Santa photos start at Northgate Mall on Thursday, November 19, and run every day through Christmas Eve. The same week, the old Burlington store fills up with racks of children's clothes, toys and gear for a four-day consignment sale. Two weeks earlier, a steak truck parks in the front lot for a three-day weekend. Taken together, the mall's 2026 holiday calendar happens mostly in a vacant anchor space, the parking lot and a temporary Santa set. Those are the same kinds of space a redevelopment plan for the 71.43-acre site is supposed to decide, and that plan doesn't exist yet.
So this season at Northgate will look much like the last one. Until the plan is written, the mall will keep doing what it's doing now: lending out its empty rooms and open pavement for one event at a time.
The Biggest Week of the Season Happens in the Former Burlington
The largest single event on the calendar takes place in a storefront that no longer has a tenant. Rhea Lana's of Chattanooga is holding its children's consignment sale at the former Burlington, 345 Northgate Mall Drive. Consignor drop-off is Sunday, November 15. Presale sessions run Thursday through Saturday, November 19 to 21, and public shopping is open November 22 to 25.
Northgate's own event listing says public shopping is free starting Sunday, November 22. Advance tickets are sold for anyone who wants an earlier look, though the mall's page doesn't post session hours.
Start to finish, the sale runs from the Sunday drop-off through the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. For that stretch a dark anchor box at the north end of Hixson becomes a full retail floor again.
Northgate's Holiday Calendar, Date by Date
Everything below comes from the mall's current listings and the Santa photo operator's 2026 schedule. The mall hasn't published Thanksgiving, Black Friday or extended holiday hours. Check the Northgate events page before a Black Friday trip.
| Dates | Event | Where | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov. 6–8 | Homestead Steaks Meat Truck Sale | Front parking area | No hours posted |
| Nov. 15 | Rhea Lana's consignor drop-off | Former Burlington, 345 Northgate Mall Drive | Sunday |
| Nov. 19–21 | Rhea Lana's presale sessions | Former Burlington | Advance access |
| Nov. 22–25 | Rhea Lana's public sale | Former Burlington | Free public shopping from Nov. 22 |
| Nov. 19–Dec. 24 | Photos with Santa | Inside the mall | Packages from $40 |
| Mondays, Nov. 23–Dec. 14 | Pet Photos with Santa | Santa's Workshop | Reservations recommended |
The Santa schedule from VIP Holiday Photos has three parts:
- November 19 to December 10: Monday through Saturday, noon to 7 p.m. Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.
- December 11 to 17: Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, noon to 6 p.m.
- December 18 to 24: hours change day to day and are listed on the booking calendar.
VIP accepts walk-ins but doesn't guarantee wait times. If you're working around a nap or a school pickup, booking ahead is the safer choice.
The pet sessions are on Mondays only, starting November 23. That gives you four chances. The mall recommends reservations.
BJ's Wholesale Club, which opened at Northgate on January 30, 2026, is new since last Christmas. Culver's at 505 Northgate Mall Drive is open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. That makes it the late option on a Santa evening.
What Has Been Decided About Northgate So Far
The redevelopment has passed every financial and procedural vote it needed, yet it hasn't produced a single physical change. The record runs like this:
- December 2025. The Chattanooga City Council approved a $15.2 million infrastructure tax increment financing district for Northgate.
- January 6, 2026. The council passed a resolution asking the Industrial Development Board to include a public library branch, park and greenspace, outdoor entertainment space, pedestrian and bicycle access, and a 25% ceiling on residential construction in the development agreement, as Chattanoogan.com reported.
- March 2, 2026. The IDB gave the TIF final approval. The schedule calls for a 15-month design process, main utility lines finished by December 31, 2028, and the full project finished by December 31, 2031, according to Chattanoogan.com.
- July through August 30, 2026. Friends of Hixson held three community visioning sessions. The first was at Valleybrook Golf Club and the last at Burks United Methodist Church.
The TIF money goes to infrastructure. Chattanoogan.com described the redevelopment as following the replacement of the mall's aging sewer infrastructure. That means the first real work at Northgate will happen underground.
At the August 30 session, Jon Meshel of CBL Properties, which owns the mall, gave this timeline to Fox Chattanooga:
"No timeline on the master plan, but we are working with the city on the utility project and expect that project to start in the next 2 years."
After that session, the next step was a report to the IDB built from all three meetings. The City Council's October 20 agenda didn't include the project, and the IDB hasn't announced a master-plan timeline.
The Town-Center Concept, and the Questions It Leaves Open
The most detailed public description of a possible future Northgate came from a Friends of Hixson announcement that Chattanoogan.com published on August 21. It said CBL had outlined demolishing most of the mall's interior and redeveloping the site as an open-air town center. Belk, Old Navy, Ulta, BJ's Wholesale, Culver's and the former JCPenney building would stay. The same announcement said city leaders had discussed moving the Hixson branch library into the redeveloped footprint.
Nine days later, CBL said on the record that it hadn't committed to anything. That makes the August 21 version a concept, not a construction plan. Right now, CBL's Northgate property page lists Belk, Old Navy and ULTA Beauty as anchors and AMC Theatres as a featured store.
The comparison people keep making is Cambridge Square in Ooltewah. CBL told Fox Chattanooga that its thinking includes a town center along those lines. State Representative Greg Martin of Hixson told the station that "culture has shifted where people are doing more things outside in open spaces."
Martin's point about open space fits this season's calendar. A meat truck in the parking lot, a pop-up sale in an empty anchor and a Santa set that comes down after December 24 are all temporary uses of space Northgate doesn't need for permanent tenants right now. The town-center concept would build that kind of outdoor, event-by-event use into the site's permanent design.
Housing is the other open question. In July, NewsChannel 9 reported that CBL had no deal with LDG Development and wasn't pursuing a Northgate project with that company. Chattanoogan.com reported that LDG's withdrawn proposal had covered a parking-lot site at 303 Northgate Mall Drive, across from AMC. In August, Meshel described CBL's position to Fox Chattanooga this way: "We're not proposing anything, and we're not not proposing anything." The council's January resolution caps any residential share at 25%.
Holiday Events Elsewhere in Hixson
Two community holiday events are also on the calendar, both away from the mall.
The Tennessee Festival of Vendors 2026, presented by Vonzara Inc., is at Hixson Community Center, 5401 School Drive, on Saturday, November 7, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. That's the middle day of the Northgate meat truck weekend. According to the Visit Chattanooga listing, admission is free and the day includes indoor vendors, food trucks outside, games, face painting, hourly giveaways, holiday music and a Toys for Tots drop-off.
The Hixson Community Christmas Tree Lighting from Friends of Hixson is set for Saturday, December 5, as the group shared at its October 21 meeting, according to Chattanoogan.com. A 2026 venue and start time haven't been announced. Last year's lighting was at Clear Creek Church of Christ, 5612 Hixson Pike, with music from the Hixson High School band, choir and strings. Keep an eye out for the 2026 details rather than assuming the same setup.
That same Friends of Hixson meeting covered growth along Middle Valley Road and a proposed 52-home subdivision near Big Ridge and Fairview roads. It didn't cover Northgate. For now, the mall question is waiting on the IDB report, and Santa arrives at the mall on November 19.
The Lawrence Team Homes team is following each step of the Northgate process, from the IDB report to the first utility work. If you'd like to talk through what the town-center plans could mean for your part of Hixson as they take shape, Talk to the Lawrence Team.
