultation and we'll go through what this corner looks like now and where it's headed.
