"Tickets always sell out. Set your alarms." That's how the Celina Chamber of Commerce announced its 2026 Gift Tour, with $65 tickets going on sale at 10 a.m. on Monday, November 2. Each transaction is capped at two tickets.
The ticket buys a curated Saturday on December 5. The businesses behind it are regular downtown storefronts and dining rooms, and most of them sit within a few blocks of each other on West Walnut and West Pecan. About half the names on the Chamber's list are places to eat or drink. That makes the tour route a full day out on the square, and you can walk it on any December Saturday. The city has already put two of those Saturdays on its calendar.
What the $65 Actually Covers
According to the Chamber's event page, each ticket includes:
- A holiday shopping tote and map
- Twelve gift stops around Downtown Celina, each with a gift valued at $10, which adds up to $120 in gifts
- A complimentary mimosa at check-in
- Photo opportunities and a holiday costume contest
- A chance to win a gift basket filled with items from the participating shops
- The mini Highland cows, which the Chamber says "are back this year"
Mac Haik Chevy Cares is the presenting sponsor. Ticket holders choose a morning session from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. or an afternoon session from noon to 4 p.m. The morning session starts an hour later than last year. The city's 2025 calendar listed it from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., while the afternoon hours stayed the same. The event runs rain or shine.
Check-in is at The Wick, where ticket holders get their tote, map and mimosa. The last stop is Nowhere Bar, which runs come-and-go so people can arrive whenever they finish and turn in a completed map for the basket drawing. Both ends of the tour are places that serve food and drinks, and that's true of much of the route.
Five of the Twelve Names Serve Food
The Chamber page lists twelve in-kind sponsors. Five of them serve food or drinks: The Wick, Heyday, Toasted Walnut Table and Market, Nowhere Bar and Tender Smokehouse. On tour day they give out gifts like the boutiques do. On every other day, they're where a self-guided version of this walk stops for coffee, lunch or a drink.
| Stop | What it is | Address |
|---|---|---|
| The Wick | Scratch-made bakery and café with cinnamon rolls, breakfast, lunch, coffee and cocktails | 107 S. Colorado St. |
| Toasted Walnut Table and Market | Restaurant with all-day, dinner, beer, wine and dessert menus | 304 W. Walnut St. |
| Apricot Lane Boutique | Women's clothing and accessories | 312 W. Walnut St. |
| Heyday | Restaurant and craft-cocktail bar | 322 W. Walnut St. |
| Nowhere Bar | Neighborhood bar with smash burgers, boozy milkshakes, pool, darts and shuffleboard | 501 W. Walnut St. |
| William Williams Rare Jewels | Fine jewelry and custom pieces | 239 W. Pecan St., Suite 100 |
| D&L Farm and Home | Farm, home and garden, pet and specialty retail | 811 N. Louisiana Dr. |
Four of those addresses fall in a short run of West Walnut Street, from Toasted Walnut at 304 to Nowhere Bar at 501. That stretch also mixes older businesses with newer ones. Toasted Walnut says it has been serving since 2019. Apricot Lane opened downtown in April 2024, as Community Impact reported. The Wick and Heyday both opened in 2024, according to the Celina Record. Nowhere Bar is the newest. It opened in July 2025, and the Prosper Celina Journal covered its one-year mark on Walnut Street this fall.
Tender Smokehouse completes the food side of the list. It's a family-owned Texas barbecue business with a breakfast menu alongside its main menu, sides and sweets.
The rest of the shopping list fills in the gift categories. Buff City Soap sells handcrafted, plant-based soaps and bath products. Honeysuckle Rose carries apparel, accessories and home décor. Terramania sells home décor, pottery and plants. Willow House stocks fashion, home accents and gifts. Add William Williams for jewelry and D&L for practical gifts, and the list covers most of a family gift list without leaving Celina.
Building Your Own Version on December 12 or 19
The ticketed tour has a fixed starting point and a bar at the finish. A self-guided version can borrow that order and attach it to something already happening on the square. The City of Celina's December 2026 calendar has two good anchors. Photos with Reinsteer runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, December 12, at the Downtown Square, and Coffee with a Cop runs there the same morning from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Photos with Santa follows on Saturday, December 19, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Here's one way to string it together on either Saturday:
- Start at The Wick on South Colorado for coffee and a cinnamon roll, just like ticket holders do at check-in.
- Walk to the square for the late-morning photos. The Reinsteer window on December 12 is three hours, and the Santa window on December 19 is two.
- Work through the West Pecan shops, including William Williams Rare Jewels at 239.
- Head over to West Walnut for lunch at Toasted Walnut or Heyday, with Apricot Lane in the same block.
- Finish at Nowhere Bar at 501 W. Walnut, the same last stop the Chamber uses.
Apricot Lane's regular Saturday hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., so the shopping half of the afternoon has plenty of room. Those are its standard posted hours, so a quick call before a holiday weekend is still a good idea.
A self-guided Saturday uses the same shops and lunch spots as the ticketed tour, and you can plan it any time before Christmas.
The Weeknight That Doesn't Need a Map
One holiday date on the square works differently. Christmas on the Square falls on Wednesday, December 2, from 5 to 9 p.m. It's free, and Specialty Land Services presents it. The City's event page posts this schedule:
- 5:00 p.m.: Kickoff and shuttles begin, with A Cappella Social Club
- 5:30 p.m.: Steps of Faith Dance Studio
- 6:00 p.m.: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Youth Choir
- 6:30 p.m.: 3-D Dance Performing Companies
- 7:00 p.m.: FUMC Celina Christmas Choir & Band
- 7:30 p.m.: Moore Middle School 6th Grade Choir
- 8:00 p.m.: Tree lighting
- 9:00 p.m.: Event ends
- 10:00 p.m.: Last shuttle leaves
The city's vendor guidance favors holiday-themed, handmade and homegrown artists and artisans, and the page promises fair food including corndogs, funnel cakes and Texas barbecue. It's a different kind of evening from the Gift Tour. The Gift Tour is a ticketed shopping day built around a dozen storefronts. The Wednesday event puts the whole square into one evening with an 8 p.m. tree lighting.
That's also why parking is the main thing to plan for on December 2. The City says downtown parking is limited and the Downtown Parking Garage is open. Free park-and-ride shuttles run from 5 to 10 p.m. from Celina High School. The event listing gives the school's address as 3455 N. Preston Rd. The last shuttle leaves an hour after the event ends, so there's time to linger after the tree lighting.
The same City page links the evening to WFAA's Santa's Helpers toy drive and lists toy donations as accepted through December 15. If you're doing your shopping on Walnut and Pecan anyway, one gift can go in the collection box.
The city also lists a Countdown to Christmas running from December 1 through December 24. Heyday has its own calendar for the season. Its monthly open mic night falls on the last Tuesday of the month, which is November 24 and then December 29. Between the Wednesday tree lighting, the Saturday Gift Tour, two Saturday photo mornings and a couple of Tuesday open mics, downtown has something going on through most of December.
If you're walking West Walnut this December and wondering how downtown Celina has changed since you moved here, I'd love to compare notes over coffee at The Wick. Allison Keegan lives in Celina and is always happy to talk about the square. Start your home journey and contact Allison today.