If your December plans are already filling up, you might want to make a little room for one more outing. The Discovery District is throwing a neighborhood-wide holiday celebration on Saturday, December 6, and it looks like the kind of event that rewards wandering around with a cup of something warm and seeing what you stumble into next.
The Day of Discovery Holiday Event runs from 11 AM to 4 PM and brings together local businesses, arts spaces, and community spots for an afternoon of festive drinking, browsing, touring, and hands-on fun. Everything is free to explore, and the organizers are leaning into the idea of getting people to actually move through the neighborhood instead of sticking to one place.
Guests will pick up a holiday passport and map at the start of the event.
From there, you can hop from stop to stop, collect stamps, and get in on experiences that are only happening for this one-day celebration. It also enters you for a prize drawing, which is a nice bonus for simply having a good time.
The Discovery District tends to shine when it gets playful, and this event looks like it understands that assignment. The passport format is a simple way to push people toward spots they might not have visited before, whether it is an artist studio tucked upstairs somewhere or a vendor pop-up that appears only once a year.
Organizers have announced an initial group of participating locations, and more will be added leading up to the event.
Here are a few highlights:
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• Blockfort: A vendor market plus open artist studios. This is usually one of the strongest stops on any Discovery District crawl.
• Roosevelt Coffeehouse: A holiday drink menu that will probably tempt even the most dedicated black-coffee drinker.
• MKC Architecture: Gingerbread house building for anyone who loves the idea of edible construction.
• Loving Reality: A Christmas castle installation that sounds like a guaranteed photo moment, along with seasonal treats.
• Thurber House: Free tours and a chance to see if there are any ghosts of holidays past hanging around the gift shop.
• Phoenix Rising Printmaking Cooperative: Studio tours and beautifully handcrafted prints for sale.
• Columbus Museum of Art: Open for visitors to explore the galleries and exhibitions while they’re in the neighborhood.
• Columbus Metropolitan Library: The Huntington Holiday Train returns, and the café is serving winter-themed drinks. There is also a ten percent discount at the Library Store.
• Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD): A student art sale filled with one-of-a-kind work and gifts.
The mix of stops is the kind of thing that makes the Discovery District special. There is no single “main attraction,” but rather a cluster of places that each show off a different piece of downtown’s creative energy.
This is the type of event that encourages you to slow down, wander around, and treat the neighborhood as a little holiday village for a few hours.
You can tour the museum, pick up a print from a local artist, grab a coffee, admire a bizarrely charming Christmas castle, and build a gingerbread house all within a few blocks.
If you have out-of-town guests arriving early for the holidays, this might also be one of the easiest ways to show them what Columbus does well. If you just want something festive to break up the early-December lull, it checks that box too
More participating locations will be announced soon. For updates, follow the Discovery District on social media or visit their website.
