On the weekend before Thanksgiving, candy cane signs go up along Highway 165. They point to a gallery in Homestead Village, the library and a micro-winery. They also point to a 19th-century church, the elementary school and the senior center on Camino de Las Huertas. Placitas has no single public square, so its holiday market spreads across six buildings on or near the highway.
The Placitas Holiday Market runs Saturday, November 21 and Sunday, November 22, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free. Maps are available at every venue and online, and the signs lead from one stop to the next.
The layout follows the money. Each site is run by a different community group in its own building, and each raffle, bake sale or share of sales goes back to that host or to a cause it picked. That arrangement matters now, while a proposed outdoor plaza designed to host markets and holiday celebrations sits unbuilt on Paseo de San Antonio.
Six addresses, six causes
The Placitas Community Library's announcement lists every stop and where its proceeds go.
| Site | Address | Where the money goes |
|---|---|---|
| Wild Hearts Gallery | Homestead Village Shopping Center, 220-B NM-165 | A portion of sales goes to Placitas Wild |
| Placitas Community Library | 453 NM-165 | Raffle supports library programs, plus a bake and book sale |
| Placitas Winery | 26 Camino de los Pueblitos | Raffle supports Placitas Elementary art and music programs |
| Las Placitas Presbyterian Church | 7 Paseo de San Antonio | Raffle supports the Placitas Artists Series |
| Placitas Elementary School | 5 Camino del Carbon | Raffle and bake sale support the school's programs |
| Placitas Community Senior Center | 41 Camino de Las Huertas | Raffle supports the Placitas Community Center |
Two entries on that list show how the arrangement works. The winery's raffle goes to the school's art and music programs, not to the winery. The church's raffle goes to the Placitas Artists Series, the nonprofit that stages concerts and art exhibitions inside that church all year. The hosts are raising money for the village groups they work alongside.
The sites differ in size, too. The library's announcement lists 28 artists at Placitas Winery and 14 at the church. It counts more than 25 at the elementary school, 14 at the library and 20 artisans at the senior center. Wild Hearts Gallery is an artist collective, and the library and the market's own website give different member counts. Both describe a mix of painters, potters, sculptors, printmakers, photographers, jewelers and woodworkers, plus glass, fiber and mosaic artists.
How to plan the route
The six stops fall into a few groups on the map, and each group has its own reason to stop.
- Homestead Village and the library. Wild Hearts Gallery and the library both sit on NM-165, at 220-B and 453. The library's site has a Holiday Fiesta theme.
- Placitas Winery for a sit-down break. The listing promises wine, beer, cocktails and food. It describes the winery as a micro-winery making fruit wines that also works as a community event center.
- The church for lunch. Las Placitas Presbyterian Church will sell traditional homemade tamales, posole and Frito pie, and it is open both days from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- The school and the senior center for two more large rooms of makers. Placitas Elementary has more than 25 artists plus a bake sale. The senior center on Camino de Las Huertas shows work from 20 artisans.
The senior center's listing describes the building's everyday role. It offers classes, exercise and field trips, along with congregate meals, meal delivery and transportation for seniors. A shopper buying a raffle ticket there is putting money into a building that is in use every week, not one rented for the weekend.
The library calls 2026 the sixth annual market, and the market's website calls it the seventh. Both agree on the dates, the hours and the six addresses.
The church on Paseo de San Antonio, the week before
Las Placitas Presbyterian Church is busy the Sunday before the market as well. The Placitas Artists Series brings Sol y Canto, a Pan-Latin ensemble, to the church on November 15, 2026. The series usually opens with a 2 p.m. visual arts reception and exhibit, and the concert starts at 3 p.m. This show has no pre-concert talk, and the program will be announced from the stage. Individual tickets are $30, and buyers who purchase online are asked to bring a printed or digital copy of their Square confirmation to the door.
The next concert is Trio Confero, a piano, clarinet and cello trio, on December 13, 2026. The series also sells a nine-concert full season for $210 and a five-concert half season for $120.
Put those dates next to the market, and the church on Paseo de San Antonio hosts a concert, then a weekend of artists and tamales, then another concert, all within four weeks. That makes the same street, a short distance away, the obvious place to look next.
The plaza that would gather all of this in one place
In January 2026, the Sandoval Signpost reported on a proposed outdoor art and music venue along Paseo de San Antonio. The owner, a local investor group called La Entrada a Las Estrellas LLP, approached the Placitas Artists Series board in July 2024 for help seeking a National Endowment for the Arts Our Town grant. The grant would pay for design work on a venue to host art and music festivals, exhibits, farmers markets and holiday celebrations.
The project received $90,000 from the NEA and $150,000 in state capital money, plus a small grant from the McCune Foundation in Santa Fe. That money covers architects and engineers preparing site plans. It does not cover construction. The site work would also include plans for a bike trail along State Route 165. The Signpost's own coverage gives the site's size as both two acres and eight acres, so the final footprint is still an open question.
On November 15, 2025, the Placitas Artists Series held a charrette, a stakeholder design meeting, and invited every Placitas resident by mailed postcard. Ideas raised there included an outdoor sculpture garden that could double as a children's playground, an art classroom, an open-air exhibit on Placitas history and an installation honoring local veterans. Board president Wendy Wilkins told the Signpost that "concerns were also voiced about potential negative impacts to the community such as water use, noise, traffic, and parking," and that the architects had been asked to consider them. The same article reported that several representatives of the San Antonio de las Huertas Land Grant felt project supporters had not been receptive to community input.
According to the Signpost, the Placitas Artists Series has made no commitment to stay involved after the design phase, and its board would need to approve any further role. Before anything is built, the owner would need any required zoning changes and a site development plan approved by the Sandoval County Commission. As of that January report, no timetable had been set. Wilkins also wrote that the design drawings would likely go on display at Las Placitas Presbyterian Church. The January article is the most recent public account of where the project stands.
The plaza's grant proposal names holiday celebrations and farmers markets as uses, which is the kind of event Placitas now spreads across six buildings with six separate beneficiaries. For now, the holiday weekend still depends on the library, the school, the church, the winery, the gallery and the senior center each opening their doors.
The rest of November at the library
The library hosts market Site #2, and its November calendar fills the weeks before the weekend.
- Saturday, November 7. A star party starts at 6 p.m. with solar viewing. A talk by the Albuquerque Astronomical Society's Star Master follows at 6:30 p.m., and general viewing runs until 10 p.m.
- Sunday, November 8. The library's Art Committee opens a short 10-day showcase of work by artists from Placitas and nearby communities.
- Tuesday, November 10. At preschool story time, children make a sleepy bear face and can bring a teddy bear. Pajamas are welcome.
- Saturday, November 14. The Adult Program Committee hosts Winnie Maggiore and fellow firefighters for a history of the Placitas Volunteer Fire Brigade.
- Wednesday, November 18. A session on estate planning, inheritance and charitable giving continues the library's ongoing finance series.
- Tuesday, November 24. Two days after the market, a turquoise-themed exhibition opens.
The Fire Brigade talk falls the Saturday before the Sol y Canto concert, and the turquoise show opens the Tuesday after the market. Between them, the stretch from November 7 to November 24 has something happening along NM 165 almost every week. On November 21 and 22, maps will be at all six sites.
At Origins Realty Group, we pay attention to the institutions that keep Placitas running, from the library on NM-165 to the church on Paseo de San Antonio. If you'd like to talk about life along the 165 corridor, or about what the proposed plaza could mean for the village, connect with a Santa Fe real estate expert on our team.
