Little Falls' Holiday Season Starts on the Hill Above Main Street

On Sunday afternoon, November 8, two events in the Little Falls area start at the same time. At 2 p.m. the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center at 8 Yogi Berra Drive shows a New Jersey preview of BATBOY Documentary: The Ray Negron Story in its own theater, with tickets at $15 and seating the museum calls very limited. At the same hour on the Montclair State campus, PEAK Performances screens Rocky in Presentation Hall at the College of Communication and Media, and that screening is free.

That Sunday is typical of the next five weeks. Between November 8 and December 13, the museum and the campus at the edge of town have more than two dozen dated performances, screenings and talks. Six of them cost nothing, and most of the rest are priced like a dinner entrée. Dinner before those shows happens on Main Street, which is being rebuilt one block at a time.

November Runs on Free Afternoons

Most of the free events happen in daylight, and several of them fall midweek. The John J. Cali School of Music holds its Cali Midweek recitals at Leshowitz Recital Hall in Chapin Hall from 2 to 3 p.m. The Chamber Music Studio Recital is Wednesday, November 11, and you don't need a reservation. A week later, on November 18, the same slot holds a preview with The Hands Free and Dance Heginbotham. That one is free but requires a reservation. The Woodwinds Studio Recital on December 2 goes back to walk-in admission.

The November 18 preview is a sample of a ticketed show. The full production of The Party Scene plays the Alexander Kasser Theatre on Sunday, November 22, at 3 p.m., with tickets around $35 to $40 including fees. You can hear the 2 p.m. Wednesday version first and decide from there whether the Sunday show is worth the ticket.

The George Segal Gallery is the other free anchor. Maria Yolanda Liebana's exhibition A Place to Be Held runs through December 11, 2026. The gallery is open Monday through Thursday from noon to 4 p.m., plus select Saturdays and by appointment, and its exhibitions and programs are free and open to the public. Liebana gives an Art Forum in the gallery on Monday, November 16, at 6 p.m. Since its regular hours are on weekdays, the easiest time to see the show is a lunch hour or a weekday afternoon.

The ticketed November schedule centers on the Department of Theatre & Dance:

• Fall Dance '26, November 11 to 14 at the Alexander Kasser Theatre, 7:30 p.m. each night, plus a 2 p.m. Saturday matinee. Listed at $25 to $30 with fees.
• Troilus and Cressida, workshop performances November 20 at 7:30 p.m. and November 21 at 2 and 7:30 p.m. in Life Hall Studio Theatre 1200. Evening tickets are $22 to $25.
• BATBOY, November 8 at the Yogi Berra Museum, $15.

On the museum's regular days, the $15 BATBOY ticket costs the same as adult general admission. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Children under 18 and seniors pay $10, and veterans and Montclair State students get in free.

Ten Days in December

The calendar fills up in December. From December 4 to December 13, the Kasser Theatre and Memorial Auditorium have something scheduled on eight of the ten days.

Kiss Me, Kate plays December 4 at 7:30 p.m., December 5 at 2 and 7:30 p.m., December 10 and 11 at 7:30 p.m., and closes with a 2 p.m. matinee on December 12. That makes Saturday, December 5, the busiest day of the run. A Saturday matinee, then dinner, then the 8 p.m. choirs concert would fill a whole day for under $60 a person in tickets.

The run ends with the free Crawford concert. The University Symphony Orchestra performs the annual Beatrice Crawford Memorial Concert with a special guest artist to be announced. The concert is supported by the Keating Crawford Foundation and honors Beatrice Crawford, a Montclair musician who directed the choral ensembles The Madrigals and The Choraliers. Tickets are free, but you need to reserve one ahead of time. The New Jersey Symphony's Handel's Messiah with the MSU Singers comes the following Saturday, December 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the Kasser, listed at $65 to $70 with fees.

Main Street Is Where the Evening Starts

Nearly every evening event on the hill starts at 7:30 or 8 p.m., so dinner happens first, and the restaurants are down on Main Street. Here they are in order of address:

1. Pizza & Sandwich Express, 59 Main Street, for something quick before a 7:30 curtain.
2. The Olive Bistro, 66 E Main Street, which posts its hours and takes orders online.
3. The Falls Kitchen, 90 Main Street, which serves breakfast and lunch and pairs well with a 2 p.m. Cali recital or a matinee.
4. Ethan & the Bean, 98 Main Street, for coffee before the gallery's noon opening.
5. Popolari, 400 Main Street, which takes reservations. On a Kiss Me, Kate Saturday, booking is the safer move.

The order matters because the street is changing in segments, not all at once. On July 27, the Township Council unanimously awarded Garfield-based Zuccaro Inc. a $383,820 contract for streetscape improvements on Main Street from Maple Street to Van Ness Avenue. Zuccaro was the lowest of six bidders, and the other bids ran from $518,102 to $995,500. In TAPinto's report on the award, Mayor James Damiano said the work, including lighting improvements, would be covered "entirely with grant funds that were awarded to us by the State of New Jersey at no cost to taxpayers here in Little Falls."

The next stretch, from Van Ness Avenue to the Dunkin' strip mall and the Tulip Meadows entrance, had already been awarded. As of that July report, it was waiting on PSE&G redlines before work could begin. Farther along, the segment from the Peckman River Bridge to The Olive Bistro's parking lot was the subject of a state grant application the council authorized in May. A separate request covered Montclair Avenue to Woodside Avenue, a segment that had already received a $351,522 Municipal Aid grant, according to TAPinto. The New Jersey Department of Transportation's FY2027 grant notice said this round's awards were expected in November, the same month the hill's calendar gets going.

The Next Before-Show Stops Are Already Approved

Two more places to stop before a show are approved but not yet open. On October 1, the Little Falls Planning Board unanimously approved converting the former PNC Bank building at 89 Main Street, on the corner of Stevens Avenue, into first-floor commercial space with two apartments upstairs. The proposed tenants are a coffee shop or deli, a dog daycare and grooming business, and an eyelash studio, with one more commercial space still without a tenant, TAPinto reported. No opening date has been set.

Out on Route 46, Vavela Café was approved for 1230 US-46, the former Wayne Dinette, with plans to open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to noon, per TAPinto. Its own locations page still lists the Little Falls address as "Coming Soon." Those morning hours would suit the same weekday daytime schedule as the Cali recitals and the Segal Gallery.

For this season, the plan comes down to a few things. Reserve free seats for the November 18 preview and the December 13 Crawford concert. Book Popolari ahead for December 5. Visit the Liebana exhibition on a weekday before it closes December 11.

If one of these December evenings has you thinking about how Main Street's block-by-block changes could matter for your own home, The Home Collective follows Little Falls closely and is glad to talk it through over coffee at 98 Main. Work With Us.