The Houston Heights holiday calendar doesn't come from a mall, a developer or a city office. Three groups each run their own calendar: the Houston Heights Association, the merchants of 19th Street and the Woodland Heights civic association next door. Those calendars were never coordinated. When you put them side by side, six weeks of events pile up on two December weekends, with one ticketed afternoon this Saturday, November 7, to start things off.
That changes how the season works. The weekends in between are open, and the crowded dates fill up fast. To see what you want, decide early which of the overlapping events comes first.
Three calendars, one neighborhood
The Houston Heights Association has three featured events between November 7 and December 13: an Art Crawl, the Holiday Home Tour and the Mistletoe Market. The 19th Street in the Heights merchants post their own schedule, which runs all year and ends with Small Biz Saturday on November 28 and Holiday on 19th Street on December 4. Just east, the Woodland Heights civic association holds Lights in the Heights on the second Saturday of December.
Volunteers and fundraising keep all of these going. Net proceeds from the Art Crawl go to the Houston Heights Association. Lights in the Heights depends on neighbors who offer their porches to volunteer musicians, and on a separate ticketed party that helps pay for permits, security and the other costs of the December event. Each group picks its dates on its own, and here's how they line up this year.
| Date | Event | Organizer | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Nov. 7 | HHA Art Crawl | Houston Heights Association with Redbud Arts Center | 1–5 p.m. |
| Sat., Nov. 7 | Thundercat | White Oak Music Hall | 7 p.m. |
| Sun., Nov. 8 | Farmers market | Heights Mercantile, 714 Yale St. | 9 a.m.–1 p.m. |
| Sun., Nov. 22 | Farmers market | Heights Mercantile, 714 Yale St. | 9 a.m.–1 p.m. |
| Sat., Nov. 28 | Small Biz Saturday | 19th Street merchants | See organizer |
| Thu., Dec. 3 | The Black Angels | White Oak Music Hall | 7 p.m. |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | Holiday on 19th Street | 19th Street merchants | See organizer |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | Holiday Home Tour, night one | Houston Heights Association | 6–9 p.m. |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Holiday Home Tour, day two | Houston Heights Association | 3–9 p.m. |
| Sat., Dec. 12 | Lights in the Heights | Woodland Heights civic association | 6–9 p.m. |
| Sun., Dec. 13 | Mistletoe Market | Houston Heights Association | 1–6 p.m. |
Six of the eleven listings fall between December 3 and December 13. Those two short stretches, Thursday through Saturday from December 3 to 5 and the following Saturday and Sunday, December 12 and 13, are where planning matters.
This Saturday sets the pattern
The season starts on Saturday, November 7, with the HHA Art Crawl, a self-guided studio tour from 1 to 5 p.m. presented with Redbud Arts Center. Tickets are $50 per person, and children under 12 can't attend. Your ticket is a live digital pass on your phone. A volunteer checks it at each stop, and screenshots aren't accepted.
The route has 14 stops in two clusters, and you can take them in any order. Stops one through five are studios to the north on Delz St., Martin St. and Thornton Rd., far enough apart to drive between. Stops six through fourteen are meant to be walked after you park once, starting at Heights High School and running past the E. 11th St. studios to True North on Heights Blvd. The association notes that the Heights was once home to 20% of the working artists in Texas.
The studios and works on the route include:
- North cluster: Karin Broker Studio; Balinskas Preservation of Art; Paul Kittelson & Carter Ernst Studios; Ed Wilson & Magda Boltz-Wilson Studios; Tim Glover Studio
- Heights cluster: Joe Barrington's Bulldog; John Carroll Runnels; the Daniel Johnston Mural; Sharon Kopriva Studio; Kelly Moran Studio; Redbud Arts Center; the Daniel Anguilu Mural; The Heights Petite Shoppe; True North on Heights Blvd.
- True North Sculpture Walk artists: Robbie Barber, Roger Colombik, Keith Crane and Damon Thomas, Hans Molzberger, Suzette Mouchaty, Mark Nelson, James D. Phillips, Jim Robertson
The crawl ends at 5 p.m. Two hours later, White Oak Music Hall lists Thundercat at 7. Like the December dates, this Saturday stacks the neighborhood's own events on top of a regular venue schedule. The next morning, Sunday, November 8, the Heights Mercantile farmers market runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 714 Yale St.
The open weeks in between
After that opening weekend, the calendar loosens for about three weeks. The Heights Mercantile market comes back on Sunday, November 22, with the same hours. On November 28, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the 19th Street merchants hold Small Biz Saturday.
These weeks are a good time to try the new restaurants before December gets busy. Terry Black's Barbecue opened at 1329 N. Shepherd Drive in mid-August, according to Houstonia's roundup of August openings. Spice in Heights opened in September at 1111 Studewood, Suite 100, and appeared in the Houston Chronicle's list of September openings. Just south of the Heights, Riot Café was set to open October 17 at 1925 Washington Ave., with coffee, meals and evening drinks, as Community Impact reported.
A few familiar places have closed. Herand's Kitchen at 2601 Baylor St. closed in September, according to Community Impact. The Houston Chronicle's September closings list also included Queen Bee's Tea Room in the Heights. If you used to bring holiday guests to either one, now's the time to pick a new spot.
December 3 through 5: the first crowded weekend
This stretch has the most overlap of the season, all within three days.
- Thursday, Dec. 3: The Black Angels play White Oak Music Hall at 7 p.m.
- Friday, Dec. 4: The 19th Street merchants hold Holiday on 19th Street. The same evening, the Houston Heights Association opens its 2026 Holiday Home Tour, 6 to 9 p.m.
- Saturday, Dec. 5: The Home Tour's second day runs from 3 to 9 p.m.
The Friday overlap is the one to plan for. Holiday on 19th Street and the first night of the Home Tour fall on the same evening, and the tour is open only three hours that night. Saturday has twice as many tour hours, which makes the second day the easier pick for anyone who wants Friday evening on 19th Street.
The association has posted dates and hours for both tour days. Keep an eye on its event pages for the 2026 homes and ticket details, and don't rely on last year's. In 2025, the tour also ran Friday evening and Saturday afternoon into evening, and Community Impact reported that 2025 tickets included shuttle service. That's a guide to the format, not to this year's logistics.
December 12 and 13: the second crowded weekend
A week later, two different organizers schedule back-to-back days.
On Saturday, December 12, from 6 to 9 p.m., Lights in the Heights fills the streets of Woodland Heights. The City of Houston's special events office has approved the 2026 route. The event is a stroll, with volunteer musicians playing from porches along the way. This year, organizers have asked homes on Highland and Omar to volunteer their porches. Other traditions on the civic association's page include the lighted Watson Street Esplanade, sponsored this year by Humbug Lighting, and the Norhill Dinosaurs. Porch hosts who sign up are paired with a musician for free through the association's entertainment coordinator.
The next afternoon, Sunday, December 13, the HHA Mistletoe Market runs from 1 to 6 p.m. at Houston Heights City Hall & Fire Station, 107 W. 12th St. It's the last featured event on the association's calendar through mid-December.
So the last weekend before the holidays brings an evening walk in Woodland Heights and an afternoon market at the old fire station on 12th, run by two groups that set their dates separately.
If you're hosting family in the Heights this season, or thinking about which part of the neighborhood fits your next chapter, Terrolyn Nunn is happy to talk it through over coffee between events. Schedule a Private Consultation, and we'll plan around the weekends that matter to you.
