The 2025 "Where's Santa" form from Mendham Borough fits on one page. It has twenty-nine names, each followed by a blank line for a business to initial. It also has one instruction: find Santa at each stop, collect the initials, and bring the finished form with your name and phone number to Mendham Jewelers. Near the bottom, the form says the contest ended December 14. The Holly Trail itself was Saturday, December 6.
That gap of eight days shows how the event works. The Mendham Business Association bills the Holly Trail as one Saturday on the Borough calendar. The game at its center sends people to the places they already go on an ordinary weekday, and it stays open long after the gazebo lights come on.
This year's Holly Trail is Saturday, December 5, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to the Borough's 2026 recreation guide.
Last year's form read like a Borough errand list
If you sort the 2025 stops by what each place does, the list looks less like a holiday shopping map and more like a week of ordinary errands.
- Coffee, food and treats: Simple Coffee, Mendham Bagel, Dantes, Sapori D'Italia, Black Horse Pub, Mendham Creamery, JA Morey Artisan Chocolate
- Errands: Peapack-Gladstone Bank, Provident Bank, the UPS Store, Peggnet Computers, Mendham Garden Center, Mendham Jewelers, and two local real estate offices
- Shops and services: Chapter One, Wicker Basket, Luminous By Lucia, Maji Hair Salon, Olivera Hair, Angela London Hair Studio, Hand in Hand Chiropractic, Mendham Mathnasium
- Civic and community: Mendham Borough Library, Mendham First Aid Squad, Phoenix House, St. Marks Church, Grace Lutheran Church, Mendham United Methodist Church
About a quarter of the list is food and treats. The rest is the part of downtown that rarely gets a holiday mention: two bank branches, a chiropractor, a tutoring center, the library and an ambulance squad. The Borough's own description in the 2026 guide matches the form. It says "businesses and service organizations" put on the treats and events, not just shops.
The 2025 photos in the Observer-Tribune show the trail at street level. Families look over the cases at J.A. Morey Artisan Chocolate, eat ice cream outside Mendham Creamery on Hilltop Road, and stop in at a hair studio.
The game has run on the same rules for years
The format is older than last year's form, and it has changed very little. In 2021, Patch described a candy cane marking each business where Santa was hiding. Participants collected initials on a form, and the prize drawing was for $100 in "Mendham Money." In that same Patch listing, the stops ran their own small events:
- St. Mark's Episcopal Church had a scavenger hunt, games, cookies and hot chocolate.
- Mendham United Methodist Church served cocoa, coffee and cookies.
- Mendham Garden Center at 11 W. Main St. poured hot cider with cookies.
- Black Horse Pub at 1 W. Main St. offered hot cocoa and cookies.
- Phoenix House at 2 W. Main St. hosted Santa photos and cookies.
- A $10 Giving Tree jewelry box fundraiser supported the food pantry.
By 2023, Mendham Jewelers had become the place to get forms and turn them in. Patch reported that the completed forms were due back by December 9, a week after that year's Saturday trail. In 2024, the Borough added a pickup point. Trail maps and game forms sat in a special mailbox in front of the Bowers building. In 2025, the deadline was December 14 and the prize was a gift card.
Across those years, the game has kept the same three parts: a single form, a central return point on Main Street, and a deadline that falls after the event day.
Saturday, December 5, from Phoenix House to the gazebo
The Santa photos at Phoenix House and the trail both open at 11 a.m. The church concert and the gazebo come later in the day.
Phoenix House, 2 W. Main St., 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The Borough offers free cookies and photos with Santa here, and you need a reservation. Time slots are on the Borough's Holly Trail 2026 page. Phoenix House was also a stop on last year's game form, so a family can get the photo and its first set of initials in one visit.
The trail, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Businesses and service organizations around the Borough business district host treats and events. This is when the "Where's Santa Game" is in full swing.
Community holiday concert, Mendham United Methodist Church, 10 E. Main St. The 2026 guide lists the concert as part of the day. Last year it ran from 3 to 4 p.m. with the Hackettstown Community Band Ensemble, according to a Patch event listing. The church was also on the 2025 game form.
Tree lighting, Borough Park Gazebo. The day ends here, with high school carolers and Santa arriving on what the guide calls his firetruck "sleigh." Borough Park sits between Mountain Avenue, Park Avenue and Orchard Street. The Borough lists parking at 11 Park Ave. and 8 Orchard St. If you arrive by car later in the afternoon, those two lots put you right at the gazebo, and the Main Street spaces are left for people still working through the trail.
The weeks around the Saturday follow the same pattern
The Holly Trail is one Saturday, but the Borough's December runs on deadlines that stretch across the month, the same way the game form does. Here are the dates from the Borough's own pages:
- Saturday, November 21, 9 a.m. to noon: The Borough's holiday food drive collects donations and reusable bags at the Department of Public Works.
- Saturday, December 5, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.: The Holly Trail, Santa photos at Phoenix House, the concert and the tree lighting.
- December 18: Deadline to enter the Holiday Home Decorating Contest.
- December 19 to 31, 6 to 8 p.m.: The Recreation Committee drives the Borough to judge the contest.
The decorating contest is the Borough's take on the walk-around game. Judges see entries only from the street. Only street-side decorations count, and corner lots are judged from both streets. Displays must be "Do It Yourself" only, so anything installed by a commercial company is not eligible. Judges score unique design and creative use of lights, storyline or theme, placement of decorations and animated pieces, and overall presentation. Entry is free and open to homes inside Borough limits. Entrants agree that photos of their home's exterior may appear on the Borough website or in the Mendham Messenger newsletter. The winner is announced in January. Until then, the Borough's page asks entrants to leave their lights on at night.
For questions about the contest, the Borough's contact is [email protected].
For 13 December evenings, judges drive Borough streets, and an entrant's display counts only for what faces the road. Last year's Holly Trail forms were due back at Mendham Jewelers eight days after the Saturday. Both keep people moving around the Borough well after the gazebo lights come on.
If you're entering the decorating contest this year, the work you put into what faces the street is a good starting point for thinking about how your home presents. When you want a number to go with it, Bonnie & Greg can help. Get your instant home valuation, and we'll follow up with what the Mendham Borough market is doing right now.
