Last year downtown Clearfield started getting ready for Christmas well before the parade. The Progress reported that crews were hanging lights and local high school students had volunteered to paint holiday murals on downtown shop windows. All of that was underway before the first December event.
The parade, the tree lighting and Santa in Shaw Park are free, and anyone can walk up. The harder thing to get into comes a week earlier, on Saturday, November 28, when the Clearfield Revitalization Corporation runs its Cookie Walk. You need a ticket for it, and in recent years the tickets have gone fast.
The Saturday After Thanksgiving Is Opening Day
The CRC has two holiday dates on its 2026 calendar. The first is Saturday, November 28, when Shop Small Saturday and the Cookie Walk run together downtown from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The CRC lists the meeting point as Downtown Clearfield, 1 N. Second Street.
The second is the Christmas Kickoff. It runs from 5 p.m. Friday, December 4, to 8 p.m. Sunday, December 6. Friday is the Wine Walk. Saturday brings the Christmas Parade, community caroling and the Tree Lighting Ceremony, and Sunday has Santa hours.
Last year CRC Main Street Manager Sue Diehl described the stretch between those two weekends to The Progress as one long celebration:
"With the shop small business event being held (tomorrow) on Nov. 29, it's almost like a week-long celebration."
This year's calendar repeats that pattern a day earlier. The Cookie Walk falls two days after Thanksgiving, and the Kickoff starts six days later. If you treat the parade as the start of the season, you'll already have missed the first event.
How Cookie Walk Tickets Moved Last Year
The idea is simple. You walk through downtown Clearfield and pick up holiday treats at participating businesses, stopping in shops along the way. It's popular enough that it sells out.
The county tourism calendar's 2025 listing said tickets were on sale in three places: the CRC office at 6 S. Front Street, Zalno Jewelers, and the Joseph & Elizabeth Shaw Public Library. The same listing said tickets for the 2024 walk "sold out within hours." By the day before the 2025 walk, Diehl told The Progress that tickets had sold out again.
That's two sellouts in a row, and last year the tickets were sold in person at downtown counters. Last year's pattern points to three habits for 2026:
- Watch the CRC's channels, not the calendar. The best places to catch the on-sale notice are the CRC's Facebook page and its office line at 814-765-6000. The office keeps weekday hours, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Expect to stop by in person. The 2025 tickets were picked up at the three Clearfield locations named above.
- Buy for the whole group at once. The CRC bills the walk as an event for all ages. If relatives are coming for Thanksgiving, their tickets have to be bought before they arrive.
The Free Weekend That Follows
A ticket only matters for one event. The CRC's own Kickoff page says most of the weekend is free to come out and enjoy. The CRC says it will post the detailed 2026 schedule closer to the event. Last year's timing gives a good idea of how the weekend fits together:
| 2025 event | Day and time | Where | Host |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christmas Parade | Saturday, 3 p.m. | Through downtown Clearfield | Clearfield YMCA |
| Santa visit, hot chocolate and cookies | After the parade | Clearfield YMCA | Clearfield YMCA |
| Community caroling | Saturday, 5 p.m. | Lower Witmer Park | Clearfield Choral Society |
| Tree lighting | Saturday, 5:30 p.m. | Lower Witmer Park | CRC |
| Santa House opens | After the tree lighting | Shaw Park, Front and Market streets | CRC |
Last year a family could watch the parade, stop at the Y for Santa, walk over to Lower Witmer Park for carols, see the tree lit, and finish at the Santa House in Shaw Park, all in one afternoon and evening on foot. The CRC's 2026 page still sends people to Lower Witmer Park for the tree lighting.
The Santa House also stayed open well after Kickoff weekend. Its 2025 schedule ran on scattered evenings and weekend afternoons from December 6 through December 22. If you have young kids and can't make the parade, Shaw Park is the better bet.
The Wine Walk Is the Other Ticket
The Friday night that opens Kickoff weekend is the second ticketed event. Last year it was the Taste of the Town Spirit Tour, which ran 5 to 9 p.m. with wine and spirit samples at more than 20 downtown businesses. Tickets were $25 in advance or $30 at the door, and The Progress reported that tickets were still available the day before the Cookie Walk.
So the two tickets behaved differently last year. The Cookie Walk sold out early, and Wine Walk tickets were still on sale a week before it ran, with a door price as a backup. The 2026 Kickoff starts at 5 p.m. on Friday, December 4. If you're only going to rush for one ticket, make it the Cookie Walk.
Why the CRC Builds the Season Around Shops
The Cookie Walk is set up to get people inside downtown businesses, with the cookies as the reason to come in. The CRC's 2026 description says you'll "discover unique shops" along the way. The same push showed up in Harrisburg this fall. On October 28, 2026, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development gave downtown Clearfield a Main Street Matters designation. The designation lets the CRC apply for up to $225,000, and its five-year priorities include local businesses and walkable public spaces. The money isn't awarded yet. It's an opening to apply. But walking people from storefront to storefront is exactly what the holiday calendar already does.
Some of those storefronts have new faces. The Progress reported a CRC ribbon-cutting for the new owners of Tot 2 Tot, a secondhand children's shop at 11 N. 3rd Street. The hours in that story were 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. If those hours still hold, a Saturday-morning visit fits easily into Shop Small Saturday.
A Simple Plan for November 28
- Get your tickets first. Keep an eye on the CRC Facebook page and call 814-765-6000 if you're not sure where tickets are sold this year.
- Arrive early. The walk runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and some shops keep short Saturday hours, like the 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. window The Progress reported for Tot 2 Tot.
- Do your shopping as you go. Last year Diehl said many downtown businesses held special sales on Small Business Saturday.
- Save the date for December 4 through 6. The free Kickoff weekend follows six days later, and the CRC will post the full schedule on discoverclearfield.com.
Everything on this calendar sits within a short walk of Front and Market streets. If you're thinking about a home close to downtown Clearfield, or just want to know what yours is worth before the new year, Nelson Realty can walk you through it over coffee, maybe after you've picked up your Cookie Walk tickets.
