Lutz's Holiday Season Runs on Church Halls, a Depot Shop and a Craft Show Held in Odessa

The biggest event on the Lutz holiday calendar is held in Odessa. On the first weekend of December, more than 180 booths will fill Keystone Preparatory High School at 18105 Gunn Hwy., and the organizers expect over 15,000 visitors. The brochure calls it the 47th Annual Lutz Arts and Crafts Festival.

Lutz added several new places to eat in 2026, including a Chipotlane, a Whataburger and a bright orange slider drive-thru. None of them has a role in the holiday calendar. The dates between now and mid-December are set by a woman's club, a church boutique and a shop named for the town's old rail stop. None of them is a business that opened this year, and none of them is on SR 54 or SR 56.

The festival still carries the Lutz name

The GFWC Lutz-Land O'Lakes Woman's Club sponsors the show. Its 2026 information brochure gives the Gunn Highway campus in ZIP 33556 as the venue. The festival is in its 47th year and has kept "Lutz" in its title, so this year it is a Lutz event held a short drive west.

The details that decide how your morning goes:

• Saturday, December 5: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Sunday, December 6: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., which is an hour shorter than Saturday.
• Admission: free, according to the organizer's Eventbrite listing.
• Parking: $5 general or $10 VIP, and the gate takes cash only.
• What's there: fine-art and craft vendors, food, and visits with Santa.

The cash-only gate is the detail most likely to send someone back to an ATM. The club says its public fundraising events support its community-service projects.

Who sets the calendar between now and then

The woman's club handles the largest weekend. Two other groups fill in the weeks around it, and both are based inside Lutz.

St. Timothy's Holiday Boutique fills the parish hall and youth center at 17512 Lakeshore Road on Saturday, November 14, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The boutique's 2026 flyer says it runs rain or shine. Vendors begin setting up at 7 a.m., so the tables are full by the time the doors open.

Lutz Whistle Stop Depot at 100 4th Ave. NW has the steadiest schedule of the three. The shop describes itself as a mix of vintage and artisan goods, a general store, a tea room, a garden shed, art, and event space. It also says it was formerly Deb's Whistle Stop and that its local owners want to honor Lutz heritage. The name comes from the town's rail history. The original Lutz train depot was torn down in 1966, according to a Tampa Bay Times archive story on later efforts to bring it back.

For all of November, the Whistle Stop is running Honoring Our Whistle Stop Heroes. The program features veteran vendors and a place to leave notes of thanks for military service members. That makes it the one November event you can visit on any day of the month, not just a set date.

A late-November addition comes from outside all three groups. The Lutz Crafter's Market has an indoor holiday craft fair at the Hilton Garden Inn in Lutz on Saturday, November 28, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the day after Black Friday.

November 14 has the most going on

The calendar's busiest day comes three weeks before the festival. Three events overlap that Saturday, and they fit together in this order:

1. 9 a.m., Lutz Whistle Stop Depot. The Cinnabus parks at the shop and sells its award-winning cinnamon buns from 9 a.m. until it sells out. "Until sold out" is the posted end time, so earlier is better.
2. Mid-morning, St. Timothy's. The boutique on Lakeshore Road opens at 9 and runs until 3, so it works after the cinnamon buns and before lunch.
3. 1:30 p.m., back at the Whistle Stop. Sip & Script is a beginner-friendly class in modern calligraphy and place-card lettering. Anyone hosting a holiday dinner can use it to letter the place cards.

The Cinnabus returns on Saturday, December 12, with the same 9 a.m. start.

Every date from Friday, November 6, through December 12

The Whistle Stop dates come from the shop's current events schedule, and the Christmas Open House on December 10 is its one weekday evening event. A Thursday evening from 4 to 7:30 is a time when you can shop the holiday stock after work and avoid the weekend crowds.

Where 2026's new restaurants opened

This year's restaurant openings went to the commercial corridors. Chipotle opened at 17995 N. Dale Mabry Highway on March 2, with a Chipotlane for digital-order pickup, as Laker/Lutz News reported. Whataburger opened at 25340 Sierra Center Blvd. on April 16, according to WTSP. Smalls Sliders began serving on Wingshooter Way on August 11, the Business Observer reported. It runs out of the chain's roughly 800-square-foot orange building, which the company calls a "Can," with a drive-thru, a walk-up window and a patio. The Land O' Lakes-Lutz Courier noted that it shares that stretch with Greenlane, a drive-thru salad spot that opened in September 2025. Portillo's is next in line on the same kind of road. Its company locator lists a planned Lutz-Wesley Chapel restaurant at 26000 State Road 56 W. Creative Loafing Tampa Bay identified the site as the former Rock & Brews.

All of these are built for quick trips: drive-thru lanes, pickup windows and chain menus. The holiday dates in the table above happen in a parish hall, a high school campus and a tea room.

The next opening is different and is set for January. State Flour Bakery, a sourdough bakery now in a 500-square-foot South Tampa shop, is moving to the 4,000-square-foot former Black Sheep American Pub at 18450 U.S. 41. Owners Alex Marsilio and Alex Flannery got the keys in mid-September and plan to open in January 2027, according to the Land O' Lakes-Lutz Courier. Tampa Bay Beacons, which broke the story, reported the plans in more detail. The bakery will add a full bar and weekend brunch with plated dishes and alcohol, and later evening service with bar bites. The food menu will include chef-driven sandwiches on the bakery's own bread, plus soup, salad and its existing pastries. The owners also plan to keep a small South Tampa retail shop stocked from the Lutz kitchen.

Among this year's arrivals, State Flour is the one planning weekend brunch, and its January date comes right as the holiday markets end.

Between now and that opening, our team at The Pithers Group is keeping this calendar close at hand. If you're planning around the festival weekend or have holiday guests coming to Lutz, contact us. We're glad to share the dates and local spots we know well.