Hanover's Holiday Season Opens in the Storefront Trader Joe's Outgrew

There's an empty storefront at Hanover Crossing that used to be a grocery store. From Friday, November 27, it reopens as a holiday market for four weekends, with about 30 local vendors, live music and visits from Santa. The Hanover Farmers Market runs it, and this is the third year the South Shore Holiday Shoppes has used the space.

The Shoppes is one example of how Hanover's holiday calendar comes together. Local groups put on the season in spaces they borrow. The farmers market takes over a vacant store. On one Friday night, Boy Scouts line three village roads with lights. The Hanover Garden Club teaches a class at the town library. If you know who runs each event and where, you can plan the whole season around a few dates.

The storefront Trader Joe's outgrew

The Holiday Shoppes uses the former Trader Joe's. In November 2023, the Patriot Ledger reported that Trader Joe's would move a few doors south inside Hanover Crossing on November 28 of that year. It was leaving its spot next to Panera for the former OfficeMax and keeping its 1775 Washington Street address. The paper said the move would take the store from about 8,000 square feet to more than 12,000 because the old space was too small for the number of shoppers.

The space the grocery store outgrew is still a good size for a market. Thirty vendor tables fit inside, and shoppers stay indoors during the coldest weeks of the year. Organizers say they'll turn the old store "into a winter wonderland and indoor marketplace."

Nine dates, and a lineup that changes each weekend

The Shoppes opens with a longer Friday and then runs on weekends until Christmas. Opening day, Friday, November 27, runs 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. After that, it's open every Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The way vendors sign up explains why the market looks different each weekend. The market saves 10 to 15 of its 30 spots for vendors who commit to all nine dates and rotates other vendors through the rest of the month. Vendors pay $125 for a single date, $325 for the full opening weekend, $225 for any later weekend, or $1,000 for all nine dates. Vendors who can do both Saturday and Sunday get priority.

So about half the room stays the same all season, and the other half changes. If you see something you like from a rotating vendor on the first weekend, it may not be there on December 19. Two visits a few weeks apart will show you two different sets of tables.

Friday, December 4, the season moves to Four Corners

The second weekend of the Shoppes falls on December 5–6, right after the biggest one-night event on the town calendar. The Hanover Four Corners businesses are holding their Winter Festival on Friday, December 4, 2026, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The shops stay open, carolers walk the streets, local stores offer crafts and decorations, and there are live performances.

Volunteers set up this event too. Boy Scouts place battery-operated luminaries along Washington Street, Church Street and Broadway. The town's page lists three performance spots: the Four Corners Stage, the Broadway Stage and Saint Andrew's Church. If you live on one of those streets and don't want luminaries on your lawn, the town asks you to contact the Select Board's Office at 781-826-5000, ext. 1033.

The festival also collects donations. Toys for Tots takes new, unwrapped toys at the ambulance parked at the corner of Broadway and Washington Street. The Hanover Food Pantry has a box for non-perishable food at the second stage on Broadway.

The town's festival page lists these shopping stops:

• Hawk's Nest Hanover Gear at Salmond School
• A Cardinal Cushing pop-up marketplace on Church Street. The year-round Marketplace at Cushing Centers, 120 Columbia Road, runs the Unique Boutique, which sells student-made items and other gifts.
• Holiday candles at Renovisions
• The annual cookie sale at Saint Andrew's Church, 17 Church Street
• Holiday gifts at By The Sea
• Floral gifts at Ivy & Olive's, 142 Broadway. It's a custom floral design studio that normally sees customers by appointment Tuesday through Friday, so the festival is an easy chance to walk in.
• Botanicals and rarities at Ann Marie's Botanicals and Rarities

For activity times, food vendors and stage lineups, the town sends people to the festival's Facebook page. Parking is in the Rockland Trust Plaza lot off Route 53 and in all of the Cardinal Cushing lots.

Four days in early December

The festival is the middle of a busy stretch. From Thursday, December 3 through Sunday, December 6, Hanover has something every day in three different places:

1. Thursday, December 3. The Hanover Garden Club leads two Holiday Mug Arrangements sessions at the John Curtis Free Library, 534 Hanover Street: 10 to 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
2. Friday, December 4. Four Corners Winter Festival, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. along Washington Street, Church Street and Broadway.
3. Saturday, December 5. Holiday Shoppes, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the former Trader Joe's at Hanover Crossing.
4. Sunday, December 6. Holiday Shoppes again, same hours. Some of the rotating vendors may change from the day before.

If you're picking one weekend to have family visit, this is the one with the most going on.

The library covers the rest of December

After Four Corners, the John Curtis Free Library carries the calendar through the quieter weeks and past Christmas.

On Monday, December 7, from 7 to 8 p.m., the library hosts a virtual cooking demo called "Holiday Gifts from the Kitchen." You can watch from home on a weeknight.

In the week between Christmas and New Year's, the library has two evening programs at 534 Hanover Street. "Magical Winter Lights" runs Monday, December 28, from 6 to 7 p.m. On Wednesday, December 30, a Teen Movie Night shows Elf from 6 to 8 p.m.

The Holiday Shoppes' last day is December 20, so these two library evenings come after the market has closed for the season.

Two newer places to eat on Route 53

If you spend a Saturday at the Shoppes, two newer restaurants on Washington Street can cover lunch or an early dinner.

Honeygrow is in Hanover Crossing at 1775 Washington Street, Suite 650, the same address as the market. It's open daily from 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. for dine-in, pickup and delivery.

Farther along Route 53 is BIRDCODE, a fast-casual chicken restaurant at 1978 Washington Street, next to Starbucks. In September, South Shore Times reported it would open there on Wednesday, September 16, as the chain's first Massachusetts location, with daily hours of 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

The Guimares Group follows Hanover Crossing's changes closely, from the Trader Joe's move to the restaurants that have filled the plaza since. If you're thinking about a new home within reach of Four Corners and Route 53, talk to a New Construction Specialist about the lots and timelines in Hanover right now.