Thanksgiving to New Year's in the Catalina Foothills: The Resort Tables, Art Weekends, and Night Walks on This Year's Calendar

Plaza Colonial sits on the southwest corner of Campbell Avenue and Skyline Drive, and La Encantada sits on the same intersection at 2905 E. Skyline. For the next few weeks, that one corner holds most of the Foothills holiday events you can walk into for free. There's a ribbon-cutting, a juried art festival and a gallery ArtWalk, all within a few minutes of each other.

That stretch is short, and the Foothills season runs in two halves. From November 19 through the first weekend of December, most of the calendar is art, shopping courtyards and open-air markets, much of it free or close to free, and Thanksgiving is the one day the resort dining rooms take over. After that first weekend in December, the calendar moves up the resort drives for good, into dining rooms with set menus and posted prices, through New Year's Eve. If you know which half you want, you know which dates to hold.

The first half starts at Campbell and Skyline

The Foothills season opens on a Thursday evening. On November 19, from 6 to 8 p.m., La Encantada is holding "A New Chapter Wrapped in a Bow," a holiday ribbon-cutting with holiday bites and shopping. The center's listing says it is welcoming "our new owners, Dan, Justin & Karen." Those are the Verwiel family, whom Fuchsia Spa names as the new owners of its La Encantada location.

Two days later comes the biggest free weekend on the Foothills calendar. Here is how the run of dates at that corner lines up:

• Thursday, Nov. 19, 6 to 8 p.m. The "New Chapter" ribbon-cutting at La Encantada.
• Saturday, Nov. 21, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. First day of the La Encantada Fine Art Festival, a juried show of Southwest artists working in sculpture, painting, jewelry, glass, fashion and mixed media.
• Sunday, Nov. 22, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Second day of the festival. The center lists Sunday admission as free.
• Nov. 22 through Jan. 2. La Encantada runs extended holiday shopping hours. The listing doesn't give the daily schedule, so check the store you plan to visit.
• Thursday, Dec. 3, 4 to 7 p.m. Across the intersection, Wilde Meyer Gallery hosts the Plaza Colonial ArtWalk with harp music, refreshments and a benefit sale for Youth on Their Own.

There's also a new name on La Encantada's directory. Frida American Brasserie is listed in the former Living Room space at 2905 E. Skyline Drive, and its website shows an OpenTable reservation calendar for November. According to Tucson Foodie's March report, owners Charles and Frida Hunt, whose family also owns Villa Peru, built the concept around Champagne and Champagne cocktails, with European-inspired American cooking that runs from small plates to steakhouse-style entrées. The restaurant's own menu page says the menu is being updated, so check its website for the menu and hours before you plan a visit.

Down Campbell, the weekend market keeps going

At the south end of Campbell, near River Road, the St. Philip's Plaza market runs every Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., October through April. It doesn't add a separate holiday event, but its regular schedule runs straight through the season, including Thanksgiving weekend and the weekends before Christmas.

Between the art festival on Skyline and the market on River, the Foothills has a free outdoor option on most weekends from now until Christmas. These are also the events where you can just show up, with no reservation or set menu.

Thanksgiving is the resorts' first turn

On Thursday, November 26, the calendar heads up the hill for a day. Four Foothills dining rooms have posted public Thanksgiving menus, and the times and prices differ enough that it helps to see them side by side.

The useful difference in this table is timing more than price. Hacienda del Sol's buffet runs seven hours, the longest window here, which helps a household with guests arriving at different times. Flying V is the only dinner-hour seating on the list. The Canyon Club brunch is done by 2 p.m., which leaves the afternoon open.

Each resort books its own tables, so reserve directly through Hacienda del Sol, Loews Ventana Canyon or the Westin La Paloma. Westin prices marked "++" are shown the way the resort lists them, so ask about tax and service charges when you book.

The first weekend in December is the hinge

After Thanksgiving, the free, art-centered half of the season gets one last crowded stretch. The Plaza Colonial ArtWalk is Thursday, Dec. 3. On Saturday, Dec. 5, the Tucson Desert Art Museum holds its twice-yearly Mata Ortiz pottery sale with Oralia Lopez, including a demonstration, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museum's listing doesn't give an admission price for the sale, so check that before you go.

That same Saturday night, the season moves to ticketed evening events. Just west of the Foothills, Tohono Chul's Holiday Nights opens to the public on Dec. 5 and 6, then runs Dec. 11–13 and Dec. 18–20, from 6 to 9 p.m. each night. General admission is $25, members pay $20, ages 2 to 17 pay $10, and children under 2 get in free. Members have their own night on Dec. 4, and the event includes a Merry Market.

Holiday Nights falls between the two halves of the season. It is outdoors and on foot, like the art weekends, but it is ticketed, held at night and spread across three weekends, like the resort events that follow.

After the hinge, the calendar is set menus

From mid-December on, almost everything left on the Foothills calendar is a meal with a time slot and a price. The Westin La Paloma runs its Holiday Splendor season from Nov. 20 through Jan. 3, with a handcrafted gingerbread display throughout the resort. The rest of December looks like this:

The Santa brunch on Dec. 19 is the most family-priced event in this half, at $25 for children 10 and under. Hacienda del Sol's Christmas Dining is the only option that runs six nights in a row, which helps if your family's celebration doesn't fall on the 24th or 25th.

The Westin's New Year's Eve plans run back to back. Dinner at LA LUZ ends at 10 p.m., and the Casa 71 countdown starts at 10 p.m. Both are listed at $129++ per person.

If your holiday plans include Mount Lemmon

Some Foothills households head uphill for a holiday hike. Marshall Gulch and the nearby Mount Lemmon routes named in the current closure order are closed to hikers Monday through Thursday for construction and open Friday through Sunday. That schedule runs through Dec. 17, according to the Trails of Tucson closures page, updated Nov. 7. For anyone planning a weekday visit before mid-December, that pushes a Marshall Gulch walk to a weekend, which is also when the art festival and the market are running down below.

For the full season in one short list, hold Nov. 21–22 for the art festival, Dec. 3 for the ArtWalk, one of the Tohono Chul weekends for an evening walk, and a reservation for whichever resort meal fits your family's timing. After the first weekend in December, the Foothills holiday calendar is mostly booked meals.

If you're hosting relatives this season and they start asking what living near these resorts and art weekends year-round would be like, Michelle Bakarich and The Bakarich Team are happy to talk it through over coffee, with no pressure and no timeline. Let's Connect.