Dan Mulka, executive director of the La Grange Business Association, was working at the entrance to Village Hall Saturday hosting the 2024 La Grange Holiday Walk, when LGBA Coordinator Alissa Wade tugged his sleeve to interrupt with some news.
“So Santa’s coming,” Mulka told the assembled crowd. “I guess Santa’s on his way and he’s going to be here before we know it.”
Indeed, with the choir from Emmanuel Episcopal Church singing “Here Comes Santa Claus” and a crowd of about 1,000 people singing along, Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived shortly before the scheduled and proceeded to throw the switch lighting La Grange’s large holiday tree.
The Tree Lighting was the village’s 33rd annual holiday ceremony, this year centered on a tree donated by the Kenney family. The event was sponsored by the village, the LGBA, and the Dubak Electrical Group.
“The La Grange Holiday Walk is one of those great special events that we have every year, and it just shows how wonderful a community we have,” Trustee Lou Gale said. “It shows how much we and the business community work together to make sure we get people to come downtown, people to shop, people to come say hi to Santa, and light our tree. It’s a great event.”
Trustee Peggy Peterson agreed.
“It’s a wonderful event, it’s a nice evening, and we got a beautiful tree,” Peterson said. “It came from Waiola (Avenue), where I’m from, so we’re really excited.”
The festivities began Saturday morning with free trolleys shuttling shoppers between the Downtown Business District and the West End. The mild winter weather brought out a crowd of several thousand people throughout the day. In the afternoon and evening, a petting zoo, kiddie train and pony rides kept the young ones busy on Calendar Avenue. There also were merchant open houses and ice sculptures placed throughout the downtown area. Santa heard the Christmas wishes of hundreds of area children in Village Hall.
Samantha Mileto and her son Felix were in line to see Santa, and when he was asked if he was excited, Felix turned away.
“He’s shy,” Samantha said. “But yes, he’s excited.”
Princesses from “Frozen” were at the downtown train station to meet and greet fans, while the Stone Avenue station became a depot to send letters to Santa.
Jeff Kolb brought his 4-year-old son Brooks, a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, to make his pitch to Santa.
“There’s a lot of Sonic on that list,” Jeff said.
The Holiday Walk was the biggest event in La Grange’s Hometown Holidays, which also included Small Business Saturday Nov. 30 sponsored by JAYNE Boutique, where businesses staged Flash Sales throughout the day, and other holiday activities.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
