Arcadia's Holiday Season, From Arcadia Park to the Papago Lights

On Thanksgiving morning, people start gathering at Arcadia Falls around 8 a.m. Before anyone runs a step along the canal at 56th Street and Indian School Road, there are breakfast pastries from Noble Bread and coffee from Hendy's Coffee. Five days earlier, Arcadia Park fills with booths run by kids between 6 and 14, each selling something they made up themselves.

These are Arcadia's two neighbor-scale holiday events this year, and they land in the same week. Papago Park's two big light shows open that same week. ZooLights starts at the Phoenix Zoo the night before Thanksgiving, and Las Noches de las Luminarias starts at Desert Botanical Garden the night after. The light shows run for weeks. The Arcadia events each happen once, on a single morning. If you're planning the season around here, start with the week of Nov. 21.

Seven Days in Late November

Here is the opening week, start to finish:

Both Arcadia events are on 56th Street, so the week starts and ends in the same part of the neighborhood. Arcadia Park is at 3402 N. 56th St., and the Turkey Trot starts where 56th Street meets Indian School Road.

Saturday at Arcadia Park, Run by the Youngest Merchants in Town

The AZ Children's Business Fair takes over Arcadia Park on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. It's a one-day market where young entrepreneurs ages 6 to 14 sell products or services they developed, and the organizer has room for up to 130 businesses. Acton Academy Phoenix hosts the Phoenix fair.

The timing is useful. The fair falls the weekend before Thanksgiving, which makes it one of the first chances this season to buy small gifts nearby, and every booth belongs to a kid who came up with the idea. The fair runs three hours on a Saturday morning, so it fits easily before an afternoon of errands. If your own kids are thinking about selling, the organizer's page for the fair is where vendor details live.

Thursday at Arcadia Falls, Before the Turkey

The Arcadia Turkey Trot starts on Thanksgiving morning, Thursday, Nov. 26, at 8:30 a.m. The course is a walk or run of just under 3 miles along the canal, starting at Arcadia Falls. Every trotter has to register, and the money goes to Good Soles, an Arcadia nonprofit that gives new shoes to kids in need across the Phoenix area.

The race listing lays the morning out like this:

1. The day before: packet pickup runs from 3 to 5:30 p.m. at Scooptacular in Arcadia, 4730 E. Indian School Rd., Suite 113. The listing says "Wednesday, November 26th," but Thanksgiving is Thursday the 26th, so the Wednesday is Nov. 25. Check the race site to confirm the date before you go.
2. 8 a.m. Thursday: arrive at Arcadia Falls for the pre-race gathering, with pastries from Noble Bread and coffee from Hendy's Coffee.
3. 8:30 a.m.: the trot starts at 56th Street and Indian School Road.
4. By 10:30 a.m.: the event window closes, which leaves the rest of the day for cooking.

The listing also says T-shirts go first come, first served once late registration starts. If you want one, register early.

Look at who's involved here. The bakery, the coffee, the packet pickup and the charity are all Arcadia names, and the whole morning stays within a short stretch of Indian School Road.

The Papago Lights Run Long Enough to Wait

Both light shows open the same week as the Arcadia events and keep running well past the holidays.

ZooLights runs at the Phoenix Zoo from Nov. 25, 2026, through Jan. 15, 2027, from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. The zoo also lists a separate Cruise ZooLights night on Jan. 17. That's about seven weeks, so a weeknight in early January works as well as opening week.

Las Noches de las Luminarias at Desert Botanical Garden is ticketed and runs on set nights: Nov. 27 to 29; Dec. 4 to 6, 11 to 13, 16 to 23 and 26 to 31; and the first nights of January. The garden's page runs the January dates and hours together. It reads as Jan. 1 to 3, 5 to 9:30 p.m., so check the garden's calendar before you book a January night. Member tickets went on sale Oct. 1 and general admission on Oct. 16, so tickets are on sale now. The garden calls this year's version "bigger, brighter and more vibrant than ever," with more nights, expanded live entertainment and a Super Bloom installation by Graphic Rewilding.

Luminarias skips some nights, Dec. 1 to 3 and Dec. 7 to 10 among them. If you have a particular December date in mind for out-of-town guests, compare it to the garden's list first. Both venues are on Galvin Parkway in Papago Park, so you could pair the two on separate nights of the same visit.

After New Year's, the Canal and Thomas Road Both Change

The canal the Turkey Trot runs on has its own schedule this winter. Every fall and winter, SRP drains sections of its major canals north and south of the Salt River for construction, cleanup and repairs, and during dry-ups the canals are often closed to the public for a while. SRP's schedule page lists this season's southside dry-up as Nov. 20 to Dec. 24, 2026, and the northside dry-up as Jan. 3 to Feb. 7, 2027. SRP rotates which sections dry up on a four-year schedule, and the rotation map shows which ones are scheduled each season. If your usual walk runs along the Arizona Canal or the Old Cross Cut, check that map before planning January mornings around the path. SRP Water Transmission takes questions at (602) 236-4956.

On Thomas Road, the old OfficeMax space at Arcadia Crossing, 4519 E. Thomas Rd., which later held a temporary Spirit Halloween, is becoming a Trader Joe's. In June, Phoenix New Times reported that construction and buildout were expected to wrap up by December based on the liquor license application, that no opening timeline had been set, and that it would be the Valley's 16th Trader Joe's. The store's official location page still says "Coming Soon!" and lists no opening date. A December buildout target means the space should be ready, not that the store will be open, so treat holiday shopping there as a maybe for now.

That leaves the late-November week as the part of the season you can actually plan around. The fair is Saturday the 21st at Arcadia Park. The trot is Thanksgiving morning at Arcadia Falls. The light shows will still be running in January.

If this season has you thinking about your own place in Arcadia, whether that's what your home is worth now or what a move in the new year could look like, Lauren Ellington is happy to talk it through over coffee, maybe right after the Turkey Trot. Request your free home valuation or schedule a confidential consultation whenever it suits you.