Christmas on the Square Shows How Late Pilot Point's Square Now Stays Open

At 101 S Jefferson, the front of Martin General Store still has bullet holes from 1904. Back then the building was the Midway Saloon, and that year it saw the last gunfight in Pilot Point. On the corner at 100 W Main, four porthole windows sit above the transom of a red brick building. It was built taller than its one-story neighbors to fit a mezzanine inside. Both buildings face the square where Santa and Mrs. Claus will light the tree on Saturday, December 5. Both also say something about how downtown is changing this year.

Christmas on the Square runs from 4 to 8 p.m. The Main Street Association and the City of Pilot Point put it on, and FMB Legacy is the presenting sponsor. The plan calls for close to 60 vendors around the square, plus free carriage rides, Santa photos by Growing Sprouts Photography, pony photos with Equihope and animal encounters from Sharkarosa Zoo. The stores around the square will be open too. This year, more of the businesses behind those storefronts post hours that run into the evening.

Four Hours, Three Sets of Store Hours

Line up the event window against the posted Saturday hours of three downtown businesses and the trend is easy to see.

Moto & Latte opened in 2025 and runs on morning hours. Bella Mia, which opened its tasting room this summer, starts in the afternoon. Little Piglet keeps evening hours four days a week. Read top to bottom, the table shows the newer tenants on the square adding hours later in the day.

A Tasting Room Five Years in the Making

The table makes Bella Mia the biggest change from last December. According to the City of Pilot Point's June profile, owners Laurie and Roberto Trevizo spent five years building their tasting room at 111 S Jefferson before a first soft opening on June 21, 2026. The name means "my beautiful" and combines their daughters' names. The wines are Texas-grown and carry the Texas Department of Agriculture's GoTexan designation. The list runs from a signature Tempranillo to High Plains wines grown near Lubbock: Trebbiano, Cristallo, a red blend and a rosé.

The building has had several lives already. In the 1880s it housed Flakes & Floppin Hardware and Stoves, and later Lonestar Video & Tanning. During a 2020 renovation, the flush front door was reset as a recessed entry to match its neighbors.

The tasting room is open Fridays from 4 to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 2 to 7 p.m. The winery's reservation page says reservations are highly encouraged because space is limited. That matters on December 5. The event starts at 4 and the tasting room closes at 7, so a 2 or 3 o'clock table lets you taste before the vendors are set up and still be outside when the tree is lit.

The Ice House Was Rebuilt for Nights Like This

Two doors from the bullet holes, the Historic Ice House at 123 E Main shows the city's role in all this. The building was donated to the City of Pilot Point. In 2023 the Pilot Point Municipal Development District restored it with public restrooms and a permanent vendor space for the Pilot Point Market. Public restrooms and a vendor stall are exactly what a square needs for a night with 60 vendors and a line for Santa.

The site goes back further than the building. A canning factory built in 1885 stood here first. The Pilot Point Ice and Power Co. bought it and started generating electricity for the city in the 1890s, using a well on the spot to make ice. That building burned in the late 1920s. The ice house was rebuilt in 1935, which makes it the newest contributing building in the historic district.

Little Piglet Bakery & Scoops, the tenant today, posts these hours: Thursday 5:30 to 8 p.m., Friday 4 to 9, Saturday noon to 9 and Sunday noon to 6, closed Monday through Wednesday. The menu has scoops, cookies, brownies and rotating handcrafted treats, along with gluten-free options. The bakery's site notes the kitchen is not a dedicated gluten-free facility. On a Saturday it is the only one of the three businesses in the table that stays open past the event's 8 p.m. close.

Coffee Belongs in the Morning

Moto & Latte is the exception that shows the trend. The shop is in a former Magnolia/Mobilgas station at 110 E Liberty that pumped gas until 1976 and later served as a drive-in restaurant. Denton County Magazine reported a soft opening and then a grand opening on April 12, 2025, and covered the shop's following among motorcycle riders.

Its posted hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. It serves Excelsa coffee and sells four whole-bean roasts. On December 5, the doors close two hours before the first vendor's lights come on. The whole beans fit a holiday gift list, so the time to stop by is that morning.

One Way to Walk the Square on Dec. 5

Put the hours together and Saturday follows a timeline:

1. Before 2 p.m. Coffee and a bag of beans at Moto & Latte, 110 E Liberty.
2. Around 2 or 3 p.m. Your reserved table at Bella Mia Winery, 111 S Jefferson.
3. Before the crowd thickens. A look at the bullet holes on Martin General Store's front at 101 S Jefferson. Next door, Selz & Hensler Insurance at 103 S Jefferson has been in its building since 1964, and the original cast iron storefront still shows at transom level.
4. Down the east side. Ab & Gails Antiques at 105–107 S Jefferson was once the Mississippi Store and then Doc Amos' Drug Store, which had a soda fountain. Dolly's Antiques is at 115 S Jefferson. These buildings belong to an unbroken row of single-story buildings from the 1890s with corbelled brick parapets.
5. The west side. Starbright Gallery is at the Starbright Center for the Arts, 110 S Washington, which used to be the Opera House. In its April 15 feature, the city's A Minute on Main Street blog describes the gallery as a small space showing artists from within 30 miles. La Vaquerita Mexican Snacks is at 301 S Washington, and a January city post called it the newest spot on the square.
6. After dark. The tree lighting, the carriage rides and then a last scoop at Little Piglet before it closes at 9.

The Clifton & Nadene Irick Museum at 201 S Jefferson houses the Pilot Point Museum and the Chamber of Commerce. The bell from Franklin College, the only piece of the school that survives, is on display there, and the museum is open Saturdays. Farther down the block, 205–207 S Jefferson is being renovated.

The event goes on "rain, snow or whatever Mother Nature may bring," according to the event page. For questions, call the Main Street office at 940-293-7434.

Big Red's Deadline Arrives in January

The porthole building at 100 W Main is known as Big Red. Over the decades it was a hardware and harness business, then Grays Furniture and Undertaking, a dance hall in the 1930s and later the expanded Stephens Grocery. As The Pilot Point Post-Signal reported, the city bought the property in 2024 and started looking for a tenant in 2025. On April 23, 2026, the City Council approved an economic incentive agreement with Matt Saba to turn it into a restaurant.

City Manager Britt Lusk told the council, in the Post-Signal's report, that Saba is "very, very motivated to get it going." The agreement gives Saba until January 1, 2027, to start construction and until January 1, 2029, to get a certificate of occupancy, and he is responsible for the renovation and upkeep. The first deadline is about seven weeks after this post goes up and less than a month after the tree lighting.

A winery that pours until 7 and a bakery that scoops until 9 already reach into the evening. A restaurant on the corner with the portholes would add more evening hours to a square that has been adding them all year.

If watching the square fill in this year has you thinking about where you'd like to live around Pilot Point, whether that's a short walk from the Ice House or out on acreage toward Ray Roberts Lake, Lake & Country Realty knows the roads in between. Talk to a Lake & Ranch Specialist.