Thanksgiving Weekend in Willits, When the Christmas Train and Shop Small Saturday Share Downtown

From November 27 through 29, the "Mr. Skunk and the Giant Christmas Tree" train is scheduled to leave the Willits depot three or four times a day. The Willits Chamber of Commerce has also put Shop Small Saturday on November 28, right in the middle of that run.

That puts two calendars on the same few blocks. The depot sits at 299 E. Commercial St., and most of the town's gift shops, toy stores and casual kitchens are a short walk away on Commercial and South Main. For anyone who lives here, the departure board is the easiest way to plan the weekend. Once the weekend is over, much of the town's calendar moves indoors for the winter.

The Departure Board, Day by Day

The train runs on two weekends in November. The first is the weekend before Thanksgiving, and the second is the holiday weekend itself. Every other November day on the calendar, Thanksgiving included, is marked as not available.

The 6:30 p.m. departure runs only on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. Those are the only two nights this month when the train schedule reaches past the hour most of the South Main shops are listed as closing.

On board, the Skunk Train promises warm cocoa, cookies, games and music on the way to what it calls Mr. Skunk's workshop inside "the world's largest living Christmas tree." Infants 2 and under ride free on a lap. The VIP ticket adds advance boarding, priority concessions and a commemorative gift. Tickets for the Noyo, the new Presidential Class car, include two cocktails, light bites and priority boarding. That car is 21 and over. The Noyo came up in an earlier piece here on the season Willits became the Skunk Train's main stage. The holiday run shows how the depot also shapes the end of the year.

A Walk From the Platform to Main Street

The depot and its closest neighbors share a single block. Kemmy's Pies is at the depot address, 299 E. Commercial St., and is listed at 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The Skunk Train Depot Gift Shop shares that address and is listed open Wednesday and Friday through Sunday, 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., so it closes shortly after the 1:30 p.m. train leaves and before the 4:30 and 6:30 departures.

The order below follows the street numbers, heading west from the depot toward Main:

1. The Whistle Stop, 280 E. Commercial St. Listed Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
2. Imagination Station Educational Toy Depot, 262 E. Commercial St. Listed Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
3. Willits Center for the Arts, 71 E. Commercial St. Listed Friday through Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., which covers all three days of the holiday weekend.
4. Brickhouse Coffee, 3 S. Main St. Listed daily 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
5. Buttercups Children's Boutique, 15 S. Main St. Listed Monday through Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
6. Cat's Meow, 29 S. Main St. Listed Monday through Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
7. Mazahar & Willits Enchanted Toy Shoppe, 38 S. Main St. Listed Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., closed Sunday.
8. Moon Lady & Moon Man, 100 S. Main St. Listed Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday noon to 5 p.m.
9. Monkey Wrench Men & Women's Wear, 150 S. Main St., Ste. A. Listed Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., closed Monday.

Both toy stores on the route are listed open Monday through Saturday and neither lists Sunday hours. That makes a Saturday trip the simpler choice for anyone shopping for children. Visit Willits says it updated its shopping listings in October 2026, and that small shops set their own hours, some close Sunday or Monday, and calling ahead is a good idea. Its dining listings carry the same October 2026 update note. Every hour above is a regular listing, not a holiday schedule, so a quick call the week of Thanksgiving is worth it.

Saturday the 28th, When the Two Calendars Overlap

On November 28 the train's 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. departures bracket the Chamber's own Shop Small hours. Visit Willits lists a kids' downtown scavenger hunt and a Chamber booth with free coffee on Main Street next to Monkey Wrench, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. That booth runs through almost the whole gap between the morning and early-afternoon trains.

The Chamber's Shop Small Saturday guide for local businesses was posted October 5, when the day was still about nine weeks away. It explains why the Chamber built a day around this in a town it describes as having about 350 businesses:

Nine weeks from now, the whole country will be reminded to do something Willits does every day: shop small.

The Chamber placed the day between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In Willits the same Saturday is also one of the two days on the holiday train schedule with four departures. The Chamber has not published a list of participating merchants, so the scavenger hunt and the coffee booth are the confirmed pieces of the day.

Eating Between Departures

Most of the kitchens near the depot stay open well past the shops, which matters on the two nights with a 6:30 departure.

• Northspur Brewing Co., 101 N. Main St., is listed Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• 101 Drive-In, 100 N. Main St., is listed daily 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• Hatake Farm Kitchen, 50 S. Main St., in the alley behind Shanachie Pub, is listed Monday through Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Shanachie Pub, 50 S. Main St., is listed 3 p.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays and closed Sundays.
• TNT Market, 35 W. Commercial St., is listed 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends, with Indian food from about 11 a.m.

On Sunday the 29th, Shanachie is listed closed, Northspur closes at 8 p.m., and the last train leaves at 4:30. Sunday is the earliest night of the weekend for late plans, so it suits an early dinner.

The Two Weeks Before

The weekend before Thanksgiving comes after a few smaller downtown evenings. On Friday, November 13, Gary Martin presents "Art Talks: Crete, the Minoans" at Willits Center for the Arts from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Admission is free. The next night, November 14, Dirty Cello plays at 7 p.m. at Willits Community Theatre and Performing Arts Center, 37 W. Van Lane. The holiday train starts a week later, on November 21.

After the Weekend, Willits Moves Inside

November is the last month of the outdoor season for the Willits Farmers Market. According to the Mendocino County Farmers Market Association, the Thursday market runs outdoors at Willits City Park, Humboldt and State streets, from April through November, 3 to 6 p.m. From December through March it runs indoors at Little Lake Grange, 291 School St., from 3 to 5 p.m. The association says the market is open rain or shine and accepts WIC, SNAP Advantage and Market Match. Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday this year. The market's Facebook page is the place to check whether it runs that day and when it first meets at the Grange.

The rest of December's downtown calendar also happens indoors:

• December 4, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. "Art Talks: The Etruscans" at Willits Center for the Arts, 71 E. Commercial St.
• December 5. The WCA Members Small Works Show at the same address.
• December 12 and 13. The 39th Annual Holiday Craft Fair at the Willits Community Center and Willits Center for the Arts, Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The fair takes entries from artists, hand crafters and specialty food makers who make their own products.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, the train platform, the Chamber's coffee booth and the scavenger hunt all play out along a few blocks in the open air. By the craft fair two weeks later, the market has moved to the Grange and the art talks and fair are inside the arts center and community center. For more about the town's seasonal rhythm, see the earlier look at the Willits calendar after the rodeo or the Willits neighborhood page.

If you're planning Thanksgiving weekend downtown and want to talk about the blocks between the depot and Main Street, or about Willits in general, Steve Bowne is glad to share what he knows about the town. Let's Connect.