This Friday, October 30, from 4 to 6 p.m., Mt. Diablo Boulevard between Plaza Way and Dewing Avenue becomes a candy route. Lafayette Circle and La Fiesta Square join in too. The Lafayette Chamber of Commerce runs Trick or Treat Street as a free event, and the Chamber says local businesses provide the candy.
That detail sets the pattern for the next seven weeks. Much of Lafayette's season, from Halloween to the week before Christmas, comes from inside the town. Shops supply the treats, and Chamber members fill the vendor tables. A community theater on School Street wrote a holiday show whose villain wants to drain the town's beloved reservoir. If you live here, the calendar below is a list of where your neighbors will be and which businesses are doing the hosting.
Week one: the candy comes from the storefronts
Trick or Treat Street is about as local as a Halloween event gets. Kids walk storefront to storefront along the main downtown blocks, and the people handing out candy are the same merchants you pass the rest of the year. Bring a bag; the Chamber's listing reminds families to.
A few of those storefronts have changed hands or opened since late summer, so the route looks slightly different from last year's:
- Ware Designs Jewelers, 3645 A Mt. Diablo Blvd., held a grand reopening on August 19. Master goldsmith Stephen Ware retired and passed the business to his longtime apprentice, Melissa, and the Chamber says the shop has served Lafayette for 30 years.
- Griswold Home Care for Central Contra Costa County, a locally owned non-medical home-care agency at 3696 Mount Diablo Blvd., cut its ribbon on October 6.
- Lamorinda Women's Health, a concierge gynecology practice at 970 Dewing Ave., Suite 301, followed on October 8.
- Strings and Keys Music Studio, 3705 Mt. Diablo Blvd., Suite A, has a Chamber ribbon-cutting on Thursday, November 5, at 10 a.m. for its grand reopening. The studio has been a Chamber member since 2013.
Since August, a jeweler has passed to the apprentice he trained, and a music studio is reopening after more than a decade in the Chamber. That fits the pattern we described in our look at the restaurant openings along Mt. Diablo Boulevard: businesses here mostly continue rather than turn over.
November: the town talks to itself
November has no big street event. Its calendar is built around rooms where locals do the talking.
At 7 a.m. on Tuesday, November 17, the Chamber's Community Thanksgiving Breakfast meets at Lafayette Veterans Memorial Center, 3780 Mt. Diablo Blvd., and runs until 8:30. The Chamber says Emmy nominee D'Arcy Carden, who fell in love on stage at Lafayette's Town Hall Theatre before starring in The Good Place, will join a chat and Q&A with her father, Dennis Erokan, founder of BAM Magazine and the Bay Area Music Awards. Tickets are $50 per person or $400 for a table of eight, and the Chamber expects an early sellout. A father-and-daughter conversation in the veterans' hall is a very Lafayette way to spend the week before Thanksgiving.
On the weekends around that breakfast, Town Hall Theatre's education program has the stage at 3535 School Street:
| Dates | Production | Days |
|---|---|---|
| November 13–15 | The Grunch | Friday to Sunday |
| November 20–21 | Into the Woods Jr. | Friday and Saturday |
Tickets are on Town Hall's box office calendar.
If you'd rather spend a November afternoon outdoors, the Lafayette–Moraga Regional Trail turned 50 this year. In its September 25 roundup, the City said researched history panels will eventually be installed along the 7.65-mile trail. No installation date has been posted, so take this as something to look for on future walks rather than this month.
December 4: the tree lighting moves to a Friday
The Chamber's It's a Wonderful Life in Lafayette celebration is on Friday, December 4, from 4 to 6 p.m. at Lafayette Plaza, 3530 Plaza Way. The free event includes visits with Santa, rides on the Lafayette Express train, the official holiday tree lighting, live music, crafts and treats. The Chamber suggests arriving early for Santa's arrival and staying downtown for dinner.
Last year's celebration was on Sunday, December 7. Holding it on a Friday evening this year makes that dinner suggestion easy to take, because the tree lighting ends just as downtown restaurants start their weekend dinner service.
The Chamber's thank-you list from 2025 shows how much of the event is made in town. East Bay Nursery supplied the tree and Light It Up did the holiday lights. Lamorinda Sunrise Rotary, the AAUW-OML Ambassadors for STEM and Sideboard handed out free hot chocolate, and the City of Lafayette was a co-sponsor. Those are last year's credits. The 2026 page lists sponsors but does not yet say who is supplying the tree or the cocoa this time.
The page doesn't post a separate time for the lighting itself, so plan on the full 4-to-6 window.
December 9: the vendors are the neighbors
The following Wednesday, December 9, from 5 to 7 p.m., the Chamber holds its Holiday Mixer and Vendor Fair in the Great Hall at St. Perpetua Church, 3454 Hamlin Road. The Chamber says member vendors will be selling holiday gifts. It's a mixer, so it leans toward the business community, but for anyone shopping, every vendor is a Lafayette Chamber member. That means the people who handed out candy on October 30 may be selling you gifts six weeks later.
December 11–19: a panto about the reservoir
Town Hall Theatre Company has been around since 1944, when it began as the Dramateurs. Its recent holiday shows have been titles you'd find on many stages. Its production archive lists Cinderella: A Fairytale for 2022–2023, A Christmas Story for 2023–2024, and Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!) for 2024–2025. Last season brought Snowbound, a new work commissioned for Town Hall. Lamorinda Weekly described Snowbound as a story about high schoolers, a teacher and a bus driver stranded by a winter storm.
This year Town Hall is staging Robin Hood of the Reservoir: A Holiday Panto, December 11 through 19. Here is the theater's description:
"When a power-hungry Sheriff threatens to drain the town's beloved reservoir, Marian must decide how to protect her home, her family, and her community. Inspired by the legend of Robin Hood and packed with pop songs, slapstick comedy, and audience participation, this joyful holiday panto invites you to cheer the heroes, boo the baddies, and become part of the fun."
That plot opens a short drive from the Lafayette Reservoir, where EBMUD's long-running retrofit recently changed the shape of the tower for the first time in 97 years.
Heather Cousins, Lulu Braunstein and Kathleen Olson wrote and directed the show. Tickets are $25 and the show runs 90 minutes with one 15-minute intermission. The lobby opens an hour before each performance, with live music from local Bay Area musicians. A happy hour runs from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m. before evening shows and from 1:00 to 1:30 p.m. before matinees, with $1 off beer, wine and cocktails. One listed performance is Thursday, December 17, from 7:00 to 8:45 p.m. The theater's show page has the full schedule.
The theater's description invites the audience to boo the baddies, so expect a louder room than at most holiday shows.
The season on one page
- Friday, October 30, 4–6 p.m.: Trick or Treat Street on Mt. Diablo Blvd., Lafayette Circle and La Fiesta Square
- Thursday, November 5, 10 a.m.: Strings and Keys Music Studio reopening ribbon-cutting
- November 13–15 and 20–21: The Grunch and Into the Woods Jr. at Town Hall Theatre
- Tuesday, November 17, 7–8:30 a.m.: Community Thanksgiving Breakfast with D'Arcy Carden and Dennis Erokan, Veterans Memorial Center
- Friday, December 4, 4–6 p.m.: It's a Wonderful Life in Lafayette and tree lighting, Lafayette Plaza
- Wednesday, December 9, 5–7 p.m.: Chamber Holiday Mixer and Vendor Fair, St. Perpetua Great Hall
- December 11–19: Robin Hood of the Reservoir at Town Hall Theatre, 3535 School Street
If this calendar looks familiar, our late-summer guide to Lafayette covered the July-to-September stretch that ran up to Art & Wine. The rest of the year runs on the same downtown blocks.
Bob and Lisa Lilley at Robert Lilley live and work just up the road in Pleasant Hill, and we keep an eye on calendars like this one all year. If you're thinking about a move and want to talk it over somewhere quieter than a panto audience, Schedule a Consultation and we'll find a time. Bring your questions. Booing is optional.
