When does the holiday season in Port Chester actually start? There's no parade or lighting to mark it. It opens next Tuesday, November 17, when a ceramics nonprofit at 40 Beech Street fills its gallery with handmade gifts and keeps them there until December 23.
That five-week window is the frame for everything else. Most of the other dated events on this year's local calendar fall inside a single stretch, December 1 through 6. If you plan around the market's two family days and that first week of December, you've covered most of the season.
The sale that sets the clock
Clay Art Center's Handmade for the Holidays runs in the gallery and online from Tuesday, November 17, through Wednesday, December 23, 2026. Members get a preview day on Monday, November 16, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The stock goes well past mugs. The center lists handmade pottery, ceramic gifts, seasonal ornaments, cultural items, contemporary tableware, sculptures and jewelry. The work comes from regional and nationally recognized artists, current and past Artists-in-Residence, emerging and invited artists, and the center's own artists.
Store hours are Monday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The center doesn't list Sunday hours, so a Sunday afternoon visit is out. In-store shoppers can get gifts wrapped, and you can choose shipping or pickup.
Only part of the stock is online. The center describes its web shop as "a curated selection," and the full range is on display in person. That gap matters if you're looking for a matched set of tableware or a particular glaze.
The building has a long history. Katherine Choy and master potter Henry Okamoto founded Clay Art Center as a communal studio in 1957. It now calls itself the largest and most active ceramic facility in the tri-state area, serves more than 40,000 people a year in person and online, and has a shop representing more than 65 artists. According to the event page, every purchase during the market supports the artist directly and helps fund the center.
Two Saturdays built for families
The market has two dedicated family days, Saturday, November 21, and Saturday, December 12, both from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Each one includes a chance to meet some of the featured artists, seasonal ornament painting, and free sweet treats.
The two dates sit about three weeks apart, near the start and end of the sale. November 21 falls the Saturday before Thanksgiving, when the full inventory is still on the shelves. December 12 comes with the market about two-thirds of the way through its run, so it works as a last pass for anything that needs to ship. An ornament painted on the first Saturday also has time to go up on the tree before the second one.
December 3 is the night everything overlaps
The rest of the season piles into the first week of December, and Thursday, December 3, has the most going on. Three events land on that one weeknight:
- 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Clay Art Center hosts a Holiday Appreciation Event at 40 Beech Street with hors d'oeuvres, refreshments and handmade ceramic gifts. Members of the Port Chester–Rye Brook–Rye Town Chamber of Commerce get 10% off everything they buy during the event.
- 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. The Port Chester school district calendar lists the "Town of Port Chester Tree Lighting Downtown" as a districtwide event that evening.
- Later that night The Capitol Theatre has Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Evening on its schedule.
The Beech Street reception starts an hour before the lighting and ends with it. If you shop early, you can make it downtown for the tree. If you have concert tickets, dinner fits between the lighting and the show.
The first week of December, day by day
December 3 sits inside a run of six days with something on the calendar almost every day. The full stretch looks like this:
| Date | Event | Where | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue, Dec. 1 | Welcome the Holiday Season with your Commerce Community | Telly's Taverna, Port Chester | 5:30–7:30 p.m.; $80; Greek hors d'oeuvres, open bar, complimentary valet; register by Nov. 25 |
| Thu, Dec. 3 | Holiday Appreciation Event | Clay Art Center, 40 Beech St. | 5–7 p.m. |
| Thu, Dec. 3 | Tree Lighting Downtown | Downtown Port Chester | 6–7 p.m. |
| Thu, Dec. 3 | Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Evening | The Capitol Theatre | Evening show |
| Fri, Dec. 4 | Allman Betts Family Revival | The Capitol Theatre | Evening show |
| Sat, Dec. 5 | Holiday Extravaganza | Crawford Park, Rye Brook | 3:30–6:30 p.m.; tree lighting at 5 p.m.; free |
| Sat–Sun, Dec. 5–6 | Central Park Dance Presents The Nutcracker | The Capitol Theatre | Two-day run |
The December 1 Chamber event is the only one here that requires advance registration. Registration closes November 25, the day before Thanksgiving.
Crawford Park's Holiday Extravaganza is just over the line in Rye Brook, a short drive from downtown. The free event has selfies with Santa, food and holiday snacks, craft activities and live holiday music. The organizers say volunteers and sponsors turn the grounds into a "Holiday Village" every year. That puts the season's second tree lighting two days after Port Chester's own.
The Nutcracker is the family show in the Capitol's December lineup. The rest of the month at 149 Westchester Avenue is built for adults: Brandi Carlile December 15 through 17, Get The Led Out December 19, Gov't Mule with Audley Freed December 28 and 29, and Dark Star Orchestra on New Year's Eve.
New stops between the shopping
The core of the season is the market and that first week of December. Two newcomers are also worth keeping an eye on.
Run & Hide Brewing Co. at 30 Broad Street. Sound Shore Dispatch reported on October 29 that the new Broad Street location has a 10-barrel brewery on site and seats 80. That's double the 40 seats at the small taproom the brewery opened on Westchester Avenue in 2022. Every Run & Hide beer will now be brewed in Port Chester, and the plan is for the kitchen to serve full lunch and dinner seven days a week by Christmas. Father and son Tim and Thomas Shanley are building the place together, and the Dispatch said the Broad Street brewery would open "very soon," with opening-day details to come on the brewery's Instagram. According to the brewery's own site, the original taproom is at 223 1/2 Westchester Ave.
Port Chester Market at The Marina. A new community market made its debut on Sunday, October 25, at The Marina, 51 Abendroth Ave. Sound Shore Dispatch described the first edition as a big effort by one local resident with "real potential." The market's Instagram account is @portchestermarket.
What's taking shape along the river
The marina market sits next to the season's biggest construction project. In March, the Village of Port Chester started restoring the waterfront promenade along the Byram River. The Village calls the project the first phase of The LOOP!, a planned pedestrian route linking the waterfront, the train station and the Capitol Theatre, passing local businesses, Summerfield Park and Liberty Square along the way.
Westfair reported that Jablko Construction of Katonah won the contract for about $4.7 million. The bid scope includes stamped-concrete walkways, a performance stage under a pergola, four shade structures along the promenade, seating, trees and plantings, 17 lampposts and 35 LED bollard lights. As described in June, Phase 1 covers about 1,600 feet, from the southernmost corner of "The Gut" to Bar Taco, and was then forecast for completion by late 2026.
The stage is the part that connects back to the arts calendar. Clay Art Center and Neptune in June are already lining up partners and sponsors for the 2027 Port Chester Arts Crawl, which used to be called the Port Chester Arts Festival. It's set for Saturday, May 15, 2027, with free exhibitions, open studios, workshops and performances at locations around the village.
If you'd like a read on how Port Chester's downtown calendar and new waterfront could affect what your own home is worth, Andrew Rogovic has been following these blocks for years and is happy to walk you through the local picture. Request a Free Home Valuation, then go pick out an ornament on Beech Street.
