Waikoloa already has three markets running every week or every month, and the 2026 holiday season is built on top of them. Kings' Shops has a market on Tuesdays. Queens' Marketplace has one on Friday evenings. Up the hill, the first Saturday of the month belongs to Waikoloa Stables. All of the big days between now and mid-December stack onto that schedule. Black Friday adds a daytime market. Santa photos fall on Friday market nights. A children's museum turns the busiest shopping day of the year into a day when keiki run their own tables.
If you know the weekly schedule, the holiday calendar makes sense. Here it is.
Three markets, three days, two ends of town
The two resort centers and the Stables cover different hours of the week. They split cleanly between the morning and the evening and between Waikoloa Beach Resort and Waikoloa Village.
| Market | When | Where | What the listing promises |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local Market Tuesdays | Every Tuesday, 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. | Kings' Shops, Waikoloa Beach Resort | Local goods and produce |
| Mākeke Fridays | Every Friday, 4 to 7 p.m. | Queens' Marketplace, Waikoloa Beach Resort | Local makers, farmers, food and live entertainment |
| Waikoloa Community Market | First Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Waikoloa Stables, 68-1936 Waikoloa Road | Produce, baked goods, artisan foods, crafts, plants, cooking demos |
The Local Market Tuesdays listing at Kings' Shops names some of its sellers. They include Hula Hands and Soaps, Christina Fruits & Veggies, Hamakua Creations, Aloha Craft Co., CBD Hawaii, Color Street–Glamour Tips & Toes and Coconuts–Superbees Kona. The center adds that vendors may change, so treat the list as a sample rather than a guarantee for any given week.
The Friday market is the one most likely to fill an evening. Mākeke Fridays runs from late afternoon into the dinner hour, with live entertainment alongside the farm and maker stalls. It's also the night Queens' Marketplace hangs most of its December plans on, as you'll see below.
Between them, these three markets give Waikoloa somewhere to buy locally made gifts on a Tuesday morning, a Friday evening or a Saturday morning, with no need to drive to Kona or Waimea.
The first Saturday is where the Village shops
The Stables market happens only once a month, and that makes its two holiday dates the ones to mark. Go Hawaiʻi's listing gives Saturday, November 7, and Saturday, December 5, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The calendar button on that page still carries an older date, so check the organizers' page before you head up Waikoloa Road.
The market shares the grounds with the Dusty Donkey Emporium, the thrift shop at the Stables. Big Island Now reported that the shop marked its 10th anniversary on August 8 this year. Its used clothing, furniture and housewares raise money for the Waikōloa Dry Forest Initiative and its work protecting ancient wiliwili trees in the preserve. The same report credits the shop's beginnings in 2016 to the initiative's President Emeritus, Beverley Brand, and describes it as a gathering place for residents, visitors and volunteers. That means a first-Saturday visit covers two kinds of gift shopping in one parking lot: new things from local makers and secondhand finds that help fund the dry forest.
November 7 has a second stop. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day, Queens' Marketplace hosts its 4th annual Celebrate ʻOhana Festival. The free event includes early-learning resources, hot dogs, line dancing and entertainment. The two windows overlap by three hours, so you can shop the Stables first and still reach the resort with plenty of festival left.
Black Friday is a Friday, so the Mākeke moves to daylight
This is where the weekly schedule pays off. November 27 falls on a Friday, the night Queens' Marketplace normally runs its evening market. For Black Friday, the center has scheduled a Black Friday Holiday Mākeke from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with holiday shopping, local vendors and entertainment throughout the center.
The music is already set:
- Ka'ai & Company, 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
- Tomi Isobe & Blues Dogs, 1 to 2:15 p.m.
- Ku Ma'ema'e, 2:45 to 4 p.m.
The listing also names sellers for the day. Among them are Ahualoa Family Farms, Any Kine Wontons, Bear's Bakery, Bud Boland Pottery, Crafty Titah, Hāmākua Creations, Hawaiʻi Tallow Skincare, Na Pua Ola and The Lava Garden. Queens' says more details on activities and participating merchants are still to come, so expect the page to change before the day.
Kings' Shops is busy the same day, mostly because of the Hawaiʻi Keiki Museum. Put the two centers together and Black Friday in Waikoloa runs as one continuous schedule:
- 9 a.m. Wreath Making with Aunty Kiro begins at Hawaiʻi Keiki Museum, Kings' Shops. It's a drop-off workshop for ages 7 to 13 that runs until 2 p.m. and costs $50 per child.
- 10 a.m. The Keiki Maker Fair opens at the museum, and the Black Friday Holiday Mākeke opens at Queens' Marketplace.
- 11:15 a.m. The live music starts at Queens'.
- 2 p.m. The wreath workshop and the Keiki Maker Fair both wrap up.
- 3 p.m. Drop & Shop starts at the museum. It's for ages 6 to 11, runs until 6 p.m. and costs $50 per child.
- 4 p.m. The Queens' market closes after Ku Ma'ema'e's set.
The museum pitches Drop & Shop as time for holiday shopping or an early dinner, and it notes that spaces may be limited. Registration runs through hawaiikeikimuseum.org. The 3 p.m. start leaves an hour of overlap with the Queens' market, which is enough for a last pass past the vendor tables before the music ends.
On the same day, the keiki run their own market
The Keiki Maker Fair gives Black Friday in Waikoloa its own character. The museum invites young business owners and crafters to show and sell their handmade work at no cost. The fair also has music, a silent auction and free gift wrapping. Kids who want a table can sign up by email at [email protected].
The museum is a fairly new neighbor. Big Island Video News reported its Kings' Shops grand opening on March 14, 2024. It's the second location, after the first Hawaiʻi Keiki Museum opened in Kailua-Kona in 2022. Waikoloa Beach Resort describes it as a hands-on discovery center built around Hawaiʻi Island science. Exhibits include a planetarium, an activity where movement powers electricity, and a water table.
Black Friday sits in the middle of a full November at the museum:
- November 11, Veterans Day: a hip-hop dance workshop for ages 7 to 13, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., $50 per child.
- November 19: an Island Science Lecture, 5 to 7 p.m., with geologist Michelle Mazatti talking about her work in film and television.
- November 28: West Hawaiʻi Dance Theatre's Nutcracker preview, 2 to 4 p.m., with regular museum admission.
The Nutcracker preview the next afternoon makes Thanksgiving weekend at Kings' Shops a two-day affair. Kids make and sell things on Friday and watch a holiday ballet preview on Saturday.
December puts Santa on market nights
After Thanksgiving, Queens' Marketplace adds to the Friday routine again. Free Photos with Santa take place in front of the center's Grand Christmas Tree from 5 to 8 p.m. on December 4, 5, 11, 18, 19 and 20.
Set those dates against the weekly table and you can see the pattern. December 4 and December 11 are Fridays, so Santa's hours overlap the last two hours of Mākeke Fridays, from 5 to 7 p.m. A family can pick up farm goods and maker gifts and get the holiday photo on the same trip.
December 5 does the same with the Saturday schedule. The Waikoloa Community Market at the Stables runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. that morning, and Santa is at Queens' from 5 p.m. One Saturday covers the Village market in the morning and the resort tree at night.
The Village has a holiday date still to come. The Kona Web community calendar lists the Waikoloa Christmas Parade and Keiki Fest for "December TBA, 2026." The parade is set for 10 a.m., followed by Keiki Fest at the Waikoloa School Plex from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., but the exact day hasn't been announced.
Listings change during the holidays, especially those still marked "details coming soon." Check the Queens' Marketplace events page, the Kings' Shops events page and the Waikoloa Stables calendar the week you plan to go.
At Wai Pacific, we follow Waikoloa's calendar for the same reason you do: the markets, the makers and the keiki tables are what make the season feel local. If you'd like to talk over what's happening in Waikoloa, Village or Beach Resort, we're glad to help you Start Your Island Real Estate Experience.
