What does a shopping center do with its empty units in November? At Edgewater Place, the Foster City Chamber of Commerce built a holiday market out of them. Mistletoe & Magic runs Saturday, November 14, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Edgewater Plaza. Admission is free, and the Chamber says registration isn't required, though an RSVP helps it plan.
The market sets up inside the dark storefronts along Edgewater Boulevard. Vendors work out of in vacant retail spaces, and schools, community groups and local businesses adopt the empty windows and decorate them. The event also bans food and drink sales. So the only places to buy coffee or lunch that Saturday are the businesses already open in the center.
The Floor Plan Is the Vacancy List
The Chamber's own description sums up the plan:
"We're transforming Edgewater Plaza into a festive holiday shopping destination filled with local vendors, unique gifts, and beautifully decorated storefront windows."
The vendor details show how literal that is. According to the Chamber's event page, each maker or small business gets one 8-by-8-foot space inside a vacant storefront for $40. Organizers assign the storefronts, and vendors can't choose their unit. Vendors bring their own tables, chairs and displays. Everything has to stay inside the assigned space. Nails, drilling, permanent adhesives and any changes to the property are prohibited, and the fees are nonrefundable.
The Chamber's terms say electricity requests "may be considered but cannot be guaranteed." For shoppers, that means the market is spread across several units, not one big room. Plan to walk the plaza from door to door, because the booths are wherever the vacancies are.
Patch reported the plan on October 21 when the Chamber opened recruitment. Patch described the event as a market for local artisans and small businesses, "along with a window-decorating activity at vacant storefronts throughout the shopping plaza."
A Week of Windows Before the Market Opens
This post goes up the day before decorating begins, so the windows will change in stages over the next week. According to the Chamber, the schedule runs this way:
- October 31: Design submission deadline. That date has passed, so this year's designs are already in the Chamber's hands.
- November 6 through 13: Decorating period, at times coordinated with event organizers.
- November 14, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Mistletoe & Magic, with vendors inside and the finished windows on display.
If your errands take you past Edgewater during the week, you can watch the windows fill in before the market opens. The Chamber says window assignments depend on design review and availability, so the final number of decorated windows depends on how many designs were approved.
Voting comes after the decorating. Each finished window will be photographed and posted on social media, and the community votes for favorites. Patch's account matches the Chamber's. Neither source names a voting platform or a closing date, so check the Chamber's social channels as the 14th gets closer.
What Goes on the Glass
The window guidelines explain why these windows will look like community projects more than storefront ads. The Chamber's rules for participants:
- Theme: Holiday or winter, family-friendly and appropriate for all ages. The Chamber says cultural and religious holiday traditions are welcome.
- Content: No political campaigning, religious proselytizing, discriminatory messaging or inappropriate imagery.
- Branding: Business or organization names, logos and promotional information are limited to a 1-by-1-foot section of the window.
- Materials: Washable window paint, washable markers, removable window clings, garland and solar-powered lights. No permanent paint, damaging adhesives, nails or changes to the property.
- Safety: Displays can't block entrances or walkways, and children must be supervised by an adult.
The 1-by-1-foot branding limit matters most. A business that adopts a window gets a square foot for its logo and has to fill the rest of the glass with the season. Windowpanes that sat blank all fall will carry school projects and community group displays for a week. The Chamber will handle removal and cleanup after the event.
Lunch Is the Center's Job on the 14th
The vendor rules say it twice, once as a guideline and again in bold: this is a non-food market. "No food or beverage sales or sampling are permitted."
With no cocoa stand or food vendors at the market, food and drink sales that day go to the tenants who stay open the rest of the year. During the six hours of the market, these are the food options within the same plaza:
- Osaka Marketplace, 919 Edgewater Blvd. The Japanese grocery is open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Its weekend hot buffet runs 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., so on Saturday it closes at the same hour the market does. Its homepage is running a "Mid-October 2026" weekly ad for the Foster City store. Osaka has promoted revamped food-court offerings for Foster City this year, but its location page lists only the hot-buffet hours.
- Café Kazka, 929 Edgewater Blvd, Suite B. A Hong Kong-style café whose current menu includes milk tea, coffee, rice plates, noodles, spaghetti, mango sago and French toast. Its online ordering hours run 9 a.m. to 4:40 p.m., which covers the whole market.
- Waterfront Pizza, 969 Edgewater Blvd, Suite D. Waterfront Pizza lists daily hours of 11:50 a.m. to 8:45 p.m. and serves pizza, wraps, Mediterranean dishes, salads and kabob plates. It's the one restaurant on this list still serving hot food well after the vendors pack up.
Hours can change around a holiday weekend, so check before you go. For a morning visit, Osaka's store opens at 9 and Café Kazka's online ordering window opens at 9, both before the market starts at 10. Lunch at Osaka's buffet starts at 11:30. For a late-afternoon visit, Waterfront Pizza serves after the booths close, and Osaka's grocery aisles stay open until 9.
A deli is also on the way. The Almanac's Peninsula Foodist roundup reported on September 2 that Woodside Delicatessen is expanding to Foster City and taking over the former Plaza Gourmet Delicatessen space. No opening date has been announced. Treat it as coming soon, not as a lunch option for the 14th.
What Can Move In After the Garland Comes Down
The market fills the empty units for one Saturday. Longer term, the city's rules for Edgewater Place shape what can lease them. On August 20, 2026, the Foster City Planning Commission approved a permitted use list for the Edgewater Place Shopping Center, the list of business types the center can host.
Among the limits it sets:
| Use | Limit at Edgewater Place |
|---|---|
| Supermarket | One |
| Liquor and wine store | One |
| Sit-down restaurants | Seven |
| Take-out restaurants | Five |
The list also says a closed sit-down restaurant can be replaced by a similar sit-down operation in the same building location. Adding new restaurant uses beyond the cap requires prior approval. Osaka Marketplace fills the center's single supermarket slot. Other allowed categories include bakeries, ice cream and yogurt shops, specialty food, gift and hobby stores, and sporting goods.
The market's vendors already fit that framework. Makers and small gift sellers are the kinds of retail the city's list allows, and on November 14 they'll be working out of the units that have sat dark this fall. Woodside Delicatessen moving into a former deli is the same pattern, a food tenant replacing a food tenant. Arrive at 10, walk the plaza from end to end, and you'll pass every vendor and every decorated window. Then eat at Café Kazka, Osaka or Waterfront Pizza, because no one in the booths is allowed to sell you a snack.
If the market has you thinking about what's changing on your side of Foster City, or what a nearby opening might mean for your own home's value, Julie Flouty is happy to talk through it. She follows Edgewater Place and the rest of the city's shopping centers closely and can give you a clear, local read on your next step. Let's Connect.
