The purple-lit fountain at Fountain Square in downtown Evanston. Photo: Eric Fredericks from Rancho Cordova, CA, United States / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Downtown Evanston will open the holiday season Friday, Nov. 22, with an evening of music, shop promotions and the annual lighting of the Christmas tree at Fountain Square. The event, called the Holiday Bash, is free and open to all ages.
The centerpiece comes at 5:30 p.m. Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl, Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus are scheduled to ride down Sherman Avenue on an Evanston fire truck to Fountain Square, where Davis Street meets Sherman and Orrington avenues. The Music Institute of Chicago will lead the crowd in carols before the mayor flips the switch on the tree. Santa will then greet children.
Children who would rather see Mrs. Claus can find her at Bravo Cucina Italiana, 1701 Maple Ave., between 4 and 9 p.m.
Trolleys, carolers and shop specials
The festivities run from 4 to 9 p.m. Participating shops, cafés and restaurants have lined up special offers, discounts, storytelling and refreshments. Live performances are planned indoors, and strolling carolers will move through the district. The Evanston Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring free trolley rides on a continuous downtown loop for the full five hours.
Organizers are also collecting warm clothing for Hilda’s Place, a program of Connections for the Homeless. Visitors can park free all day in the three main downtown garages. Questions can go to Downtown Evanston at 847-866-6319.
Fountain Square sits at the center of downtown, where Davis Street, Sherman Avenue and Orrington Avenue meet, which makes it a natural gathering point for a district event that spreads across several blocks. Shops, cafés and restaurants in the surrounding streets are the ones handling the promotions, so visitors can combine the ceremony with an evening of browsing and dinner.
Parking is free all day in the three main downtown garages, and the trolleys run a continuous loop through downtown for the whole event. The donation drive for warm clothing runs alongside the festivities, with Hilda’s Place, part of Connections for the Homeless, receiving the items.
A milestone year
The tree lighting at Fountain Square is a regular part of the Evanston holiday calendar, and this year it arrives during the city’s 150th anniversary year.
The Holiday Bash falls the weekend before Thanksgiving week, giving downtown merchants an early start on a shopping season that continues with Small Business Saturday on Nov. 30.
Details from Downtown Evanston, the district’s business association.
Rachel Lindqvist covers community life, the lakefront, dining and the arts for The Evanston Edge.
