"Thank YOU for shopping local!" is how the City of Scottsdale opens the page for Scottsdale 75th Shopper Appreciation Days, the program at the center of this year's holiday anniversary plans. Scottsdale was incorporated on June 25, 1951, and the city has treated all of 2026 as its 75th-anniversary year.
Scottsdazzle runs from Nov. 28 through Dec. 31 this year. Most of the anniversary programming happens on the sidewalks and inside the shops of Old Town. The souvenir requires a stack of Old Town receipts. Several events that were not on last year's calendar take place inside a bakery, a pastry studio and a wine tasting room. Nearly all of it falls on Saturdays.
The Tree Is the Same Height as Last Year
The season opens Saturday, Nov. 28, with the Tree Lighting Spectacular – Celebrating 75 Years of Scottsdale. It runs from 7 to 9 p.m. on the Scottsdale Waterfront Canal Bank at 7135 E. Camelback Road and is free. Arizona Family's Jamie Ceretta hosts. The 10-piece band Phat Cat Swinger plays, Santa and Mrs. Claus attend, kids get a Toyland play area, and The Merchantile Market hosts a pop-up market of local makers. The city says the evening includes "a few special surprises to honor Scottsdale's 75th anniversary."
The tree is billed at 36 feet. The 2025 Scottsdazzle brochure gave the same height for last year's tree, which was lit on Nov. 29 at an event called the Jingle & Jazz Tree Lighting Spectacular. What changed is the name and the anniversary theme. If you want to see where the 75th shows up across the rest of the season, the receipts program tells you more.
The Anniversary Souvenir Runs on Receipts
The shopper program lists a cost of $75. That is a spending threshold, not an admission price. Here is how it works, according to the city's event page:
- Spend at least $75 at Old Town Scottsdale businesses between Nov. 28 and Dec. 19, 2026. Receipts can be added together to reach the total.
- Bring the receipts to one of the two Old Town Information Carts. One is at Brown Avenue and Main Street, and the other is at 5th Avenue and Stetson Drive.
- Old Town Ambassadors hand out the commemorative souvenir from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on four Saturdays: Nov. 28, Dec. 5, Dec. 12 and Dec. 19.
- Souvenirs are available while supplies last.
One Old Town business has its own anniversary this year. Experience Scottsdale reports that the Rusty Spur Saloon, the city's oldest bar, marked 75 years in Old Town in September. It still keeps the original vault of the former Farmers State Bank of Scottsdale, now stocked with beer. Because the program counts any Old Town purchase toward the total, a December lunch, a gallery purchase and a round at a 75-year-old bar all qualify.
Three Shops Host New Events This Year
Seven events on the 2026 Scottsdazzle calendar did not appear as standalone events in the 2025 brochure: Shopper Appreciation Days, Holiday Morning Magic, Reindeer Dash, the Jingle Belles showcases, Holiday Harmony, A Dazzling Cookie Affair and Snowflake Sips. Three of them take place inside small Old Town businesses. The anniversary program sends shoppers into Old Town stores, and these events put part of the city's own calendar inside them.
Holiday Morning Magic at Experiment Coffee & Pastry
Jonathan Robins and Brandy Jackson opened the first Experiment in Tempe in 2020 and opened their Old Town shop at 7109 E. Second Street in 2025. According to Tempe News, the bakery is known for small-batch experimental pastries, and the kouign-amann is among the most popular. On Saturday, Dec. 5, the shop hosts two sessions, 9 to 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. to noon. Tickets are $20. Guests hear the bakers' story, watch hot chocolate made from ganache and taste pastries.
A Dazzling Cookie Affair at Paula Jacqueline Cakes and Pastries
At 4151 N. Marshall Way, owner and head chef PJ Coleman leads hour-long cookie-decorating classes from 6 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 11, and Thursday, Dec. 17. Each guest gets a complimentary hot chocolate bar and takes home four cookies, and all ages are welcome. Both classes are ticketed. A city board document describes Coleman as an Arizona native who grew up in Scottsdale, trained with chefs in Europe and spent 15 years building a custom celebration-dessert business.
Snowflake Sips at Los Milics Vineyards
The newest of the three hosts is Los Milics Vineyards' Old Town tasting room at 7045 E. Third Avenue. Phoenix New Times reported in September that the expanded tasting room had opened. Winemakers Pavle and Ita Milic grow their grapes on a 20-acre estate in Elgin, in the high desert of southern Arizona wine country. On Sunday, Dec. 13, from 4 to 5:30 p.m., the ticketed Snowflake Sips event pairs four Arizona wine tastings with a seasonal charcuterie board. The same tasting room appears on Scottsdazzle's calendar in its first holiday season.
What Carried Over From 2025, and When It Moved
Many of Scottsdazzle's longtime events are back. Most moved one day earlier because the calendar shifted, and a few were renamed or changed.
| Event | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Tree lighting | Jingle & Jazz, Sat. Nov. 29 | Celebrating 75 Years, Sat. Nov. 28 |
| Santa at the Farmers Market | Nov. 29, Dec. 6, 13, 20 | Nov. 28, Dec. 5, 12, 19 |
| Starlight Movie Night | Home Alone, Dec. 6 | Elf, Dec. 5 |
| Pancakes & Pajamas with Santa | Dec. 13 | Dec. 12 |
| Holiday Dueling Pianos on the Bridge | Sun. Dec. 14 | Sat. Dec. 19 |
| Waterfront evenings, 6 to 9 p.m. | Scottsdazzle Stroll and Shop | Winter at the Waterfront |
| Live Nativity and Choir Concert | Dec. 20 | Dec. 19 |
Santa visits the Old Town Scottsdale Farmers Market at 3939 N. Drinkwater Boulevard from 9 a.m. to noon each of those Saturdays, and the visits are free. Pancakes & Pajamas, on the Marshall Way Bridge at 7124 E. Stetson Drive, costs $30 per person, and every attendee needs a paid seat. Starlight Movie Night is free in the Scottsdale Civic Center East Bowl and asks guests to RSVP. Mikey and Fouad play the dueling pianos from 1 to 4 p.m. The Live Nativity runs from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Old Adobe Mission, 3817 N. Brown Avenue.
The program itself has some history. AZFamily covered the 2025 season as Scottsdazzle's 10th year, when the Tinsel Trail window-painting program was new. This year the city is calling for artists for its holiday windows under the name Merry Main Street.
A Saturday Program, and a Weekday Trolley
Of the 2026 events posted through Dec. 19, nearly all fall on Saturdays. Saturday, Dec. 5, is the busiest day on the calendar, and the events can be done in order:
- 9 a.m.: Santa at the Farmers Market, or the first Holiday Morning Magic session at Experiment. The free Ultimate Family Play Date at Scottsdale Civic Center also starts at 9 and runs until 1 p.m.
- 11 a.m.: The souvenir carts open at Brown and Main, and the second Experiment session begins.
- 1 to 3 p.m.: Reindeer Dash on the Marshall Way Bridge and The Jingle Belles: An Old Town Holiday Showcase. Both are free.
- 6 to 9 p.m.: Winter at the Waterfront on the canal bank, free.
- 7 p.m.: Elf in the Civic Center East Bowl.
The city's free trolley has three circulator routes and runs every 20 minutes, but only Monday through Friday from 5:45 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. None of the Saturday events above fall within those hours. Parking is the alternative. Old Town parking is free, and on-street spaces have no meters, only time limits. The city's event pages link to a map of the free public garages and lots near each venue. On a full day like Dec. 5, the garages are a better choice than time-limited street spaces.
A few events fall on weekdays. The free Public Hanukkah Celebration with Chabad of South Scottsdale is Thursday, Dec. 10, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at Soleri Plaza, 4420 N. Scottsdale Road. The free Gold Palette ArtWalk is the same evening, from 7 to 9 p.m. along Main Street. It is a holiday version of the weekly Thursday tradition we covered in our August look at Old Town ArtWalk. The two cookie classes are on Thursday and Friday evenings, both before the trolley's 7:45 p.m. cutoff.
The last posted Saturday, Dec. 19, has nearly as full a lineup: Holiday Harmony from 10 a.m. to noon on the Civic Center West Paseo, the final souvenir hours, the last Jingle Belles show, the dueling pianos, the Nativity and Winter at the Waterfront. It is also the last day a purchase counts toward the $75 souvenir.
If you're planning your Old Town Saturdays this season and have questions about the neighborhoods around them, Rounds Petratis Legacy Group is happy to help. We live and work here too, and we'd be glad to compare notes on where the 75th is worth celebrating. You can find more of our local coverage on our Scottsdale neighborhood page.
