Downtown Denville

downtown

What’s Happening in Downtown Denville This Weekend? Nov 24 – Nov 26

The official kick-off of the holiday season starts right here in Downtown Denville! Join us all weekend long in Downtown Denville to shop small & support local.

Friday, November 24th

Holiday Open House on Ice

5:30 PM – 9:00 PM | Downtown Denville

Join us for the official kick-off of the holiday season with our annual Holiday Open House on Ice! Check out our Ultimate Guide to Holiday Open House for more information on activities, store promotions, and more!

Saturday, November 25th

Small Business Saturday

All Day Long | Shop Small in Downtown Denville

Explore the charm of Downtown Denville this Small Business Saturday! Shop small, support local, and discover the heart of our community. Check out our guide for Store Deals in Downtown Denville for Small Business Saturday.

Annual Tree Lighting at Rotary Santa Land

6:00 PM | Rotary Santa Land on Clark Street

Join us for Denville Rotary’s Annual Tree Lighting at Rotary Santa Land at 6:00 P.M. Santa Land is located on Clark Street behind Chase Bank.

Matthew Vincent Hair Studio Grand Opening

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM | 56 Diamond Spring Road

Following their ribbon cutting with Denville’s Mayor at 3:30 P.M., Matthew Vincent Hair Studio invites the community to celebrate their Grand Opening from 4:30 – 6:00 PM with snacks, spirits, and more!

Sunday, November 26th

Trucker Hat Bar

12:00 – 4:00 PM | Bluebird by Bullet Boots

Stop by Downtown Denville business Bluebird by Bullet Boots on Sunday from 12 – 4 PM for their Trucker Hat Bar event where you can customize your own trucker hat!

Denville Holiday Parade

2:00 PM | Broadway in Downtown Denville

Denville’s festive holiday parade presented by Denville’s Recreation Deparment, welcomes Santa to his Denville holiday residence at the Rotary Santa Land off of Church Street. Find more details in our blog here.

Welcoming Santa to Santa Land

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM | Broadway in Downtown Denville

Santa in Denville Parade

Following the parade, Santa will be available at his Denville Residence for visitors from 4:00 – 6:00 PM. Check out our other blog with the full schedule of where to find Santa this holiday season in Downtown Denville, your holiday destination!

More Downtown Denville Events

To see futured Downtown Denville events head to https://downtowndenville.com/upcoming-events/

Downtown Denville: Your Holiday Destination

We’ve got all the holiday activities to make your holiday shopping experience magical !

HOLIDAY SHOPPING OPEN HOUSE ON ICE

Location: Downtown Denville

Date: Friday November 26th, 5:30-9 pm

Broadway will be closed to traffic so you can walk throughout much of downtown and enjoy shopping and holiday activities. We’ll have an ice skating rink right in the middle of Broadway, an outside Holiday Bar, Make-Your-Own-Stockings, Holiday Photo Booth, Winter Carolers, Characters, S’mores stations and more. Plus lots of store and restaurant specials. You don’t want to miss this one.

Holiday Shopping Open House Nov 26th, 5:30pm

SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY

Location: Downtown Denville

Date: Saturday November 27th, All Day

Downtown Denville will heavily support Small Business Saturday and is encouraging everyone in the area to SHOP SMALL!    In addition, Downtown Denville is hosting Holiday Carolers from Morris Hills as they roam the downtown sidewalks from 3-5pm.

Butter and Velvet encouraging you to Shop Small !

ROTARY SANTA LAND TREE LIGHTING

Location: Santa Land, Clark Street, Denville NJ (By the Post Office)

Date: Saturday, November 27th, 6pm

Just across the street from Downtown Denville’s center is Rotary Santa Land, a small area of holiday decor, a few small village buildings with displays, and Santa’s local workshop.  While Santa does not officially cozy into his Denville location until Sunday Nov 28th, the local residents celebrate by lighting his Christmas Tree the night before. This is often accompanied by random Christmas Caroling done by attendees that gather shortly after 6:30pm.

DENVILLE HOLIDAY PARADE

Location: Downtown Denville

Date: Sunday, November 28th, 2-5pm

The holiday parade comes marching into Denville to celebrate the arrival of Santa, who naturally arrives on Denville’s oldest firetruck, Old Betsy. The parade features a great line-up including the Denville String Band, Denville Shriner cars, a sheep herder and his sheep, Holiday floats that are themed by classic holiday stories, books, and art, and so much more. This year’s Parade Marshals are the First Responders who put their lives on the line to help during Covid.

Santa arrives in Denville, NJ

MENORAH LIGHTING

Location: Outside Denville Town Hall, Denville NJ

Date: Tuesday, November 30th, 5pm

Just outside our downtown corridor at Denville Township Administrative Building (1 St. Mary’s Place) the long-standing tradition brings many people from the surrounding area to celebrate.  Chabad Jewish Center of Mountain Lakes, Denville and Boonton has hosted a menorah lighting for several years.

Menorah
Photo Credit: Josh Applegate

WINTER FARMER’S MARKET

Date: Dec. 5th, Dec. 12th, Dec. 19th at 1pm

Our Farmer’s Market (Winter Edition) still takes place every Sunday in the Bloomfield Parking lot on Bloomfieild Avenue. Come shops great local vendors, farmers and more. There is live music, great shopping and holiday cheer. See them for more info

Denville Farmer’s Market (Holiday Edition)

HOLIDAY CAROLERS

Location: Downtown Denville

Date: Dec 4th, 11-1pm (Village Carolers), Dec. 11th, 3-5pm (Morris Hills Carolers), Dec. 18th, 11am-1pm (Village Carolers)

We’ll have holiday carolers every weekend in Downtown Denville. We are your Holiday Destination and make sure to do all your holiday shopping along our beautifully decorated streets and sidewalks while the Carolers serenade you.

Holiday Carolers
Photo Credit: David Beale

AND MORE…

And as always, the holiday music will be playing throughout downtown Denville’s state of the art speaker system, as well as beautifully decorated streetscapes and stores (they hold a contest for the best decorated store window), the beauty of a winter Rockaway River and more making Downtown Denville a destination for the holidays.

For more information about Downtown Denville’s stellar Holiday Events / Activities, stay tuned to downtowndenville.com or follow our social media channels @downtowndenville on Facebook and @dwtndenville on Instagram and Twitter.

Spread the cheer! Take photos or post about your great holiday experiences downtown using the hashtag #downtowndenville all season long!

Denville After Dark – The Finale

Denville After Dark was created to continue to support our downtown community through the pandemic, while keeping our residents and visitors safe. Streets are closed to allow for extra space while mingling, shopping, and eating, and to focus on bringing people together in a low key way. Live music, a caricature artist, and other happenings create a fun vibe that our charming downtown is known for. And tonight is the last one for 2020!

Join us for one more night of community fun. The Fall weather is perfect for celebrating outdoors, we have two new bands (Almost Autumn and Maggie Pietrucha Live) and Denville Sunrise Rotary will be on hand for last minute duck purchases for their virtual races.

Broadway, Center Street, and a portion of First Avenue will be closed to allow for extra space, but there is plenty of parking available in the First Avenue and Bloomfield Avenue parking lots, and along Diamond Spring Road, Main Street, Bloomfield Avenue, and more.

These events are not possible without the generous donations from our sponsors (Saint Francis Residential Community, Denville Strong, Hunan Taste, Duphiney Financial Network, The Peer Hyatt Selling Team, Brad Resnick Photography, Gateway to the Arts, and The Sheeran Real Estate Group), and the tireless efforts of our Board of Directors, volunteers, and staff.

See you tonight!

*Want to help our community to continue to have more events like this? Our businesses need you – donate to our Relief Fund right here.

Downtown Denville’s Restaurant Week Begins!

Downtown Denville’s Annual Restaurant Week kicked off on Sunday, September 20, and there are 15 restaurants downtown sharing delicious specials to entice you to eat local. You’ll find everything from a different ten dollar special at Thatcher McGhee’s every day to a 10% discount off chalkboard specials at Carver’s. This is a great way to discover a new restaurant or revisit an old favorite.

With many of the downtown Denville restaurants recently voted “best in Morris County,” this is the perfect time to celebrate with them, and to continue to support our restaurant community. Restaurant Week continues through Thursday, September 24, and you can find a full list of participants at Dine Out Denville. There is an interactive map this year – just click on the orange pins to find the details from each participating restaurant. Even if a restaurant doesn’t have a special this week, they all would appreciate your patronage. This year has been challenging for many small business owners, and this is the perfect time to give our restaurants a little boost of support. With many offering outdoor and indoor dining, take out and delivery, you’ll find a convenient and delicious way to eat your way through Denville this week!

Snap a photo and tag us on Instagram – we’d love to see and share! Happy eating!

Indoor Dining Opens in Denville

What a long strange trip it has been. As New Jersey takes another step on their path to reopening, Denville restaurants ready themselves to offer indoor dining at 25% capacity. With restaurant margins being what they are, while this is a positive next step, it still continues to be challenging to run a restaurant in 2020.

We checked in with several of our downtown restaurants to get their thoughts on indoor dining. Jason Robbins, General Manager of Thatcher McGhee’s said, “These bizarre times are unlike anything I’ve ever seen. But these bizarre times have brought out the best in many, especially the town and people of Denville. When restaurants couldn’t open at all, people supported small business by ordering in, and when outside dining opened, we were allowed to extend our area and people came out in droves. Now with the excitement of indoor dining, we know they will once again show us their support by joining us to celebrate.” Thatcher McGhee’s, on Broadway, was recently voted #1 Irish restaurant in Morris County.

Carver’s on First Avenue is a popular breakfast and lunch destination. A small, quaint restaurant with a downhome vibe, the lockdown hurt their business substantially. “The pandemic has decimated our daily business to a mere 1/3 of our regular sales. Each sale during this time kept us holding on. The greatness of Denville as a community has kept baking and soup making at a high in spite of everything. We are elated indoor dining is resuming and hope to serve as many folks as possible! We will serving at a first come basis as we try and navigate through the changes and requirements. Thank you Denville for keeping Carver’s strong,” said the owner, Carver Parrish.

Jesus Gomez, owner of El Mejicano, is “excited to be able to see our friends back in our home even if it’s in a limited capacity!” He and his staff have been busy with take-out orders during the pandemic, and he is also co-owner of the new bakery that is opening up in a few weeks, Vikingos Cake Shoppe & Bakery.

The Second Half on Main, a popular pub downtown, has been doing take out orders and serving in their beautiful outdoor dining area. Diane Gentile said, “We are beyond grateful to our awesome patrons and the Town of Denville for their unwavering support through these very difficult months. We cannot wait to welcome those that are ready back indoors.”

Whether a restaurant is doing indoor dining, outdoor dining, takeout or delivery, they all need your continued support to survive the current and ongoing challenges small business owners face in 2020. You can support them by eat locally, of course, leaving reviews on their Yelp! and Google pages, and following and sharing their social media accounts. A strong community is what allows small business owners to continue to deliver consistent and quality products and services. Our tag line, “where a community comes together,” has never been more true than this year.