College Square's First Holiday Season: How In-Town Athens Can Use the New Plaza This November

Last spring, College Square nearly lost its schedule to two underground vaults. In April, Flagpole reported that Georgia Power wanted to pause the project for five weeks to replace equipment inside them. That pause would have pushed completion from early September to mid-October. SPLOST project manager Diana Jackson worked out an alternate plan that added $80,000 to the cost and kept work going. Her reason, as Flagpole quoted it, was "The last thing we want to do is put anybody out of business."

Crews were still "working around the clock" in August. The plaza opened for UGA's first home game on Sept. 6, with full completion set for mid-October, according to Flagpole. The ribbon was cut on Oct. 24. College Square's first holiday job comes four weeks later, and that job is to be the starting line for the season rather than its main event.

What got built on the block

The stretch of College Avenue between East Broad and East Clayton streets first closed to cars during the pandemic as a temporary pedestrian plaza. The $6.5 million redevelopment that the Athens Downtown Development Authority and Athens-Clarke County opened on Oct. 24 made it permanent. It added new paving, seating, better lighting, overhead shade sails, large trees, and what Flagpole's grand-opening coverage called "infrastructure to support future community events."

That last item matters most for this post. The opening day, called SquareFest, tested it right away. There was an 11 a.m. ribbon-cutting, then vendors, children's activities, and music on a stage from 1 to 4 p.m. A free 7 p.m. concert by the '90s tribute band Better Than Better Than Ezra closed the night. The square's next event uses the same setup for a different purpose, and the change tells you how the ADDA plans to use it.

Nov. 21 starts on the square and spreads through downtown

The ADDA's first Downtown Athens Holiday Stroll runs Saturday, Nov. 21, from noon to 5 p.m. It's free. The ADDA describes it as a downtown-wide holiday open house under the tagline "SHOP. SIP. EXPLORE." According to the event listing on Visit Athens, College Square serves as "Holiday HQ" for a program called Magic on the Square. That includes local music, a gift-wrapping station staffed by Santa's elves for presents bought from local shops, and a holiday photo cutout made by local artist Marisa Leilani Mustard.

The lineup is local. It includes members of the Clarke Central and Cedar Shoals orchestras and Thingamajig, a band of graduates from Nuci's Space Camp Amped. Julie Powell Caldwell will play holiday music at spots around downtown, and DJ De La Luna will spin records.

The main piece of the day is a printed Holiday Passport. You can get one at the square or at three downtown shops, so you don't have to start at Holiday HQ.

Two of the three alternate pickup spots are on West Washington Street, and Bear Hug Honey is on East Clayton. If you're coming from Cobbham or Pulaski Heights, you can pick up a passport on the west side of downtown and reach the square partway through your route.

The passport is designed to move you around

The passport is a scavenger hunt built on holiday and downtown Athens trivia questions. You find each answer at a participating business, get a stamp there, and keep going. A full passport is entered for prizes.

Other parts of the day follow the same idea. From 1 to 5 p.m., Santa won't sit at a single station. He'll make appearances inside different downtown businesses. Local artists will paint the windows of participating shops, and the passport route leads past them.

The kids' activity is on Jackson Street. K.A. Artist Shop at 127 N. Jackson St. sells art supplies, local art, and stationery and runs classes and workshops. On Nov. 21 it hosts the Secret Shoppe, where local artists help children make gifts for friends and family. Each hourly session is supervised, and the event listing says families need to register for free through K.A. Artist Shop's website. The shop's regular hours are noon to 6 p.m. daily, except on shop holidays.

The schedule is the clearest sign that the event isn't meant to happen only on the square. You can still pick up a passport and play the scavenger hunt through the week and weekend after Nov. 21. Winners will be announced the first week of December. On the 2026 calendar, that extra week includes Thanksgiving on Thursday, Nov. 26. If the Saturday crowd is too much, you can fill in your stamps on a quiet weekday and still qualify for prizes.

Getting downtown without a parking meter

Anyone walking in from Boulevard or Cobbham can skip this section. Everyone else should know that downtown no longer has coin meters. This summer the ADDA replaced the last of them with signs explaining how to pay through the ParkMobile system. Flagpole reported that the parking services office had braced for a flood of complaints. ADDA Director of Business Services Linda Ford told the board in August:

"They've been averaging about two calls a day in the parking services office, and they were prepared for 100 calls a day."

The same Flagpole report confirms you don't need the app. Here are the ways to pay:

1. ParkMobile app. You can extend your time from your phone instead of walking back to your car.
2. Text message or your phone's web browser. Neither requires downloading anything.
3. A phone call. The number is printed on the parking signs.
4. Cash at the Washington Street or College Avenue parking decks. The first hour is free.

Option four is the one to remember. On Oct. 31, WUGA reported that the aluminum ParkMobile signs installed in front of every downtown space had mostly been snapped off. ADDA Director of Planning and Outreach David Lynn discussed the vandalism with the station. A missing sign means a missing zone number and phone number. The College Avenue and Washington Street decks take cash and give you a free first hour, so you don't need a sign that's still standing.

Dec. 3 shifts the action to City Hall

The Downtown Athens Parade of Lights steps off at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 3, from Hancock Avenue and Pulaski Street. It moves through downtown and ends when Santa lights the tree in front of City Hall. Hancock and Pulaski is at the western edge of downtown, close to Cobbham, so in-town residents can walk to the start.

For dinner before the parade, one new downtown option is Oak Steakhouse, which opened Sept. 16 at 110 E. Clayton St.

Later in December, The Classic Center Theatre has two holiday shows on back-to-back nights: A Celtic Christmas on Wednesday, Dec. 16, and John Berry's Christmas tour on Thursday, Dec. 17, according to the Classic Center's event calendar.

The in-town holiday calendar

Collecting stamps on Washington Street and wrapping gifts under the new shade sails is just the kind of downtown day Jarrett Martin Group loves to see in Athens. If you've been thinking about what a walkable in-town address would look like for your own household, we'd be glad to talk it through over coffee near the square. Start Your Home Search whenever you're ready.