On Sunday, Dec. 6, the St. Albans Circle Tree Lighting runs for 90 minutes, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The bakery a few doors down has been baking at 3545 West Chester Pike since 1961.
That gap in time explains the evening. The lighting comes around once a year. The businesses around it have been there for decades, and the event is set up to send people back toward them. The Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors events calendar puts it plainly in this year's listing: "select local stores will be open for holiday shopping." Those stores are the reason the lighting is a Newtown Square tradition rather than an ordinary holiday event.
A program that has hardly changed in twelve years
Here is the 2026 lineup: hot chocolate, Christmas carolers, candy canes for kids, dance performances, sweet and savory treats, and Santa Claus arriving for the lighting on a fire truck. It's free.
Compare that with a Delaware County Daily Times notice from November 2014. That year's event offered music and dance, hot chocolate and cookies, Santa lighting the tree, and a Toys for Tots collection. The candy canes came from Christopher's Chocolates, a shop on West Chester Pike.
The candy canes, the dancers, the hot chocolate and the toy drive all appear in both years. The organizers haven't changed much either. The fire company's event archive names Newtown Township and the Newtown Square Business Association as contacts for the 2024 lighting. The Newtown Square Business Association lists the annual tree lighting among its community activities, next to the holiday snowflakes and "Seasons Greetings" banners it puts up in the business district each winter.
The schedule has a pattern too. The lighting has landed on the first Sunday of December three years running: Dec. 1, 2024, Dec. 7, 2025, and now Dec. 6, 2026. In both 2024 and 2025, Santa arrived at about 6:15 p.m. This year's listing gives only the 5:30 to 7 window, so if you're timing a toddler's bedtime around his arrival, plan on the previous two years' timing as a rough guide only.
"Santa Claus will arrive on a Newtown Township Volunteer Fire Company fire truck for the tree lighting."
That line comes from this year's Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors calendar.
The shops behind "select local stores," by the year they opened
All five of these businesses list addresses on the stretch of West Chester Pike and Chapel Road around the circle. Each opening year comes from the business itself or from local reporting. Taken in order, they show how much of this small district predates the tree lighting.
- 1961: R. Weinrich German Bakery, 3545 West Chester Pike. Robert Weinrich opened the bakery here, and it still describes itself as a family bakery that uses "OUR OWN time-tested recipes."
- 1976: Casey's Public House, 3529 West Chester Pike. It has served American food since 1976 and is known for its prime rib and homemade lump crab cakes.
- 1976: Luigi and Giovanni, 3601 Chapel Road. An Italian market, deli, specialty butcher and caterer, it has served Newtown Square and the Main Line since 1976.
- 1980: Hill's Quality Seafood, 3605 West Chester Pike. Hill's opened its Newtown Square store in 1980, five years after the first store in Media.
- 1986: Christopher Chocolates, 3519 West Chester Pike. The Lamparelli family has run the shop at this location since 1986, selling chocolates, confections, gifts and baskets.
Count forward to this December. Weinrich is in its 65th year. Casey's and Luigi and Giovanni both reach 50 in 2026. Hill's Newtown Square counter turns 46, and Christopher Chocolates turns 40. The most recent arrival on this list has been on the Pike for four decades.
For comparison, the newest food option nearby is Wonder at 3741 West Chester Pike, which opened Sept. 18, 2025 with dine-in, takeout and delivery, as Delco.Today reported. It's a little more than a year old on the same road.
Hill's runs on a counter, and the counter is the point
Of the five, Hill's says the most about how this district works. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer's 50th-anniversary profile, published August 2025, the company doesn't use online ordering or delivery apps. Customers come in, look over the displays, talk to whoever is behind the counter, choose their fish and take it home.
"We value customer service," Alexandra Grogan, Hill's president and CEO, told the Inquirer. "That's really how Bernie was able to build the brand and the reputation."
The Inquirer traced that reputation back to founder Bernie Grogan. He opened the first Hill's in Media in 1975, while he was a senior at Widener University. He had learned the trade working for his uncle at Mainline Seafood in Ardmore. His daughter Alexandra now leads the business, which has grown to four retail stores plus a wholesale and warehousing operation. Since 1994, that operation, Lawrence Street Seafood in South Philadelphia's Liberty Fish Building, has been the only supplier for all four Hill's stores.
So the counter at 3605 West Chester Pike has been in the same family for 46 years, and it has passed to the next generation. Beyond fresh fish, Hill's website lists prepared items such as crab cakes, stuffed salmon, seafood pot pies and strudel. Plenty of December dinners start with a stop like that.
Planning the Sunday around the oldest shop's hours
One detail shapes the whole day. Weinrich's posted Sunday hours run from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. By the time the carolers start, the oldest business on the circle has been closed for more than four hours. If you want the bakery to be part of Dec. 6, go in the morning.
Here's one way to fit the day together, using only times the venues have published:
- Morning: Weinrich. Open 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays. It's closed Mondays, so Dec. 7 won't work as a fallback.
- Midday: Tyler Arboretum. It switched to seasonal hours on Nov. 1 and is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. That leaves time for a walk before the light goes.
- 5:30 p.m.: St. Albans Circle. Bring a non-perishable food item for St. Alban's Episcopal Church's food drive and a new, unwrapped children's toy for Toys for Tots.
- Around 6:15 p.m.: watch for the fire truck. That's when Santa arrived the last two years.
- After 7 p.m.: Rose Tree Park. The county's free Festival of Lights runs nightly from Dec. 3 to Jan. 2 at 1671 N. Providence Road in Media. Dec. 6 is also one of the five Fare & Flair nights, with food trucks, vendors and live entertainment.
If you'd rather have dinner close by, Casey's posts a reservation phone number and an online ordering link on its website. Check holiday hours directly with any of these businesses before you go.
The toy drive runs all week
The Toys for Tots box at the circle isn't a one-off. Two days before the lighting, on Friday, Dec. 4, the Newtown Square Business Association holds its Holiday Luncheon from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the AC Marriott Hotel, 200 Squire Drive, and asks attendees to bring a new, unwrapped toy for the same campaign. The association lists Toys for Tots drives alongside its holiday banners and shop-local promotions. The 2014 lighting collected toys for Toys for Tots as well.
A toy bought at Christopher Chocolates on Sunday afternoon can go into the same campaign as one dropped off at the AC Marriott on Friday.
If you love the way Newtown Square does December and you're thinking about what comes next for your home here, I'd be glad to talk it over with you, ideally near a counter that has been open since before either of us started paying attention. Larisa Bevan works across Newtown Square and the Main Line, and a consultation is an easy first step. Schedule a consultation.
