Every Saturday from now through December 19, except Thanksgiving weekend, the Oregon City Farmers Market will be set up in Green Lot 1 at Clackamas Community College. This is the second year in a row it has stayed weekly into winter. After that it moves to every other Saturday beginning January 9, 2027.

The downtown calendar uses the same day. The Downtown Oregon City Association has put both of its marquee holiday events on Saturday evenings. Each one follows a daytime draw elsewhere in town. From late October to the week before Christmas, Saturday is the day most of Oregon City's public life happens.

The market's winter schedule, Saturday by Saturday

The market announced the extended season in a September 17 update on its website. It said customer and vendor feedback led to weekly Saturdays for a second straight year. It also said that not every vendor will come every week because of harvest schedules and other commitments.

Hours change partway through. Summer hours of 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. last through October 31. Starting November 7, the market opens an hour later and closes an hour later.

The market's update named Under the Pines, a certified gluten-free bakery, as a vendor it hopes to have through the winter season. That matters for anyone who has trouble finding gluten-free bread once summer produce is gone.

On the two Saturdays when downtown hosts something, the market is not the main event. It is the morning part of a longer day.

October 31 runs from morning into evening

Halloween this year is a Saturday, and it is also the last market with summer hours. The tents are up from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the college campus. Three hours after they come down, Main Street opens for the association's Trick or Treat Main Street, which runs 4 to 6 p.m.

The gap between the two is where downtown's newest business fits. Oregon City Market, a micro-grocer at 610 Main Street, Suite A, with its entrance on Sixth, opened in March. The Oregonian reported that it fits in just 600 square feet. The schedule announced at opening had weekend hours of 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. That schedule is from the March launch. The store's own site now says only that it is open six days a week, so check before planning an afternoon around it.

The market also holds free Friday beverage tastings from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Its online calendar lists tastings through October 30, the night before Halloween. As of today it shows none for November or December.

December 5 adds a free museum day

The second big Saturday is December 5. The End of the Oregon Trail lists that date as Heritage Holidays, one of its annual free admission days. Regular admission is $17 for adults and $15 for youth, seniors and veterans, so a household that skips the trip the rest of the year has a reason to go that day. The center's posted hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. Admission covers the Interpretive Center, the wagons and artifacts, the movie theater, and hands-on activities such as candle dipping and doll making.

The center lists Heritage Holidays as an annual date on a page first published in 2022. The page gives no year-specific program, so confirm with the center before planning around it.

The center's posted closing time is 5 p.m., the same hour the association's Holiday Tree Lighting begins downtown. It runs 5 to 6:30 p.m., and the event page says more details are coming. The market runs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. that morning. On December 5 you can fill a whole day in Oregon City and pay only for what you buy.

The Municipal Elevator is useful for the evening part of either Saturday. Travel Oregon lists it as open Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. That covers both the 6 p.m. end of Trick or Treat Main Street and the 6:30 p.m. end of the tree lighting. The city's own hours page did not load when we checked, so these hours come from Travel Oregon's listing.

The Main Street businesses open around these events

These Saturday events work because Main Street has businesses open around them. That has not always been the case. In a February KPTV feature on Main Street's revival, Nancy Busch of Busch Furniture looked back on years when the street had many vacancies.

"As you can see from our photos, things have really changed and evolved."

Busch Furniture is the oldest business on the street. It is family-run and dates to 1885. The store, now listed as Busch Home Furnishings at 804 Main Street, is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, so its weekend hours overlap the market's morning on both big Saturdays.

Watershed Cafe & Bistro is next door at 812 Main. Owner Tara Wanstall opened it about two years before the KPTV piece aired. She told KPTV she was determined to be on Main Street even when others were skeptical. She said other businesses welcomed her, with one restaurant sharing its point-of-sale system and vendors. Watershed's website says it serves breakfast and lunch every day. Its Golden Hour, 2 to 7 p.m., runs only on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, so on Saturdays the cafe is a breakfast and lunch stop.

KPTV also reported that Main Street now has dozens of restaurants and boutiques, including a wine bar and a tattoo studio. On October 31 and December 5, that is the downtown that trick-or-treaters and tree-lighting crowds walk past.

What isn't on this winter's calendar

The bigger riverfront projects run on a much longer schedule. On July 30, the City of Oregon City announced that it and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde had chosen Maul Foster & Alongi to lead design, engineering and permitting for the next riverfront segment at tumwata village. The city says the $12.5 million funds design and construction of that phase. The firm's job now is design, engineering and permitting, and no opening date has been set.

The Oregonian's September overview described the planned riverwalk as a link from Oregon 99E to an elevated Willamette Falls viewpoint. The first phase is a 14-foot-wide multiuse path. It reported that infrastructure work and demolition at the site were ongoing in August, and that new building construction was not expected to start before 2028.

The Willamette Falls Locks are still closed. The Oregonian reported in August that the Locks Authority is aiming for partial operation by 2029 and full operation by 2031. What counts as operating, and how it will be funded, has not been settled.

On the calendar, the next change after the December 19 Holiday Market comes on January 9, 2027, when the farmers market starts its every-other-Saturday schedule.

Once the holidays are over, some families start thinking about what spring might bring, whether that's a move-up home closer to Main Street or a little more land outside town. At Wings NW Real Estate, we're happy to explain how buying or selling in Oregon City works at a pace that suits your family. Let's map out your next move together. Schedule a strategy call.