The South Charleston Farmers Market Isn't Slowing Down for Its Second Winter
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
At 4006 MacCorkle Avenue SW, under the interstate overpass, the South Charleston Farmers Market has a roof most farmers markets don't get. It opened on Saturday, May 10, 2025, which makes this November and December only its second holiday season. Before opening day, WOWK reported plans for portable canopies around the site.
The market is still heading into the cold months with more on its calendar than it had a year ago. The bigger change is in how that calendar is built. In 2025, the holiday push was one long Christmas Market that ran for three weeks. In 2026, it's a series of single Saturdays, each with its own draw, running from early November to mid-December. The downtown tree lighting and parade fall right in the middle of that run.
The City of South Charleston promoted the 2025 Christmas Market as the market's "FIRST ANNUAL" event and listed it from November 29 to December 21, 2025. The 2026 version is called the Christmas Market Festival, and the city lists it for one day only: Saturday, December 12, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The city filled the weeks before it with separate events. Here's how November and December line up, with the downtown dates and the last two Halloween events included so you can see the whole season in one place.
| Date | Event | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri., Oct. 23 | Trunk or Treat & Drive-In Movie Night | Memorial Ice Arena, 20 RHL Blvd. | 6–9 p.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Community trick-or-treat | South Charleston | 6–8 p.m. |
| Sat., Nov. 7 | Blenko Glass & Maple Syrup Festival | Farmers Market | 10 a.m.–4 p.m. |
| Sat., Nov. 14 | 1st Annual Chili Cook-Off | Farmers Market | 11 a.m.–4 p.m. |
| Sat., Nov. 28 | Light the Market | Farmers Market | 3–6 p.m. |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | Deck the Carts, drone show, tree lighting | 1st Avenue, D Street, the Mound | From 5:30 p.m. |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Christmas Parade | D Street | Noon |
| Sat., Dec. 12 | Christmas Market Festival | Farmers Market | 11 a.m.–5 p.m. |
| Sat., Dec. 19 | North Pole on Ice with Santa | Memorial Ice Arena | 9 a.m.–1 p.m. |
Four of those dates are at the market, and the market holds the first Saturday of the holiday run on November 7 and gets it back on December 12, after the downtown weekend.
The run starts with the two crafts that say "West Virginia winter" more plainly than anything else on the list. At the Blenko Glass & Maple Syrup Festival on Saturday, November 7, Blenko is scheduled to demonstrate live glassblowing, give away ornaments made on site through a ticket drawing, and run its glass store at the market.
Ronk Family Farm handles the maple side. The listing promises maple products, maple cotton candy, taste testing, and a tree-tapping demonstration. Other market vendors are bringing maple-inspired products too. The South Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau is listed as the sponsor.
A Blenko ornament made in front of you at a market in early November is about as early a start to holiday shopping as you'll find in the Kanawha Valley.
A week later, the market tries something it hasn't done before. The city bills the Chili Cook-Off on Saturday, November 14, as its 1st Annual, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 4006 MacCorkle Avenue.
Here's what's set:
The People's Choice award is decided by whoever shows up to taste, so the crowd helps pick a winner. Cooks register by emailing [email protected], the address on the city's event page. Because this is the first year, whoever wins this year sets the bar every later cook-off gets measured against.
Light the Market is back on Saturday, November 28, from 3 to 6 p.m. Last year, WOWK reported that the 2025 version had free cookies and hot chocolate, family activities, a visit from the Chick-fil-A Cow, and the market lighting at about 5:30 p.m. on November 29. The city hasn't posted the 2026 program yet, so last year's lineup shows what the event has been, not what it will be this time.
This is where the new schedule matters most. In 2025, the lights and the Christmas Market started on the same weekend. In 2026, the lights go on November 28 and the Christmas Market Festival comes two weeks later. Between them sits South Charleston's biggest holiday weekend downtown.
On Friday, December 4, the season moves downtown to the Mound. The South Charleston CVB lists the evening like this:
The caravan is the 2nd Annual Deck the Carts for a Cause, a lighted ride that benefits The Maddox Potter Foundation. You can bring your own golf cart or rent one from the City of South Charleston. The CVB notes that ATVs and side-by-sides are also permitted this year. Every driver has to register, and political campaigning or political displays aren't allowed on any vehicle. The CVB's tree-lighting page adds characters, music, hot chocolate, and cookies at the Mound on 7th Avenue.
The South Charleston Christmas Parade follows at noon on Saturday, December 5, on D Street. According to the CVB, candy gets tossed to the crowd along the route.
A week after the parade, the season comes back to the overpass. Last year, the Christmas Market ran 23 days. This year it has one Saturday, December 12, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you counted on last year's long run to fit in gift shopping whenever it suited you, this year it all happens in six hours on one day.
After that, the only event left on the city's December calendar is North Pole on Ice with Santa at the Memorial Ice Arena on December 19, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The dated events are only part of what the market offers this season. Its posted hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. When the market opened in 2025, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported a 7 p.m. weekday close and Sunday hours of 1 to 5 p.m., so weekdays now end an hour earlier and Sunday starts and ends an hour earlier. The market's site doesn't say whether winter changes them, so check before you make a special trip.
Super Weenie is the biggest new name in the regular lineup. In the Charleston Gazette-Mail's Food Guy column, owner Jason Myer said he was making his hot-dog carts the main focus of the business and building up Super Weenie's presence at the South Charleston market. "Please come see us at the South Charleston Farmers Market beginning in September, Wednesday through Sunday," he told the Gazette-Mail. Super Weenie is still on the market's vendor list.
That list also includes Muddy Mountain Flower Farm, Gritt's Midway Greenhouse, Gritt's Farm, Keen Quality Meats, Goldberry Grove, Steel Blooming, Honey-Do Produce, and Parsons Ridge Farm. Food trucks and other small businesses join the lineup on weekends. If you're making chili for November 14, you can pick up your meat from Keen Quality Meats at the same market where your chili will be judged.
If you're curious how places like the market at 4006 MacCorkle are changing South Charleston's day-to-day map, we're happy to talk it through. We're Christina and David at Home in WV, and we follow these changes closely because South Charleston is home. Schedule your free consultation, and we'll share what we're seeing across the city.
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