At 21 Lincoln Street, the 1686 Old Ordinary is lit only by battery candles this week. The tours move through a house that once served as a stopping place for travelers between Boston and Plymouth, and they cover heat, lighting, chores and family life during long, dark New England winters. Each tour lasts 45 minutes and ends with a snack.
That is one of the first holiday events on Hingham's calendar this year, and it is a long way from the Square. Christmas in the Square is the night most of the town plans around, and it comes at the end of the season. The weeks before it are spread across Lincoln Street, the drumlins at World's End, the shops along Derby Street and a few Saturday mornings on Station Street. Each of those places runs its own schedule, and most of their dates come and go before December 4.
The Season, Week by Week
This weekend, November 13 to 15
- Friday and Saturday: Candlelight Tours of the Old Ordinary, at 6:30, 7:00 and 7:30 p.m. each night
- Saturday: Hingham Farmers Market, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., 95 Station Street
- Sunday: Pottery Barn's "Decorate a Merry Mantle," 10 to 11 a.m., Derby Street Shops
November 21 to 27
- Saturday the 21st: Watercolor Greeting Cards with Seaside Books & Art at 2:30 p.m., on the Hingham Public Library calendar, and the Owl Prowl at World's End
- Sunday the 22nd: Pottery Barn's "Trim a Beautiful Tree," 10 to 11 a.m.
- Tuesday the 24th: Full Moon Hike at World's End
- Friday the 27th: Green Friday Walking Tour at World's End
December 4 to 12
- Friday the 4th: Christmas in the Square, 5 to 8 p.m.
- Sunday the 6th: Pottery Barn's "Set a Festive Table," 10 to 11 a.m.
- Saturday the 12th: Old Ship Church's Merrie Market
Count them up and nearly every dated event lands before the Square's big Friday or within a week after it. The sections below follow the schedule outward from the Square and then back in.
Lincoln Street Tells Winter as History
The Hingham Historical Society's Candlelight Tours are a different program from the summer tours of the same house. The summer visit shows art, furniture, samplers and toys once owned by Hingham families. The November version is about the season itself and what a colonial winter asked of the people living through it.
Only two nights remain, Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th, with three start times each evening. The program ran on two weekends, so this one is the last.
For gifts with a local tie, the Society also keeps a Museum Shop on the first floor of the Heritage Museum and Visitor Center at Old Derby.
World's End Holds the Season After Dark
The Trustees' late-fall calendar at World's End keeps going after most outdoor programs elsewhere have stopped, and several of its events are planned around darkness. The Owl Prowl is on Saturday, November 21. A Full Moon Hike follows on Tuesday, November 24, and a second one is set for Wednesday, December 23, two days before Christmas.
The Green Friday Walking Tour on November 27 offers the day after Thanksgiving outside rather than in a store. Start times and registration details are on The Trustees' event pages, so check those before heading to the gate.
From Lincoln Street to the harbor, the season's first half is mostly about light: battery candles in a 17th-century house, a full moon over the peninsula. The shops come next.
Derby Street Runs a Styling Course on Sunday Mornings
Pottery Barn at Derby Street Shops has scheduled a set of free one-hour workshops, all from 10 to 11 a.m. with limited space, and the order follows how a house actually gets dressed for the holidays. The mantle comes first on November 15, with greenery, stockings and candlelight. The tree follows on November 22, covering placement, lighting, scale and the tree skirt. The table comes last on December 6, with tableware and centerpiece styling.
The tree session is the one most people need first. Scale and lighting are the decisions that are hardest to undo after the tree is up, and the session falls the weekend before Thanksgiving, which leaves time to act on it. The table workshop is two days after Christmas in the Square, just as hosting season begins.
Derby Street also has a new morning stop. Union Square Donuts opened on Thursday, November 5, at 7 a.m., and the shopping center called it its newest addition. For families with young children, Barnes & Noble's story time runs Fridays from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. through the season, including November 20 and 27 and December 4 and 11.
The Shipyard Has a Space Waiting for Its Next Tenant
The Shipyard's holiday picture is changing too. The original Wahlburgers at the Launch closed on September 30 after 15 years, and a leasing executive told The Patriot Ledger that a new full-service restaurant will take its place. For anyone booking a group dinner at the Shipyard in December, a 15-year fixture is not part of the plan this year.
Saturdays Lead Into the Square
Downtown begins to fill in before its big night. The Hingham Downtown Association plans festivities on Saturdays in late November and December, including horse-drawn hayrides, a menorah lighting and pop-up events, and will post specifics on its Hingham for the Holidays page. Downtown shops are open Sundays and keep extended hours through the season. Santa's mailbox is in place for letters to the North Pole, and holiday character cut-outs sponsored by Wilder Memorial Nursery School are set up around downtown. Residents and businesses can also adopt a lamppost through the association.
Saturday mornings have one more stop through the end of the month. The Hingham Farmers Market runs 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 95 Station Street, behind Tosca, through November. After that it takes a break and reopens as a winter market at the Wompatuck State Park Visitors Center from January 2 to March 27, 2027. That makes the last November Saturdays the final chance to buy from local vendors downtown before the holidays.
Then the Friday Everyone Plans Around
Christmas in the Square is the first Friday in December, which this year is December 4, from 5 to 8 p.m. Santa arrives by firetruck at 6:30 p.m. The evening includes food trucks, candy canes, an ice sculpture, hot cocoa, a holiday movie, live performances and the tunnel cap "Snow Show," and shops stay open late.
By that night, the candlelight tours are over, the Owl Prowl and the first Full Moon Hike have happened, two of the three Derby Street workshops are done and the farmers market has closed its fall season until the winter market opens in January. What remains after it is a short run of December weekends.
One of those weekends belongs to Old Ship Church. Its Merrie Market, an annual holiday bazaar, is held on the second Saturday morning in December, which this year is December 12. It closes out the downtown part of the season, eight days after Santa's arrival, at one of the oldest buildings in town.
At Pacella & Co., we spend a lot of time thinking about how a home looks once the mantle is dressed and the table is set. If you're getting your Hingham home ready to host this season, or thinking about how it might present when you sell in the spring, we're glad to walk through it with you. Let's connect.
