The Chi Omega Christmas Market Is Back in November. Here's Why It Took a New Building to Get There.

The Chi Omega Christmas Market goes back to its old weekend this year, the one before Thanksgiving. Its 49th market runs November 19 through 22 on the 11th floor of the Dallas Market Center's World Trade Center. The organizers call it a change in both venue and dates, "returning to its traditional November timeframe."

That makes three venues in three years. Fair Park became too uncertain because of construction. Dallas Market Hall, which set the September dates the market used in 2024 and 2025, stopped booking future events this summer while its owner evaluates options for a property where a data center campus is planned. For a tradition that started in 1978, the recent moves have tracked what happened to the large Dallas buildings big enough to hold it.

Three Years, Three Floors

After more than a decade at Fair Park, the market's recent history moves quickly.

The market has moved before. Local Chi Omega alumnae ran the first one in 1978 at the old Dallas Convention Center, with 50 merchant booths, and it raised $13,000. It stayed at the convention center for years before moving to Fair Park in 2012. By 2023 it had more than 200 merchants and raised $572,000. That growth is why floor space has become the deciding factor. A market that size can only go to a few buildings in Dallas.

Why It Left Fair Park

When the organizers announced their exit in 2024, they did not point to the State Fair calendar or to costs. They pointed to construction. D Magazine reported that 2024 co-chair Debbie Lang called leaving Fair Park a "sad goodbye." She cited the planned 18-acre community park on the fairgrounds and the projects in the neighborhood around it. All of that meant a ton of construction and "a lot of unknown," as she put it, and the group did not want to scramble for a new venue at the last minute.

Organizers started searching right after the November 2023 market and called that period "a very intense search." Dallas Market Hall was their first choice. They liked the parking and the transom windows that let in natural light. They also liked the size: 202,000 square feet, more than double the 84,500 square feet of the Automobile Building at Fair Park, where the market had been held since 2021.

What the September Experiment Was For

The September dates came from Market Hall, not from the organizers. Still, the market made the most of them, and the reasons are a useful look at how the event works.

Many of the vendors carry Halloween, fall tailgating and Thanksgiving merchandise along with Christmas goods. Lang told D Magazine that by the weekend before Thanksgiving, shoppers no longer care much about those earlier holidays. A September market let merchants sell the whole season, from football through Christmas.

The second reason was the competition. November is crowded with holiday bazaars in Texas. Austin's A Christmas Affair has historically fallen on the same weekend as the Chi Omega market, and Houston's Nutcracker Market takes place the weekend before. Many of the merchants are small businesses. Some sell only online and some travel from market to market, and with so many bazaars packed into November, some only have the resources for one or two of them. Moving to September meant they didn't have to choose.

The November 2026 dates give up some of those benefits in exchange for the weekend the market held before 2024.

The Building That Stopped Booking

The bigger change happened at Market Hall itself. On July 29, 2026, The Dallas Morning News reported that the venue on North Stemmons Freeway was no longer booking events. Its last scheduled event was that weekend, and no closing date had been announced. The hall was once promoted as the world's largest privately owned exhibition hall. It sits on parcels where Crow Holdings plans a 245-megawatt, multi-building data center campus on 40 acres.

Dallas Market Center spokesperson Cole Daugherty told The Dallas Morning News:

"Crow Holdings, the owner of Dallas Market Center, has explored redevelopment options for the property they own across Market Center Boulevard, including Market Hall, for the past 15 years. All wholesale trade events previously held at Market Hall were moved into the core Dallas Market Center buildings over the past year to better serve our trade customers. Dallas Market Center has stopped booking future events at Market Hall as strategic options are evaluated."

The building's long-term future is still open. The same report says Crow Holdings declined to say whether Market Hall would be demolished or repurposed. As of the July 29 report, no demolition permit had been filed. Initial site work for the first phase had started on a vacant Crow-owned parcel between the Renaissance Dallas Hotel and Children's Medical Center, and the first building is planned at five stories.

The Chi Omega market wasn't the only consumer show affected. WFAA reported that PartyFest, a long-running event show at Market Hall, did not know where it would go next year.

The market's announcement doesn't say why it chose the World Trade Center. What the timeline does show is that the room it picked in 2024 to escape Fair Park's uncertainty was off the market by the summer of 2026. Two years after leaving one building over construction uncertainty, the market's next venue had stopped booking while its owner weighed redevelopment.

Planning the Weekend Before Thanksgiving

The schedule this year follows the market's usual pattern: a ticketed evening, then a paid early-access window, then three days of general admission.

1. Preview Party: Thursday, November 19, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets are $125 and include free self-parking, two beverage tickets for the evening and hors d'oeuvres.
2. First Call Shopping: Friday, November 20, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tickets are $35.
3. General Admission: Friday, November 20, 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday, November 21, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, November 22, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets are $20, and children 12 and under get in free.

One part of the FAQ on the market's official site lists First Call on Thursday. The published schedule puts it on Friday morning, so check the site before you buy a First Call ticket.

Parking at the new venue is simpler than many downtown events. According to the organizers, the lots around the World Trade Center are free, valet is available from the Stemmons service road, and golf carts bring shoppers to the main entrance.

Organizers expect more than 10,000 shoppers and more than 200 merchants. Vendors will sell jewelry, holiday décor, men's, women's, children's and teen clothing, football and spirit gear, gourmet food, linens and original art. Santa will make appearances throughout the weekend. Because the market now falls the week before Thanksgiving, anything bought for a Thanksgiving table or a front door will be home with days to spare.

Where the Proceeds Go

The building has changed, but the beneficiary list is still all Dallas. This year's nine are the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center, Dallas Theater Center, Equest, Family Gateway, Inc., Juliette Fowler Communities, Inc., Make-A-Wish North Texas, Readers2Leaders, The Senior Source and Vickery Trading Co., Inc. Proceeds also fund collegiate scholarships.

The 2026 co-chairs are Gretchen Luedtke, Anne Tudhope and Amanda Weir. Tudhope said in the market's announcement that although the market has moved back to November and changed locations, its mission of supporting local beneficiaries and funding scholarships "remains unchanged." Over 48 years the market has given more than $12 million to 157 Dallas-area beneficiaries. That is a lot of giving for an event that has had to find a new building twice in three years.

At The Blackman Group, we keep track of how changes to Dallas buildings affect the traditions our neighbors plan around, from Fair Park to the Stemmons Corridor. If you're thinking about how redevelopment like this could affect your part of town, request a complimentary neighborhood consultation and we'll go through it with you.