December in Clarendon Hills comes in three parts: the Chamber's Holiday Walk on the first Saturday, a week of Park District events in the middle of the month, and the Infant Welfare Society's luminaria along the sidewalks on Christmas Eve. Each part is run by a different organization, and all of it happens outdoors or in a community room.
For the last few years, the gap has been everything in between. When the Starbucks at Park Avenue closed in 2023, downtown lost the one room where neighbors could meet without planning ahead. On Oct. 21, Sparrow Coffee opened in that spot, so this is the first holiday season in a while with a real meeting place on the walk between Village Hall and the Village Triangle.
The room that downtown was missing
Sparrow took over more than the old Starbucks. The Daily Herald reported that the café at 100 Park Ave. also took the spaces that used to belong to Little Creperie and a State Farm Insurance office. Three storefronts became one café.
The size was deliberate. Owner Chris Chacko founded Sparrow in 2012 as a roaster for high-end and Michelin-starred restaurants, then opened his first café in Naperville in January 2018. He told the Daily Herald he asked his architect for a space "that could handle volume" and still offer different kinds of seating, with particular attention to places where families can sit and talk.
A resident interviewed for the same story named what had been missing. "Having a meeting place was what I missed most, and Sparrow is ideal," Karen Deane told the paper, adding that it has more seating than Starbucks did.
Timing matters for December plans. Sparrow opened with hours of 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., seven days a week. Chacko said his goal is 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., with longer hours if the community needs them, and that over the coming weeks the menu would add more coffee and non-alcoholic drinks plus lunch. At the opening hours, Sparrow serves the mornings and early afternoons around the season's big nights, while the evenings belong to the street.
Part one: the Holiday Walk, Saturday, Dec. 5
The Clarendon Hills Chamber of Commerce runs the season opener from 4 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5. It's the same long-running event many neighbors still know as the Christmas Walk, and it starts with the tree lighting in front of Village Hall at 5 p.m.
The Chamber lists each activity at a specific spot downtown, so the evening is easiest to plan by location:
- 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., near Village Hall at Golf and Burlington. Free horse-drawn wagon rides board here.
- 4:00 to 6:00 p.m., Burlington Plaza. Anna, Elsa and Olaf from Frozen visit.
- 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., along downtown. The Daisy Express choo-choo ride runs through downtown, sponsored by The Birches Assisted Living and Memory Care.
- 4:00 to 8:00 p.m., the s'mores station. A fire pit with DIY kits from Zabler Design Jewelers and Barre3.
- 5:00 p.m., Village Hall. The tree lighting.
- 5:30 to 8:00 p.m., the Village Triangle. Santa and the Clarendon Hills Park District elves. Bring a camera.
Roasted chestnuts, refreshments and holiday shopping specials fill in the rest, and the Chamber posts a printable map of participating businesses on the same page. One booth on the list matters for the third part of the season. The Infant Welfare Society sells luminaria kits at the Walk.
Part two: the Park District's week, Dec. 11 to 18
After the Walk, the calendar moves indoors to the Community Center. The Clarendon Hills Park District packs its holiday programs into one eight-day stretch:
| Date | Event | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, Dec. 11 | Santa's Workshop | 4 to 7 p.m. |
| Tuesday, Dec. 15 | Candy Cottage Creations | 4 to 5 p.m. |
| Thursday, Dec. 17 | Family Holiday Bingo | 4 to 5 p.m. |
| Friday, Dec. 18 | Parents' Night Out | 5 to 8 p.m. |
| Friday, Dec. 18 | Sip into the Season | 6 to 7:30 p.m. |
Santa's Workshop is the one to plan ahead for. The Park District lists it as free for residents with registration required, so it fills from a sign-up list, not from whoever walks in. Dec. 18 has two events on the same evening at the same building, Parents' Night Out and Sip into the Season, with overlapping times.
All five events start at 4 p.m. or later. Sparrow, at its opening hours, closes before any of them begin. Mornings and afternoons downtown, evenings at the Community Center: the week has a split schedule.
Part three: Christmas Eve, and a 1965 tradition you buy in advance
The last part is the only one that comes to your own front walk. The Clarendon Hills Infant Welfare Society traces its Christmas Eve luminaria, candles set in paper bags along the village's roads and sidewalks, back to 1965.
The tradition takes a little advance work, which is why it belongs to all of December and not just one night. According to the Society's page:
- The kit: $8 buys five bags and five candles.
- The sand: residents supply their own, available from the shed by the Clarendon Hills pool.
- The spacing: bags go about five feet apart.
- The lighting: at dusk on Christmas Eve.
The spacing tells you how many kits you need. At five feet apart, one kit of five bags covers about 20 feet of frontage. A 60-foot lot needs roughly thirteen bags, so three kits, or $24.
The Society lists kit sales at Lions Park Pool on Nov. 27 through 29 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., then December Saturdays and Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., plus Dec. 24 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Kits are also sold at Kramer Foods and Clarendon Hills Bank from Dec. 1 to 24. The page doesn't print a year next to those dates, so check it before heading out. Proceeds support the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago's Angel Harvey Family Health Center, a full-service clinic in Logan Square that serves more than 13,000 patients a year.
Christmas Eve also affects one more building. The Clarendon Hills Public Library is closed Dec. 24, 25 and 26, and again Dec. 31.
The rest of the walk, storefront by storefront
The Holiday Walk route goes past Sparrow and several other addresses that have changed in 2026.
At 1 Walker Ave., Thassos Authentic Greek Restaurant closed in May after four years downtown. A village report from June 19 said staff, a trustee and the village manager had met virtually with the property owner and a restaurateur about a possible restaurant in the space.
On Prospect Avenue, Patch reported in May that Rita's Italian Ice planned to open at 22 S. Prospect Ave., the former Four Sons Mercantile space. A few doors away, 27 S. Prospect Ave. is the site of the planned Prospect Tavern renovation. Patch reported in October that it was covered by a $265,000 village subsidy agreement, which the Village Board scheduled for a vote that month.
Prospect and Park is also home to the Sloan Memorial Triangle, which came up earlier this year in the discussion around the village's draft downtown improvement plan, which went to residents at a February open house.
Chacko told the Daily Herald he hopes Sparrow will bring in people from surrounding towns and that "other local businesses will do better because of our presence."
If walking the luminaria-lined streets this year has you wondering what your own Clarendon Hills home would be worth in a spring listing, Natalie Weber can give you a clear, data-backed number over the holidays, well before the first showing. Get your free home valuation.
