Doylestown's Holiday Weeknights Belong to Fonthill and the Tile Works
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
What is on in Doylestown on a Wednesday night in December? The Borough's Winterfest calendar has little to offer midweek. Look out from State Street, to Fonthill Castle, the Mercer Museum and Moravian Pottery & Tile Works, and the middle of the week fills up. The two calendars split the season between them, and they meet on only a few nights.
Every one-day event with a posted date on the Doylestown Winterfest calendar falls on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
The one weeknight program in the Borough is Holly Jolly Sip & Stroll, which Winterfest describes as downtown shopping with seasonal drinks on Thursdays in December. No 2026 dates or times are on the calendar yet. That leaves Monday through Thursday evenings to someone else, and that is where Fonthill comes in.
The Mercer Museum & Fonthill Castle holiday page lists three ways to see Henry Mercer's home decorated for the season. The Holiday Evening Tours carry most of the season's weeknights. These are 45-minute guided tours, and the museum describes Mercer's ceramic tiles and holiday trees "glowing in the candlelight." Tickets cost $35 for adults, $25 for adult Bucks County Historical Society members, $10 for youth ages 6 to 17 and $5 for children 5 and under.
Here is how those evenings fall across the week, with the other evening programs nearby on the same nights:
| Night | Fonthill Holiday Evening Tours | Also that evening |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday | Nov. 18, Nov. 25, Dec. 9, Dec. 16, Dec. 23 | Thanksgiving Eve Bluegrass at the Tile Works, Nov. 25 |
| Thursday | Nov. 19, Dec. 10, Dec. 17 | Holly Jolly Sip & Stroll, December Thursdays, dates to come |
| Friday | Nov. 20, Nov. 27, Dec. 4, Dec. 11, Dec. 18 | Tree Lighting, Nov. 27; Tile Works soundbath, Dec. 4 |
| Saturday | Nov. 21, Nov. 28 | Roaring Twenties Speakeasy at the Tile Works, Nov. 21 |
| Tuesday | None | Mercer Museum Holiday Open House, Dec. 1 |
Eight of Fonthill's 15 evening tour dates fall on a Wednesday or Thursday. Daytime visits work differently. Holiday Daily Tours run every day from Nov. 14 through Dec. 22. They are 60-minute guided tours at $20 for adults, $17 for seniors 65 and up, $15 for students and $10 for youth 6 to 17, and they are free for children 5 and under and for BCHS members.
The self-paced Holiday Lights Meander follows the weekend pattern instead. It runs Nov. 27 and 28 and then every December weekend through Dec. 26 and 27, with added dates on Dec. 23, 24, 29, 30 and 31. Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve have special hours, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Time slots start every 10 minutes, each slot is 45 minutes, and adult admission is $20. To see the castle by candlelight, you'll mostly be going on a weeknight. Wandering at your own pace mostly happens on weekends.
Moravian Pottery & Tile Works, at 130 E. Swamp Road, runs its own set of evening programs. These are the dates on its events page:
Thanksgiving Eve has the most going on of any weeknight this season. The bluegrass night at the Tile Works and a Fonthill evening tour are both scheduled for Nov. 25.
The Mercer Museum's Holiday Open House is Tuesday, Dec. 1, 6 to 8 p.m. It is free and open to all, with music, children's crafts and activities, and Santa in the Historic Log House. That makes it the one free evening event of the season with a posted date.
The County Theater, the nonprofit community arthouse at 20 E. State St., adds two more Tuesday nights through its Deep Focus online seminars. "Love Me or Leave Me" is Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m., and "The Lion in Winter" is Dec. 15 at 7:30 p.m. The theater's site notes a new ticketing system and says members need to log in to buy tickets online, so check your login before the night of a seminar.
Black Friday is the one evening when the Borough and Fonthill both run at full schedule. The 112th Annual Tree Lighting goes from 5 to 8 p.m., Santa's Cottage opens at the Hamilton Lot, and Fonthill has a Holiday Evening Tour and the first Holiday Lights Meander day. The overlap continues the next day. Small Business Saturday runs 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Nov. 28, and Fonthill has both a Meander day and an evening tour that day. If you want to do the castle and the tree in one trip, Saturday's 9 p.m. shopping close gives you more room to plan than Friday's three-hour tree lighting window.
A few downtown spots are new to the Borough this year.
The Still on State is a new bar and dining concept at the Doylestown Inn, 18 S. State St. Patch reported that its grand opening was scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 5, after almost two years of planning, permits and construction. The indoor-outdoor bar has heaters for cooler nights and seats up to 60 when the weather allows. Drinks feature spirits made in-house by The Hattery Stove & Still along with an all-Pennsylvania lineup of beer, wine and spirits. The menu includes Blackboard BBQ, Irish fish and chips made with fish sourced from the New Jersey Shore, wings with 10 mix-and-match sauces, and terminal egg rolls. The heated seating makes it a fit for a December Thursday.
Wizarding Ways And More, the Harry Potter shop, closed on East State Street on June 8. It reopened June 25 around the corner at 22 E. Oakland Ave., the former Board and Brush space, with about three times the merchandise. The shop added books, candy, puzzles, children's clothing and Harry Potter-themed teas to its cloaks, hats and wands, according to Patch. It's an easy stop on Small Business Saturday.
Dollop Frozen Yogurt opened this summer at 333 N. Broad St., across the street from Broad Commons Park, with 10 self-serve flavors and more than 20 toppings. Broad Commons Park is also where Cranksgiving starts on Nov. 8. Farther south, Grande Pizza & Catering opened in August at 276 S. Main St., in the space Lil' Doms Pizzeria left a few days earlier, Patch reported.
There is still time to vote in the Borough's first Scarecrow Stroll. Michelle Wise, owner of Vespertine Boutique and Ritual Room, organized it with the Borough. More than 30 businesses are displaying character-themed scarecrows, the Bucks County Herald reported. You can vote with the QR code on each scarecrow or with a paper ballot from Borough Hall, Hops/Scotch in Main Street Marketplace, or Vespertine. Voting closes at midnight on Halloween, and the winner will be announced Nov. 2.
Two projects people are watching won't be part of this holiday season. Tusk, the Grafenstine family's restaurant planned for 50 N. Main St., the former Waters Edge Winery and Bistro, had not announced an official opening date as of WhatNow's September report.
On Route 611, steel is going up for three new buildings at the Barn Plaza. They sit on the site of the former Regal Cinema, which was demolished in the months around last year's holiday season. The 43,000-square-foot extension will include a 13,000-square-foot Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma, Sephora, Shake Shack, Naya, Starbucks, Just Salad, LaserAway and a 6,000-square-foot Burton's Grill & Bar. Burton's will have 140 indoor seats, a 32-seat bar and a 75-seat patio, per Patch. No opening dates have been announced for any of them.
Hosting family in Doylestown this season, or thinking about whether the town fits the way you want to spend your winters? The agents at Keller Williams Main Line know Bucks County's weekends and weeknights alike, and we're glad to talk through it with you. Contact Us.
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