The Loranger school at 148 Saco Avenue will host two of Old Orchard Beach's December traditions on back-to-back Saturdays this year. On December 5 its doors open at 9 a.m. for the RSU 23 PTO-Booster's 9th Annual Old Orchard Beach Craft Fair. Seven days later the cafeteria becomes "The Grumpeteria" for the Recreation Department's fifth Breakfast in Whoville. That breakfast used to be held at the Rec Department.
So the town's two biggest family mornings of the season now share one address. The rest of the calendar fits around them, with the tree lighting at Veteran's Memorial Park that first afternoon and a new place to warm up on East Grand Avenue once the lights are on.
The Breakfast Moved Into the Craft Fair's Building
The Recreation Department put the change in bold on its 2026 event page:
"please note this is a NEW location, and NOT at the Rec Department like in past years"
That note is from the Town of Old Orchard Beach Recreation Department's Breakfast in Whoville page. It gives the date as Saturday, December 12, 2026, at Loranger Memorial School, 148 Saco Ave.
The craft fair has used that building before. In 2025 Saco Bay News listed it at Loranger Memorial School with music, prizes, gift items, food for purchase and a live Wurlitzer organ performance. The Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution's community calendar puts this year's fair back at 148 Saco Ave., 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with holiday gifts, food, live music and raffle prizes.
For a household with kids, that means the same parking lot, the same front doors and the same Saco Avenue drive on December 5 and again on December 12.
The Gifts Can Get Wrapped Before Either Saturday
The season starts a little earlier at Libby Memorial Library. Its homepage lists "Sustainable Gift Wrapping with ecomaine" for Friday, November 20, at 4 p.m. The program is a presentation on cutting holiday waste and recycling, followed by a wrapping demonstration, and you're welcome to bring gifts to wrap. That's eight days after this post goes up and two weeks before the craft fair. Anything you pick up at Loranger on the 5th can go home wrapped in what you learned there.
December 5, Hour by Hour
Three events overlap on the first Saturday, and the times line up so you can do all of them in one day. The Old Orchard Beach Chamber of Commerce and the Saco & Biddeford Savings calendar list the schedule this way:
- 9 a.m. The Old Orchard Beach Craft Fair opens at 148 Saco Ave. and runs until 2 p.m.
- 10 a.m. The annual Art Walk starts and runs until 3 p.m., with a trolley run.
- 2 p.m. The craft fair closes. That leaves one more hour of the Art Walk.
- 3 p.m. Celebration by the Sea begins at Veteran's Memorial Park. The free tree lighting includes photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus, crafts at the Chamber, and free cookies donated by Landry's Shop 'n Save.
- Through 5:30 p.m. The Middle School Chorus performs, and then the Salvation Army band plays live holiday music. The trees in the park and the gazebo stay lit for the rest of the season.
There's a one-hour overlap between the craft fair and the tree lighting, and the Art Walk covers it. The morning is for shopping, the middle of the day for the walk, and the late afternoon belongs to the park.
Saco Avenue Carried the Art Walk Last Year, Too
The 2025 Art Walk shows how much of the day already happened on Saco Avenue. The December 1, 2025 issue of the What's Up OOB?! community newsletter said the 2025 walk had more than 50 artists at 10 venues around Old Orchard Beach and Ocean Park. The trolley left at 12:15 p.m. from in front of Café 64. Stops named in that issue included:
- Art Glass by Lorrie, 15 Ross Road, which held its Holiday Show from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day
- Coastal Craft Workshop on Saco Avenue, which teaches sea glass tree and sea glass window classes
- Epoxy ME and Artisans on Saco Avenue, which books resin pour classes as private events
- Libby Memorial Library, open for the Art Walk from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., where the Friends of Libby Library held a sale for the library
So in 2025, two of the named studios were on the same road as the craft fair. Anyone walking between the school and those Saco Avenue studios was already moving along the corridor that this year's breakfast is joining.
After the Lights, East Grand Avenue Has a Fireplace
At 5:30 the band finishes, and for the first time in a while there's a new option on East Grand Avenue for the evening. Old Orchard Brewing Company opened on October 1 at 32 East Grand Ave., in the space that was Lone Pine Brewing and before that Definitive Brewing Company. The Portland Press Herald covered the opening the following week.
According to Saco Bay News, owner Joe Rousseau also owns The Executive Motel next door and the Crosswinds Motel and cottages. On opening night the beer garden fireplace was lit. "We need more restaurants and gathering spaces on this side of East Grand," Rousseau told the outlet. He described a year-round bar and recalled locals gathering at the outdoor fire with snow on the ground under a previous owner. The same article said he wants to keep the space's Open Mic Nights going and add weekly trivia and cribbage.
The menu has pizza, soup, salads and appetizers, plus cocktails and beer. The brewery's own site lists Friday and Saturday hours of 3 to 9 p.m. On December 5 that gives you about three and a half hours after the tree lighting for pizza by the fire.
December 12, the Grinch Takes the Cafeteria
The second Saturday is ticketed and has limited spaces. Here's what the Recreation Department lists for 2026:
- Where: The Grumpeteria at Loranger Memorial School, 148 Saco Ave.
- Seatings: 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. or 10 to 11 a.m.
- Tickets: $11 general admission. Kids 2 and under are free.
- On the menu: Grinchy green pancakes, "Grumpoustic Music" from Max, and letters to Santa
- Dress code: Christmas pajamas, Whoville-inspired outfits or your grinchiest greens
Tickets are sold through the Rec Department's online store, and the two time slots are separate products. If your family wants to sit with another group, the registration form has a space to note it. The program page lists Kira Clark at the Recreation Department as the contact for volunteers and sponsors.
By the morning of the 12th, families who were at the craft fair will be back in the same building a week later, this time eating green pancakes. Meanwhile the park trees and gazebo lit on December 5 will still be on across town.
Bedard Homes & Realty is based just up the coast in Saco, and we keep calendars like this one for every town we work in, because a December Saturday on Saco Avenue tells you a lot about a place. If you're thinking about a home in Old Orchard Beach or Ocean Park and want to know how its seasons actually play out, request a consultation and we'll walk you through it.
