Murrieta Swapped Its Sponsored Trees for $20 Wreaths, and the Sign-Up Closes November 23

On the evening of Saturday, December 5, the City of Murrieta will line Town Square Park & Amphitheater with wreath stands. The wreaths on them will come from community members, families, businesses and organizations who bought one for $20 and decorated it, most ahead of time and some on the day itself. The tree lighting is still the headline, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at 11 Town Square, with music and local vendors. The display around it is new this year, and it is made up of whatever the people who sign up bring.

Downtown already works this way. Twice a month, a local nonprofit closes part of Washington Avenue for a street market that the City says has reached capacity. Between now and Christmas, Murrieta's two December gatherings depend on the community showing up with something to contribute. One of them has a deadline you can still meet.

From Sponsored Trees to $20 Wreaths

In 2025, the holiday event at Town Square was a Festival of Trees. Decorated trees were sponsored by local businesses, families, organizations and individuals, and the event was framed around giving back to families in need. Patch reported that a tree sponsorship cost $40 for an individual, family, community group or nonprofit, and that event booth vendors had to sponsor a tree for $100. Five days later, on November 26, 2025, Patch reported that the City was still looking for tree sponsors and dessert vendors.

The 2026 version cuts the cost in half and changes who takes part.

The last row matters most. In 2026, what you make for the City's display comes back to your front door for the rest of the season.

How the Wreath Entry Works

The City is taking applications through Eventeny, and the Festival of Wreaths participant application closes at 11:45 p.m. on Monday, November 23. That is about a week and a half after this post goes up, and it falls on the Monday of Thanksgiving week. The steps, as the City lists them:

1. Buy a wreath for $20 through the application.
2. Pick it up starting Monday, November 30. You can also choose to decorate it on the day of the event.
3. Decorate it however you like.
4. Bring the finished wreath to Town Square Park on Saturday, December 5, where it goes on a City-provided stand.
5. Take it home after the event.

The decorating rules are short and practical:

• Keep decorations family-friendly.
• Use decorations that can handle being transported and displayed outdoors, and attach them securely.
• Use battery-operated lights only.
• Bring your own decorations. Holiday themes, colors, handmade pieces and personal touches are all welcome.

The wind rule deserves some thought. A wreath that survives the drive to Town Square still has to hold up on an open-air stand for the evening, so glue guns tend to beat ribbon ties.

The same day starts early. Donuts with Santa runs from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at Town Square Park & Amphitheater, with free donuts for the first 500 kids and a visit with Santa. Animal Friends of the Valleys will be there with pets for adoption. Admission is one non-perishable food or pet item per child, and dog or cat food, treats and cat litter all count. A family entering a wreath could come in the morning with a bag of cat litter and return at five with the wreath.

The Same Idea, Running Twice a Month on Washington Avenue

The wreath display is a one-night version of a model historic downtown has used since 2020. Murrieta Market Nights began in October 2020, put on by a local nonprofit with help from the Downtown Murrieta Merchants and Property Owners Association and the MAC Arts Council. According to the City's 2023 partnership announcement, the City began helping with road closures in summer 2021. The City Council approved a hosting agreement in fall 2022, and the City then bought barriers so vendors could set up in the street.

The market runs on the first and third Thursday of each month, 5 to 9 p.m. It fills Washington Avenue between B Street and C Street, plus parts of Juniper Street. The organizer's directions point to 24810 Washington Ave.

The pace of its growth is the striking part. The Press-Enterprise reported in May 2026 that the market draws nearly 7,000 visitors per event and, according to a city report, has reached capacity. On May 5, 2026, the City Council unanimously approved a 150-foot expansion south on Washington Avenue at a cost of nearly $134,000, which pays for eight new barriers and a new trailer. In 2023, the City's description was "hundreds of shoppers" per event. Three years later, the Press-Enterprise was reporting nearly 7,000 per event.

Casey Jurado of the Murrieta Market Nights nonprofit told the Press-Enterprise that the aim goes beyond the market itself: "We want to establish an economic ecology down there … and it's been extremely successful from a community standpoint, and it's been successful in making the city look good." The same article said the market was adding new events such as an art show and line dancing.

Like the wreaths, the market is built by its participants. Food vendors in the organizer's directory include Big Daddy's Express, Dimboy Brew, Isla Fuego, New York Gyros, Rosie's Tacos and Sempre Pizza. Other names in the directory include Dvinyl Records, California Trackmaster, Clara's Dazzle Crafts and Mintymoss.art.

What Those Market Blocks Used to Be

Washington Avenue was once part of old U.S. Highway 395, which is why downtown's own branding uses the number. The Murrieta Historical Society's timeline records that Highway 395 was realigned through the Menifee Valley in 1955, and through traffic left these blocks after that.

A market night now brings the street back to something close to its old job as a town's main commercial corner. Here is what stood there before:

• The Thompson/Small House, 24771 Washington Avenue, built in 1903.
• A.K. Small & Co. General Store, which the Murrieta Historical Society says opened at Juniper and Washington in 1909. That is the same intersection where market booths now turn the corner onto Juniper.
• The Murrieta Garage, also at Washington and Juniper, built in 1914 and described by the Historical Society as likely Murrieta's first service station. It was gone by 1991.

On market nights, a general store corner and a former highway service station site turn back into the place where people come to buy things from their neighbors.

The Dates Between Now and Christmas

Three Market Nights remain on the 2026 calendar. Two come before the wreaths go up, and the last comes after. All of these are future dates on the organizer's and City's calendars.

• Thursday, November 19, 5 to 9 p.m.: Murrieta Market Nights on Washington Avenue and Juniper Street.
• Monday, November 23, 11:45 p.m.: Festival of Wreaths applications close.
• Monday, November 30: Wreath pickup begins.
• Thursday, December 3, 5 to 9 p.m.: Murrieta Market Nights, two days before the wreath display. Ribbon, ornaments and handmade trim from the artisan booths can still go on a wreath that hasn't been finished yet.
• Saturday, December 5: Donuts with Santa, 9 to 10:30 a.m., then the Tree Lighting & Festival of Wreaths, 5 to 7:30 p.m., both at Town Square Park & Amphitheater.
• Thursday, December 17, 5 to 9 p.m.: The last Murrieta Market Night on the organizer's 2026 calendar.

Thanksgiving falls on November 26, the fourth Thursday, so it doesn't conflict with the first-and-third-Thursday schedule. After November 19, the next market is December 3.

If your wreath goes up on a Town Square stand this year, I'd love to see a photo before it heads home to your front door. And if a walk down Washington Avenue on a market night has you wondering what your own place in Murrieta is worth these days, Gena Elfelt can tell you quickly. Get your instant home valuation, and we'll talk it through over a gyro on the 17th.