On Saturday, November 14, a petting zoo will set up at Yonge Street and Crescent Road. The Rosedale Main Street BIA's listing for its Cavalcade of Lights puts it "outside Ramsden Park." The location matters this year. A short walk into the park, the artificial ice rink is closed. The City of Toronto has shut it from October to December 2026 for more upgrades, and the pickleball courts on the rink pad and the basketball court next to it are closed too.
Through the end of the year, Rosedale's holiday calendar runs along the Yonge strip, through a dining room that opened on October 1, and inside two church sanctuaries. The season starts at Scrivener Square at 5:30 p.m. on the 14th.
The Cavalcade Is Built on Sidewalks
Rosedale Main Street, the BIA formed in 2000, covers Yonge Street from Woodlawn Avenue in the north to Crescent Road in the south. The Cavalcade runs the full length of that stretch. The BIA's event page gives the hours as 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., with the tree lighting at 5:30 at Scrivener Square. The BIA's homepage shows a longer window, ending at 8 p.m. The tree lighting time is the same on both pages, so plan the afternoon around 5:30.
Every stop the BIA lists is a storefront, a corner or a square:
| Stop | Location | What's there |
|---|---|---|
| Cavalcade Express Train | Yonge St. and Shaftesbury Ave. | A ride for children |
| LCBO | 10 Scrivener Square | Après-ski setup, live band, DJ dance party, tree lighting at 5:30 |
| Paul Hahn & Co | 1058 Yonge St. | Christmas carol sing-along |
| Little Petting Zoo | Yonge St. and Crescent Rd. | Outside Ramsden Park |
The BIA also lists carolers, Santa and Mrs. Claus, and visits from Elsa, Olaf, Paw Patrol and Bluey. It says more details are coming, and it is asking for volunteers at [email protected].
The train stop at Shaftesbury and the petting zoo at Crescent mark the south end of the route. The tree lighting at Scrivener Square, on the old North Toronto CPR Station grounds, is the finale. The BIA calls the restored station the centrepiece of the community. Families can start at the petting zoo, walk north past Paul Hahn & Co's sing-along at 1058 Yonge, and reach the square in time for the lights.
What the Rink Closure Actually Covers
The City first scheduled this rink work as a two-stage project. Construction began in spring 2025 and closed the rink, the change room building and the basketball courts. The City's timeline expected that work to finish in December 2025, with "additional ice rink upgrades" to follow in fall 2026. The second stage is now underway. The project page lists the scope as state-of-good-repair upgrades to the change rooms and washrooms, plus repairs to the rink's refrigeration systems and dasher boards.
The City's page, last updated October 7, 2026, gives no reopening date. It says the timeline is subject to change. Anyone who usually counts on Ramsden ice for the school holidays should treat December as a month without it.
The park is also the subject of a separate, longer project. The City's page for the Ramsden Park Community Recreation Centre lists a second round of community engagement for fall 2026 and expects to announce a design competition winner this fall. The City says those dates are forecasts and may change, and it has posted no exact engagement dates.
Where the Evening Goes After 5:30
With the tree lit by 5:30 and the posted program ending at 6:30, dinner is the natural next stop. The newest room on the strip opens at 5.
Shay Ristorante opened at 1055 Yonge Street on October 1, 2026, as Streets of Toronto reported. It sits near Yonge and Roxborough, across the street from Paul Hahn & Co's sing-along stop. Executive chef Justin Friedlich last worked as chef de cuisine at Buca Yorkville. According to Toronto Life, that is where he met co-owner Rayana Dilawri and her family, who were regulars, and where he worked with Luli Lavdari, then Buca Yorkville's manager and now Shay's director of operations. The restaurant is named after Friedlich's first daughter. Toronto Life describes the founding idea as something "hospitable, homey and unpretentious, with food that's elevated but not alienating."
Toronto Life's walkthrough of the menu names these dishes:
- Complimentary house focaccia with Sicilian olive oil at every meal, from a recipe tested on Shay's pasta maker, Ledora Cegrani
- Ora King salmon tartare with trout roe, lemon aïoli and house-made potato chips, $32
- West Coast scallops on the half shell with a chive beurre blanc and a shard of dehydrated prosciutto, $39
- Ravioli di mare, half dyed with squid ink and stuffed with shrimp and scallops, served in a shrimp-shell brodo, $42
- Bronze-die pastas such as fusilloni alla vodka
Shay serves dinner Monday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. On a Saturday when the street ends its program at 6:30, those hours line up neatly with the Cavalcade.
The 21-Day Window, Counted Forward
Shay takes reservations through OpenTable and releases them 21 days ahead at 10 a.m. Eastern. Counting from the season's dates gives this schedule:
- Cavalcade night, Saturday, November 14. Tables were released on Saturday, October 24, so that night's book is already open.
- Carols for Toronto weekend, Saturday, December 5. Tables open at 10 a.m. on November 14, the morning of the Cavalcade.
- The Rosedale United sing-along, Tuesday, December 8. Tables open at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, November 17.
The second date is the useful one. Booking on the Cavalcade morning secures dinner for the next big event on the calendar three weeks later.
Two more names are on the way along Yonge. Café Crane, from Jackie Lee and Jeffrey Bovis of the Leslieville wine bar Wynona, is expected at 1262 Yonge Street in late 2026. Toronto Life places it in Summerhill and calls it "French(ish)." For holiday shopping, Absolutely Fabrics opened its 7,000-square-foot flagship at 1091 Yonge with a gala on September 18, as Retail Insider reported.
December Moves Indoors, to Two Sanctuaries
Rosedale's December events take place under church roofs, at the south and east edges of the neighbourhood.
Carols for Toronto, St. Paul's Bloor Street, Saturday, December 5, 3 p.m. Robert Busiakiewicz, the church's Classical Music Director, leads the concert with visiting choirs and bands. St. Paul's suggests a $20 contribution per ticket and welcomes whatever people can give. All profits go to the Toronto Star Santa Claus Fund, which has collected for gift packages for GTA children since 1906. Details are on the St. Paul's Carols for Toronto page. A 3 p.m. start leaves time to walk up Yonge for a Saturday dinner afterward.
Christmas Carol Concert & Sing-Along, Rosedale United Church, Tuesday, December 8, 7:30 to 8:45 p.m. The concert is in the Sanctuary at 159 Roxborough Drive, according to the Rosedale United events page. The Metropolitan Silver Band's calendar shows a 7 p.m. start, but the church lists 7:30, so arriving early covers either time.
Rosedale United's calendar continues with Tidings of Comfort on Thursday, December 17, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., and Lessons & Carols on Sunday, December 20, at 10:30 a.m.
Ice, Elsewhere, Once the Season Opens
Families who want outdoor skating before Ramsden reopens will be heading north or south of the neighbourhood. These are the closest City rinks:
- Barbara Ann Scott Ice Trail at College Park
- Hodgson school grounds, a two-pad artificial rink at 276 Davisville Avenue
- North Toronto Memorial Community Recreation Centre at Eglinton Park, 200 Eglinton Avenue West
The City has not yet posted 2026 opening dates for any of the three. Its general guidance is that outdoor artificial rinks usually open in late November. The City's Skate Lending Library van starts visiting rinks on November 20, 2026, and the full 2026/27 schedule is still to come. Updates on Ramsden's own ice will appear on the City's Ramsden Park rink project page.
On the Cavalcade afternoon, the petting zoo at Yonge and Crescent will be as close to the rink as the event gets.
This fall brought a new dining room at 1055 Yonge and a new flagship at 1091 Yonge, and the holiday season will run along the same blocks. If you'd like to talk about what that block-by-block knowledge is worth to a Rosedale home, from the CPR station south to Crescent Road, Revered Residences is happy to have that conversation privately. Let's Connect.
