Charles Medlin's daughter Mittie Ann liked a hill above Denton Creek and said she would like to be buried there. She died in April 1850, and that is when the cemetery on the hill opened. The hill is now 1130 Trophy Club Drive. On Saturday, Dec. 19, at 11 a.m., wreaths will be laid on the veterans' graves there. It's the last event on Trophy Club's 2026 holiday calendar.
The rest of the calendar happens in places that are much newer. Between now and then, almost every town event is held at Harmony Park, Independence Park East or West, Town Hall, or the fire station. These are the public spaces of a community first proposed in 1973. The season moves through those places in order and finishes at the one site in town that was there long before any of them.
November Starts in the Parks
The first weekend is already here. Here is the town's November schedule, all of it listed on the Town of Trophy Club calendar:
- Movie Night: Jungle Cruise, Friday, Nov. 6, 5 to 8 p.m., at Harmony Park, 699 Indian Creek Drive.
- Veterans Day Celebration, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 11 a.m. to noon, at the Veterans Memorial at Independence Park West, 501 Parkview Drive.
- Harvest Festival, Saturday, Nov. 14, 5 to 9 p.m., at Independence Park East, 500 Parkview Drive.
- Thanksgiving office closure: Town offices close at noon on Wednesday, Nov. 25, and reopen Monday, Nov. 30. Police, fire and EMS keep running around the clock.
Independence Park comes up twice in November and again in December, which makes it the closest thing to a town square this season. The two halves sit across Parkview Drive from each other. The west side has the Veterans Memorial, so the Nov. 11 ceremony is the season's first stop honoring veterans. The second is the wreath laying at Medlin Cemetery five weeks later.
December Moves to Town Hall and the Fire Station
In December the events spread to Trophy Club's civic buildings. They're stacked closely enough that one family could get to most of them within two weeks.
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Nov. 30 to Dec. 16 | Letters to Santa | Town Hall, 1 Trophy Wood Drive |
| Dec. 1 to Dec. 15 | Holiday Lights Contest | Townwide |
| Dec. 5, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Gingerbread House Decorating | Fire Station, 295 Trophy Park Drive |
| Dec. 6, 3 to 4 p.m. | FUN TC Family Pickleball Palooza | Harmony Park, Pickleball Court 4 |
| Dec. 12, 6 to 8:30 p.m. | Winter Wonder Lights | Independence Park East, 500 Parkview Drive |
| Dec. 19, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Wreaths Across America | Medlin Cemetery, 1130 Trophy Club Drive |
The pickleball session goes through the town's Rec1 registration catalog, which you can reach from the December calendar. The same court also hosts a FUN TC clinic on serves on Dec. 2.
What Last December Looked Like
The town's detail pages for each event carry this year's specifics, and last season's listings show what these events usually include.
The 2025 Winter Wonder Lights listing promoted a free evening with the annual tree lighting, a choir performance, Santa photos, hot chocolate, face painting, local churches, holiday vendors and giveaways. It also had something new last year: a holiday-themed drone show at 8 p.m. Last year's event ran 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. This year's starts half an hour earlier, at 6 p.m. The Winter Wonder Lights page is where the 2026 lineup will be posted.
For the 2025 Holiday Lights Contest, residents could nominate their own home, a neighbor's or any other house in town, and town staff judged the nominees in seven categories. In 2024, the Town Council recap told children to include a return address, a wish list and a little about themselves in their letter to Santa. Letters went in the North Pole mailbox in front of Town Hall or the fire station, and every child got a reply. The current rules for both are on the contest page and the Letters to Santa page.
Bethlehem on Trophy Club Drive, Built by Volunteers
One event that isn't on the town calendar falls in the middle of all this. From Thursday, Dec. 3, through Sunday, Dec. 6, a free live nativity takes over 2509 Trophy Club Drive. Each evening starts with a musical telling of the nativity story. Then visitors walk into a recreated Bethlehem with a marketplace of food and crafts, carolers, a dreidel toss, clay lamp making and live animals, a camel among them.
The organizers say this is their third December, and that everyone in costume is a volunteer from a local church or the surrounding area. Tickets cost nothing, but you need a reservation. Reservations opened Nov. 1 through the event's website.
The nativity and the gingerbread morning at the fire station fall in the same weekend, Dec. 5 and 6, which makes it the busiest weekend of the season.
The Hill That Was Here First
The one week between Winter Wonder Lights and the wreath ceremony mark a big jump in time. Here is part of the Texas Historical Commission's 1977 marker at the cemetery:
"In 1847 Charles Medlin (1807-1864) and his wife Matilda (Allen) migrated from Missouri with their household and 20 other families to take up land grants on Denton Creek."
According to the THC marker record, flooding broke up that first settlement, which was sometimes called "Garden Valley." The settlers moved to higher ground, and the community they formed there grew into Roanoke, about a mile and a half west. Mittie Ann Medlin was buried on the hill in 1850. Her parents, 13 brothers and sisters and many other relatives were later buried there too. In 1900 James W. Medlin, son of the original land donors, enlarged the cemetery to more than ten acres and began selling lots to pay for upkeep. The Medlin Cemetery Association formed in 1947. The marker calls it one of the oldest cemeteries in Denton County.
Trophy Club came more than a century after that first burial. The Texas State Historical Association says Houston developers proposed a planned community centered on a country club in 1973. Ben Hogan designed an 18-hole course there, and the town's name came from a plan to display Hogan's trophy collection at the club. Trophy Club incorporated on Jan. 19, 1985. The town's historical appendix names the 1973 developers as Johnson and Loggins and says they planned the housing around the club.
On Dec. 19, the cemetery will be 176 years past its first burial. The town will be 41, and it turns 42 in January. The hill's role in town life has kept up with the town, too. Trophy Club's 2025 Memorial Day ceremony was held at Medlin Cemetery, with town leaders and the Metroport Veterans Association taking part.
December 19 at Medlin Cemetery
The wreath ceremony is organized by the TX0716P Gallant Few group through Wreaths Across America. It starts at 11 a.m. on Dec. 19, and wreaths go on the graves right after the ceremony. The group's page lists 84 veteran graves at Medlin Cemetery and a goal of covering all 84, so every veteran buried on the hill gets a wreath. The page has links to sponsor a wreath or register as a volunteer. Registered volunteers get updates about the cemetery and the ceremony.
Parking is the one practical detail to plan for. The few spaces at the cemetery are reserved for accessible parking and the ceremony's VIP speakers. Everyone else parks in the upper lot at Trophy Club Country Club, which the organizers say has plenty of room and is a very short walk from the ceremony. The country club that gave the town its start now has two championship courses, named for Ben Hogan and Kathy Whitworth. On Dec. 19, its lot is where the walk to the cemetery starts.
The organizers ask that everyone gets a chance to place a wreath and that volunteers follow the location coordinators' instructions on where and how to set each one. Volunteers who can stay for cleanup should check in with a coordinator.
We're in Trophy Club throughout the year, and the calendar on our Trophy Club neighborhood page is one we follow closely. If you'd like to talk through your plans in town or just compare notes on the season, The Verrett Team would be glad to hear from you. Contact Us any time this holiday season.
