Downtown Fort Mill packs nearly all of its fall into October 2026. The Fort Mill Fall Festival is Saturday, October 17. The Scarecrow Crawl lines downtown streets for the whole month. The Farmers & Artisans Market at Veterans Park has its last Saturday of the season on October 31. The Lanterns & Legends walking tours wrap up on October 30.
Baxter Village's season starts just as all of that wraps up. The Baxter Community Association's events page lists seven events. The first is a fall festival on Market Street on October 24, and the last is Santa riding through the neighborhood on a fire truck on Christmas Eve. Every one of them happens inside Baxter: Market Street Town Center, the Community Center, Village Hall and Springmaid Park. So the neighborhood has its own run of events through November and December, on top of the town's October.
Two Festivals, One Week Apart
The two fall festivals land on back-to-back Saturdays. They're built differently, which makes it easy to go to both.
| Fort Mill Fall Festival | Baxter's Fall Festival | |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Saturday, October 17, 2026 | Saturday, October 24 |
| Hours | 2 to 6 p.m. | Noon to 6 p.m. |
| Location | Fort Mill Amphitheater and Walter Y. Elisha Park, 345 N. White St. | Market Street Town Center |
| Hosted by | Town of Fort Mill | Baxter Community Association |
| On the program | Food and drink vendors, arts and crafts, live music, costume contests for all ages, Touch-A-Truck with Town vehicles | Food and beverage vendors, artisan craft shopping, games and prizes, live entertainment |
The town's festival is free. It's the downtown afternoon that pairs best with the Scarecrow Crawl. The crawl route covers Tom Hall Street, Main Street, Clebourne Street, North and South White Streets, Millstone Park and Walter Elisha Park. Families, schools, churches, businesses and town departments build the scarecrows. Judges choose winners in categories such as Most Creative and Most Fort Mill Spirit. People's Choice is decided by likes on the Town of Fort Mill's Facebook page during October.
A week later, Baxter's festival takes over its own town center for six hours. It starts two hours earlier than the downtown event, so a late lunch on Market Street fits easily. Fort Mill Now's fall guide lists the Baxter event as Baxter Village Fall Festival & Market Days on October 24, 2026. That matches the Saturday shown on the association's page.
October 31 Is the Last Day of the Town's Season and an Early Stop in Baxter's
Halloween is the one day both calendars have something going on, and the two sides are headed in opposite directions.
Downtown, October 31 is the last Saturday of the Fort Mill Farmers & Artisans Market. The market runs 9 a.m. to noon at Veterans Park, 106 N. White Street, and its season began May 9. It's also the final day of a Scarecrow Crawl that runs all month.
In Baxter, October 31 is the costume contest at the Community Center. The association says the contest happens "before you head out for trick-or-treating," and it adds something this year: "New this year, we will also have a pumpkin carving contest!" The page doesn't give a start time or entry rules yet. Families planning a pumpkin entry should check back on the events page as the date gets closer.
That makes for a full Saturday. Market at Veterans Park in the morning, one last walk past the scarecrows downtown, then back to the Community Center before dark.
November Moves to Village Hall
Downtown's October lineup ends with the month. Baxter's November events are both at Village Hall.
The first is Bingo on Tuesday, November 17, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The association describes it as "an adult-only night of Bingo and prizes."
The second is the Turkey Trot:
"The Trot is Back! Register for a 1-mile family fun run, a 5K, or trail run!"
That's how the association's page describes it. The race starts at 8 a.m. at Village Hall on Thursday, November 26, which is Thanksgiving morning. The page asks runners to register but doesn't yet show a registration link, entry fee or beneficiary for 2026. Those details are still to come.
The trail option has had volunteer help before. Ahead of the 2024 Thanksgiving race, the Baxter Trail Club organized a work session on Saturday, November 23 to clear the 5K course and put up arrow signs. No 2026 course-prep session has been posted so far.
December, From Springmaid Park to a Fire Truck
December has the most events of any month on Baxter's calendar, and none of them are on Main Street.
- Friday, December 4: Baxter's Holiday Tree Lighting at Springmaid Park. The association calls it the annual start of the holiday season and adds, "don't forget- Santa will make an appearance."
- Wednesday, December 9: Adult Tacky Sweater Party at Village Hall, billed as a night of games.
- Thursday, December 24: Santa's Goodnight Ride. Santa rides through Baxter on a fire truck, courtesy of RVFD. Neighbors are invited to "come out to wish him luck before he starts his journey around the world."
Santa shows up twice in three weeks, first at the tree lighting and again on Christmas Eve. The Christmas Eve ride is the only event on the calendar without a fixed venue. It comes through the streets instead, so you can watch from the sidewalk.
The association's page doesn't print a year next to any of these dates. The weekdays it lists do line up with the 2026 calendar: Saturday, October 24; Tuesday, November 17; Thursday, November 26; Friday, December 4; Wednesday, December 9; and Thursday, December 24. Times for the tree lighting, sweater party and Santa ride aren't posted yet. The events page is where they'll show up.
Where Market Street Fits Between the Dates
The festival brings crowds to Market Street for one afternoon. For the rest of the season, its restaurants are where an evening out before or after a Village Hall event happens. One address there has changed in the past couple of years.
The Herald reported in March 2025 that Killington's had closed at 940 Market Street in December after six years there. The paper also reported that Dilworth Neighborhood Grille planned to open in the space. Dilworth now lists its Baxter location at 940 Market Street, with posted hours and online ordering on its Baxter page. If you're grabbing dinner on the night of the tree lighting or the sweater party, check those hours first, since weeknight schedules can differ from festival-day crowds.
Over the nine weeks from October 24 to December 24, Baxter's own calendar has two quiet stretches. One runs from Halloween to November 17, and the other from December 10 to Christmas Eve. The busiest stretches are the two Saturdays around Halloween and the first half of December. All of it happens at Market Street Town Center, the Community Center, Village Hall, Springmaid Park and the neighborhood's own streets.
Part of what makes Baxter feel like home is a calendar that keeps running after the town's October events end. When it's time to sell, those things matter to buyers too: the pumpkin contest, the Thanksgiving trail run, Santa coming down your street on Christmas Eve. If you'd like help explaining that side of the neighborhood to buyers, Laura Arthur knows the Baxter calendar and is glad to talk through timing and presentation. Work With Laura.
