Collin Street Bakery opened in Corsicana in 1896, which makes this holiday season its 130th. Most of what the bakery makes in that time leaves town in shipping boxes. Its busiest weeks overlap almost exactly with downtown Corsicana's holiday calendar. The tree lighting, both parades, the Palace Theatre's December shows and the monthly downtown markets mostly fall between mid-November and early December, while fruitcakes are still coming off the line at 401 W. 7th Ave.
For anyone who lives here, the 130th anniversary is something to see in person. You can tour the factory, sit in the café and then head over to the tree. The anniversary tin is a smaller part of it.
The Bake Run and the Downtown Calendar Fill the Same Weeks
KWTX reported in December 2019 that the bakery's fruitcake season runs about 60 days, from late October into early December. In that stretch it turned out nearly 800,000 pounds of fruitcake, and the Corsicana workforce grew from about 70 people to about 500. Those are 2019 numbers. In December 2024, KLTV reported that the bakery makes more than one million pounds of fruitcake a year. Vice President Thomas McNutt told the station that nearly 80% of the company's annual revenue comes in during the holiday season.
Now set those weeks against the 2026 downtown calendar. Mayor's office dates come from the city's September 1, 2026 letter. Recurring dates follow the monthly schedule on Visit Corsicana.
| Date | Event | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday, Nov. 14 | Mimosas at the Market, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. | Second-Saturday schedule |
| Sunday, Nov. 15 | Sunday Stroll, 1 to 4 p.m. | Third-Sunday schedule |
| Monday, Nov. 16 | Tickets go on sale for Fiddler on the Roof | Warehouse Living Arts Center |
| Thursday, Nov. 19 | Annual Tree Lighting | Mayor's letter |
| Saturday, Nov. 21 | Texas Veterans Parade | Mayor's letter |
| Saturday, Nov. 28 | Small Business Saturday | Mayor's letter |
| Dec. 3 to 6 | Fiddler on the Roof at the Palace Theatre | Warehouse Living Arts Center |
| Saturday, Dec. 5 | Festival of Lights Christmas Parade | Mayor's letter |
| Thursday, Dec. 10 | The Dean Martin Story – Christmas Special, 7:30 p.m. | Palace Theatre |
| Saturday, Dec. 12 | Mimosas at the Market | Second-Saturday schedule |
| Sunday, Dec. 20 | Sunday Stroll | Third-Sunday schedule |
The tree lighting date needs a note. Visit Corsicana's standing event page describes it as the Friday before Thanksgiving. This year the city has set it for Thursday, November 19. Texas Monthly's listing has it running 5 to 8 p.m. around the three-story tree, which carries more than 10,000 lights and 750 ornaments. The listing also mentions Santa photos, train rides, a balloon artist, face painting, food trucks and craft vendors, and admission is free. If you remember it as a Friday-night event, move it up a day this year.
The shows are booked into the same weeks. The Warehouse Living Arts Center is staging Fiddler on the Roof at the Palace December 3 through 6, and tickets go on sale November 16. The Palace Theatre, at 112 W. 6th Ave., follows on December 10 with Drew Anthony singing Dean Martin with a live band. Both shows fall in the closing weeks of the bake run that KWTX described.
How a Hotel Bakery Became a Shipping Business
The reason most of the fruitcake leaves town goes back to the early 1900s. The Texas State Historical Association's entry says August Weidmann opened the bakery in 1896 with backing from Tom McElwee, who suggested the DeLuxe Fruitcake name. In 1906 the bakery moved into a building with a hotel upstairs, and the entry says Enrico Caruso, John J. McGraw and Will Rogers all stayed there. The bakery's own history adds John Ringling and boxer "Gentleman Jim" Corbett to the guest list. It also says Weidmann and McElwee formed their partnership in 1900, with McElwee running the front of the house and Weidmann baking.
The two accounts disagree on how mail order started. TSHA traces it to 1914, when a Ringling Brothers troupe bought dozens of cakes as Christmas gifts and orders followed. The bakery's version credits hotel guests who took fruitcakes home and then wrote back asking for more by mail. It adds that the cakes traveled well and didn't need refrigeration. Either way, the business grew around customers who weren't in Corsicana. That is still true. The company says it ships worldwide all year.
The bakery moved to its current site at 401 West Seventh Avenue in 1967. According to KLTV's 2024 report, the McNutt family has owned and run the company since the 1940s. That puts the 130th anniversary roughly eight decades into the family's ownership.
"I'll tell you this, if Collin Street Bakery fruitcake was the only fruitcake that any human ever ate, every human would have it every Christmas for their families."
Thomas McNutt, speaking to KLTV in December 2024
KLTV's report puts that volume in practical terms. The factory has two ovens that together bake more than 4,000 fruitcakes at a time, and each cake is decorated by hand with pecans and glacéed fruit.
The Anniversary Tin Sold Out Early
The bakery's main 130th-anniversary item is its Classic Fruitcake in a 130th Anniversary Tin. The tin is illustrated with a timeline of the bakery's history and lists at $36.95. In late October it was showing as sold out or on backorder. The bakery's product artwork labels the tin's reveal as part of a fall 2026 web event.
That fits a company that grew up on mail order, and it means most of the tins will go out by mail. If you want one, check the product page or ask at the counter downtown. Stock changes quickly in the weeks before Christmas.
If you're mailing fruitcake to family this year, the timing details are on the bakery's shipping page. Standard shipping in the contiguous U.S. takes 2 to 8 business days, rural addresses should allow three extra days, and standard shipping can't guarantee a specific arrival date. No 2026 holiday cutoff was posted there in late October, so order earlier than you think you need to.
The Part of the 130th That Stays in Town
A mail-order customer gets the tin, while anyone in Corsicana can also walk into the building where it was baked. The bakery says it offers holiday-season tours of the downtown bakery and fruitcake factory, and it invites visitors to "stretch your legs, walk your dog, walk your kids" while they stop in. No 2026 tour times are posted. Call the downtown shop at 903-874-7477 before you plan around one.
Here are the practical details for a holiday visit:
- Downtown café, 401 W. 7th Ave. Open Monday through Thursday 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The counter carries cookies, custom decorated cakes, pies, pecan cakes and fruitcake, plus sandwiches, soups and the house Cinchona coffee.
- Corsicana South café, 2035 S. I-45. Open Monday through Saturday 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., so it's the later option after an evening show.
- Days that line up. The Sunday Stroll runs 1 to 4 p.m. on November 15 and December 20, inside the downtown café's Sunday hours. On Saturday, November 14, Mimosas at the Market runs 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the café is open from 7 a.m. that day.
- Tree lighting night. The tree lighting starts at 5 p.m. on Thursday, November 19, and the downtown café closes at 5:30 p.m. on Thursdays. To fit both in, stop at the bakery first, then walk over to the tree.
The bakery staffs up for its rush in the same weeks the city's holiday dates and the Palace's Christmas shows fill the calendar. In KLTV's 2024 story, baker Rusty Skidmore, now in his sixties, said the job drew him out of retirement and called it "my childhood dream," something he started when he was 16.
At John Teel, we love seeing downtown Corsicana busy in fruitcake season, and we're glad to share what we know about the city, from the 7th Avenue bakery to the lake communities around it. If you're planning a holiday weekend downtown or bringing family through for the tree lighting, reach out. We'll tell you where we'd go. Contact Us.
