In Fair Oaks Ranch, the first holiday lights go on November 11. The Fair Oaks Ranch Homeowners Association's Events Committee has scheduled its Veterans Day Peace Tree Lighting for Wednesday, November 11, 2026, from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. at Fair Oaks Ranch Golf & Country Club. The listing describes it as a chance to "honor our veterans and kick off the holiday season."
The season wraps up 25 days later at City Hall, when Santa at the Ranch returns on Sunday, December 6. Between those two dates, almost everything on the local calendar is run by neighbors, local businesses and two churches. The busiest weekend falls on one road, Dietz Elkhorn, which is in the middle of a year-long rebuild.
The 2026 dates in order
- Friday, November 6, 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Parents Night Out at Spring Creek UMC, 9200 Dietz Elkhorn Road. There's nursery care for ages 0 to 4, and dinner, crafts, story time and games for ages 5 to 11. Register by Thursday, November 5.
- Sunday, November 8, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Cibolo Creek Church's 30th Anniversary Celebration, 30395 Ralph Fair Road.
- Wednesday, November 11, 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. Veterans Day Peace Tree Lighting at Fair Oaks Ranch Golf & Country Club, 7900 Fair Oaks Parkway.
- November 15 to 24. Deck the Halls at Cibolo Creek Church, a call for volunteers to help decorate for Christmas.
- Saturday, December 5, 5:30 p.m. A Night in Bethlehem at Spring Creek UMC.
- Sunday, December 6, 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Santa at the Ranch at City Hall, 7286 Dietz Elkhorn Road.
The opener at the club
The tree lighting is set in front of the clubhouse at 7900 Fair Oaks Parkway. The Events Committee lists three features: an honor guard, music and special guests. RSVPs go through the committee's Veterans Day Peace Tree Lighting sign-up page. FORHA created the listing, so questions about who can attend or what it costs go to the committee.
In Fair Oaks Ranch, the event that opens the holidays is also a tribute to veterans, and it happens on a Wednesday evening, more than two weeks before Thanksgiving.
A season put on by neighbors
The committee's own sites show how small and local this operation is. The FORHA events volunteer page asks for setup crews, cleanup crews and food servers for Veterans Day, and setup, cleanup and Santa Helpers for December.
The sponsor roster is mostly nearby businesses: H-E-B Lemon Creek, Spotted Deer Coffee, Fair Oaks Roost, GVTC, Mission Golf Cars, Parker's Ice Creams, Raising Cane's, Cibolo Creek Church and Frontier Waste Solutions. The City of Fair Oaks Ranch is listed alongside them. One of those sponsors is also on this year's calendar, since Cibolo Creek Church is hosting its own 30th anniversary on November 8.
City staff do much of the work too. In a November 21, 2025 weekly memo, the City Manager's office said Public Works had put blue Christmas lights on the police building and mounted a Santa sleigh and reindeer display on its roof. The same memo said the police had hosted their first community Star Viewing Party at Spring Creek Church, which celebrated the city's Dark Sky designation.
Santa at the Ranch, two years in
Santa at the Ranch is fairly new. An earlier memo, from November 7, 2025, said city staff were working with FORHA and the Police Department to bring "Christmas on the Ranch" back to the City Campus. Two weeks later the city called that December's event the "2nd annual Santa at the Ranch" and set it for December 7, 2025, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.
This year's event keeps the same three-hour Sunday afternoon slot and moves to December 6. Santa arrives at 2:30 p.m. The committee lists:
- A Christmas market
- Photos with Santa
- Santa's workshop crafts
- Live music
- Letters to Santa
- Food trucks and treats
- Blue Santa and Silver Santa toy-drive boxes
The venue is listed as the FORHA Office at 7286 Dietz Elkhorn Road, which is the same address the committee's location page gives for Fair Oaks Ranch City Hall. Reservations go through the Santa at the Ranch sign-up page. The listing says sign-ups haven't opened yet and to contact the organizer for details.
The toy boxes continue a city tradition. Last year the Police Department collected toys and gift cards with Kendall County Blue Santa through December 14, 2025. The city keeps an Annual Toy Drive page for the drive.
Two nights, one road under construction
The first weekend of December is the busiest stretch of the season, and both events are on Dietz Elkhorn. Spring Creek UMC holds A Night in Bethlehem on Saturday, December 5, at 5:30 p.m. at 9200 Dietz Elkhorn Road. The church promises a live retelling of the Christmas story with activities, food and music, and says "All are invited." The next afternoon, Santa at the Ranch opens at City Hall, 7286 Dietz Elkhorn Road.
That stretch is being rebuilt. A July 29, 2026 city presentation estimated construction from late August 2026 to late August 2027 in three phases: Preakness Lane to Ralph Fair Road, Windermere Drive to Preakness Lane, then Fair Oaks Parkway to Windermere Drive. The plan keeps one eastbound lane open while the other is under construction. Westbound traffic is detoured around the work zone, and some intersections may close when there's another way through. The Boerne Star reported in July that each phase was expected to take about four months and that the city would give notice before major traffic changes.
On a four-month-per-phase schedule, the setup on December 5 and 6 may not be the one in place today. The road's project materials on the city website are the place to check which way traffic is moving that weekend. This matters most for anyone heading west from City Hall after Santa at the Ranch ends at 5:00 p.m., or leaving Spring Creek after an evening event.
Things to settle before December:
- Spring Creek's Parents Night Out requires registration by November 5.
- The Veterans Day RSVP is open now on the committee's page.
- Volunteer slots for both FORHA events are posted on the committee's volunteer page.
- Cibolo Creek's Deck the Halls crew decorates from November 15 to 24.
Our team at Alexis Weigand Real Estate tracks Fair Oaks Ranch closely, from the roadwork on Dietz Elkhorn to the dates the community plans around. If this season is when your household starts planning next year's move, schedule a consultation and we'll go over the timing with you.
