At 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 14, the tree at Scrivener Square lights up and Rosedale Main Street's Cavalcade of Lights reaches its peak. The LCBO in the restored North Toronto CPR Station will have a live band and a DJ. A children's train will have been running further down Yonge since mid-afternoon. The difference this year is beside the tree. The new retail mews and public square at The James, Tricon Residential's 23-storey building at Yonge and Price, sit right off the square. That gives the Cavalcade's last stop a walkable block of its own, with a fountain and storefronts a few steps from the tree.
The Cavalcade Runs From Crescent Road to the Tree
Rosedale Main Street is the business improvement area covering Yonge Street from Crescent Road north to Woodlawn Avenue. It has run as an organization since 2000. The Cavalcade fills that stretch from 2 p.m. It is free, and the event listing describes it as wheelchair accessible. The stops are spread along the street, so it's easiest to walk it south to north and arrive at the tree for the main event:
- Little Petting Zoo, Yonge and Crescent Road. It's set up just outside Ramsden Park at the south end of the strip.
- Christmas Carol Sing Along, Paul Hahn & Co., 1058 Yonge St. The singing happens on the shop's block.
- Cavalcade Express Train, Yonge St. and Shaftesbury Ave. The BIA calls it "a ride for the kiddos."
- Après Ski Experience, LCBO, 10 Scrivener Square. There's a live band, then a DJ dance party, with the tree lighting at 5:30.
Santa and Mrs. Claus will be out, along with carolers and costumed characters including Elsa, Olaf, Paw Patrol and Bluey. Live music on the day runs from standards to current hits. The Rosedale Main Street BIA's event page has the full program and says more details are coming, so check it on Saturday morning before heading out.
Every stop on the list leads toward the station. The BIA calls the North Toronto CPR Station "the centrepiece of the community," and the Cavalcade is arranged around it. What has changed is the area right around that centrepiece.
The Square Now Has a Second Side
The James's retail level extends the Five Thieves block, the cluster of specialty food shops that has long anchored this part of Yonge. Tricon's plan put a pedestrian laneway of small shops on the site, opening onto an open-air courtyard. In Retail Insider's 2025 report on the project, Tricon's vice-president of retail, Jeremy Hurwitz, described the courtyard's centerpiece. Landscape architects Claude Cormier and Associates designed a grapefruit water fountain, which he called "whimsical, beautiful, and unlike anything else in the city." The same report described patio zones, hand-laid brick pathways and flexible space meant for seasonal markets and community events.
By mid-October much of that was visible from the sidewalk. An October 14 post on UrbanToronto's forum thread for the building reported that most of the hoarding was down, the retail mews was walkable, several retailers had opened and the fountain was in place. Retail Insider describes the finished project as about 10,500 square feet of ground-floor retail, a pedestrian mews and a public square.
For Cavalcade night, this changes the shape of the evening more than its schedule. The tree and the LCBO stage are still the focus. Now there is also a paved, pedestrian-only space next to them, with a fountain and storefronts, where people can go once the crowd starts to thin.
Who Is Behind the New Storefronts
The mews is being leased one unit at a time, so it's worth knowing which names are already there and which are still coming.
Tanya Taylor opened her first Canadian boutique at 8 Price St., Unit 5. The Toronto-born designer was open by mid-October.
Chocolat de Kat's Summerhill boutique is at The James, at 8 Price St., Unit 6. Owner Kata Ambrus told Toronto Life that Tricon's Jeremy Hurwitz first approached her over Instagram three years ago, after finding her original St. Clair West shop. Besides the bonbon collections, Summerhill is getting two products the brand hasn't sold before, hot chocolate and gelato. The hot chocolate recipe was developed with Maury Rubin, founder of New York's City Bakery, and Toronto Life reported it would be available from November 7.
Other businesses announced for The James include Dear Grain Bakery, Nutbar, Gee Beauty, 6 By Gee Beauty and the jewelry retailer Bluboho. Toronto fashion boutique Clementine's has also announced a move to the development. In September, Toronto Life listed Mamakas at 10 Price St. with an expected 2027 opening, so it will come after this year's tree lighting.
The Old Block Still Keeps Its Own Hours
The new storefronts get the attention, but the shops they extend set the practical timing for a Saturday visit. Harvest Wagon, Olliffe Butcher Shop, Pisces Gourmet and Terroni make up the long-standing Five Thieves group that The James was built around.
Pisces Gourmet at 1097 Yonge St. posts Saturday hours of 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. That leaves a half-hour after the tree lighting before it closes. If seafood for Sunday dinner is on the list, buy it on the way up Yonge, not after the band starts.
The new block's draw extends across the street too. Absolutely Fabrics opened its 7,000-square-foot flagship at 1091 Yonge St. in September. Retail Insider placed it directly across Yonge from the expanding Five Thieves stretch. With the new mews on one side of the street and a new flagship on the other, the north end of the Cavalcade route offers more than it did a year ago.
Getting to the Tree Through the TTC Work
The same project that built the mews is also building a new entrance to Summerhill station inside The James's retail component. That work affects how you reach the square on foot.
The city's Toronto and East York Community Council approved the closure of both the north and south sidewalks on Scrivener Square. The closure covers 60 metres, starting 38 metres east of Yonge, and runs from February 1, 2026 to April 30, 2028, for staging of the TTC station's second exit. The council item requires a temporary walkway that is fully covered and protected for everyone on foot, including people using mobility devices, with enhanced lighting day and night. The same item bans stopping at all times on both sides of the east-west leg of Scrivener Square between Yonge Street and the north-south leg.
On a night when the square is full, a few practical points follow:
- Arrive from Yonge. The sidewalk closure on Scrivener Square starts 38 metres east of Yonge.
- Plan drop-offs elsewhere. With stopping banned on the east-west leg of Scrivener Square, family drop-offs work better on the cross streets along the Cavalcade route.
- Use the covered walkway if you're coming from the east side of the square. The council item requires it to be covered, protected and usable with mobility devices.
The station entrance at The James is still a construction project under that 2028 permit, and the old routes into Summerhill station are the ones to use on Saturday.
For the full afternoon, start at the petting zoo by Ramsden Park around 2, head north past the carols at Paul Hahn & Co. and the train at Shaftesbury, and reach Scrivener Square before 5:30. Then stand by the LCBO for the lighting and walk the mews at The James afterwards.
If the new block at Scrivener Square has you wondering what this kind of change does to the streets around it, the Catherine Mortimer team can walk you through it. We follow every opening on this stretch of Yonge closely. Request a personalized market plan and we'll show you what The James and the new station entrance could mean for your corner of Summerhill.
