Nancy Szilagyi found her storefront on foot. According to the Littleton Independent, she walked downtown streets looking for the right spot until she came to a building with a "For Rent" sign so small she almost missed it. After two months of renovation, Leaves on Main opened at 2699 Main Street on Sept. 5. The paper describes it as "tucked away at the end of Main Street, just before The Melting Pot."
On Friday, Nov. 27, the biggest night of downtown's year ends at the same corner. The City of Littleton's listing for the 2026 Candlelight Walk says the drone show "will fly over the Melting Pot at the west end of Main Street" after Santa lights the tree in Bowles Plaza. Downtown Littleton's season builds toward its west end, and between now and late December, much of what's on the calendar happens in small rooms along Main Street.
A plant shop where the street runs out
Leaves on Main sells indoor plants, plus a selection of books and other goods for people who keep them. Szilagyi is a Colorado Master Gardener. She ran her own landscaping business for 13 years before moving into retail management, which included managing O'Toole's Garden Center in Lakewood.
She told the Littleton Independent she had wanted to open a garden center and scaled the idea down to keep it manageable. "I knew that Littleton didn't really have anything like that," she said. The paper ran the story on Sept. 21.
On Nov. 27, the City's schedule puts the finale at this end of Main Street, so a shop that opened in September will sit where the evening's crowd ends up.
How the night of Nov. 27 moves west
The City's Candlelight Walk page lays out the sequence. The event starts at 5:30 p.m. with carolers, dancing Christmas trees, hot cider and Santa's reindeer along Main Street. The parade starts at 6:30 p.m. Santa lights the big tree in Bowles Plaza, and then the drones fly over The Melting Pot. The Downtown Littleton Development Authority describes it as following Santa down historic Main Street.
The drones are back for another year. The Littleton Independent's preview of last year's walk also described a drone finale after the tree lighting. The new part this year is what sits at the end of the route.
Event listings disagree on the hours. The City lists 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The DDA calendar lists 5:30 to 7 p.m., and the Visit Littleton event page gives 5 to 8 p.m. The City's page puts the parade at 6:30 p.m. with the drones after the tree lighting, so arriving by 5:30 and staying through the drone show covers every version of the schedule.
Visit Littleton's page still tells readers to check back in mid-October and says a Main Street map is coming. Its "Know Before You Go" page still has last year's logistics. Check that page again closer to Nov. 27 for this year's map.
The same night is also opening night for Hudson Holidays at Hudson Gardens, which runs Nov. 27 through Jan. 3 with a lighted maze, themed exhibits and visits with Santa. With six weeks of Hudson Holidays nights to choose from, households set on Main Street's one-night walk have plenty of later dates left for the gardens.
The downtown calendar, Oct. 23 through Dec. 27
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Fri.–Sat., Oct. 23–24, 7–9:30 p.m. | Haunts of Littleton | Downtown Littleton |
| Sun., Oct. 25, noon–4 p.m. | Goblin Giveout | Downtown Littleton |
| Sun., Oct. 25, 2–3:30 p.m. | Tea & Treats class, iN-TEA | 2440 Main St. |
| Sun., Nov. 8, 2–3:30 p.m. | Personali-Tea class, iN-TEA | 2440 Main St. |
| Wed., Nov. 11, 6–8 p.m. | Botanical Beverages class, Bridget's Botanicals | Downtown Littleton |
| Nov. 20–Dec. 27 | Big: The Musical | Town Hall Arts Center |
| Fri., Nov. 27, from 5:30 p.m. | Candlelight Walk, parade and drone show | Main Street, Bowles Plaza |
| Sat., Nov. 28, all day | Small Business Saturday | Historic Downtown Littleton |
| Tue., Dec. 1 | Dixie Krystals: A Very Merry Dragmas | Town Hall Arts Center |
| Thu., Dec. 3, 6–8 p.m. | Yule Log Creations class, Bridget's Botanicals | Downtown Littleton |
| Dec. 16–19 | Christmas Carol Holiday Interactive | Town Hall Arts Center |
Before the walk, the calendar runs through shops
Four of the table's entries are classes run inside downtown shops. Halloween weekend starts this Friday, Oct. 23, with Haunts of Littleton running both Friday and Saturday evenings. Goblin Giveout follows on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 25. That Sunday also has a Tea & Treats class at iN-TEA, 2440 Main Street, from 2 to 3:30 p.m.
After that, iN-TEA follows up with Personali-Tea on Nov. 8. Bridget's Botanicals runs a Botanical Beverages class on the evening of Nov. 11 and Yule Log Creations on Dec. 3. The DDA calendar doesn't list a separate downtown holiday market. The weeks between Halloween and the Candlelight Walk are filled by classes in shops, with Leaves on Main now one more small room at the west end of the same street.
The Saturday after is on the calendar too
Small Business Saturday falls on Nov. 28, the day after the walk, and is listed as an all-day event organized by Historic Downtown Littleton. That gives downtown two days in a row of activity: the city's big public night on Friday, then a day for the shops on Saturday.
Town Hall Arts Center, which describes itself as being on historic Main Street, opens Big: The Musical on Nov. 20, a week before the walk, and runs it through Dec. 27. Its season listing also has Dixie Krystals: A Very Merry Dragmas on Dec. 1 and Christmas Carol Holiday Interactive from Dec. 16 to 19. With the theater running through late December, Main Street stays busy after Small Business Saturday.
A feed store came back downtown the same summer
Leaves on Main isn't the only business that came downtown this year. In July, the Littleton Independent reported that Lewis and Cluck had moved back to downtown Littleton after a few years on South Broadway. The chicken feed and supply shop started on Prince Street in 2016 as an offshoot of Lewis and Bark.
The move came with a change in ownership. Steve Skundberg bought the business from founder Pete McClintock, wanted a space where the store could grow, and noticed a "For Rent" sign on the building next to a McDonald's while stopping in for a meal. The owners agreed to lease it to him within three hours. "It's like it was meant to be," Skundberg told the paper.
The store is at 5827 S. Rapp Street. It's open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, and it carries organic and non-organic feed, treats and digestive-health products. Live chicks arrive in the spring. Skundberg told the paper he may add dog and cat food later because customers have asked for it.
Both downtown arrivals this year started with a small sign in a window, a plant shop at the west end of Main and a feed store on Rapp Street.
Getting downtown on Nov. 27
The DDA's getting-around guide covers the basics, though it isn't specific to the event:
- On-street parking downtown is free, and some core streets have two-hour limits.
- RTD lots are at Rio Grande and Main Street, and at Prince and Alamo.
- The Littleton/Downtown light rail station has a park-and-ride lot, and more parking is north of Main Street along Rio Grande.
- Paid lots are also available.
On a night that ends with drones over the west end, a spot near Bowles Plaza or the station puts you close to both the tree lighting and the finale. Visit Littleton's event page says a Main Street map is coming soon, so check there before you head out.
If you're starting to think about how a home near Main Street fits into the seasons ahead, The Denver Group knows how downtown Littleton's calendar plays out block by block, and we'd be glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
