The Elawa Farm Market keeps summer hours only through Saturday, Oct. 31. Its winter hours don't start until Jan. 15, 2027, and then only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. That leaves about ten weeks when the Wagon Shed, the greenhouse and the bread counter open only on dates the farm announces in advance. There are four of those openings this season. The other big events on Lake Forest's holiday calendar fall on either side of them.
This year the farm is stretching its Holiday Market across three weekends, with a different format each time. In its own words, it is "expanding our Holiday Market to three festive weekends." So the farm's calendar is the best place to start planning the next seven weeks.
Four openings between Halloween and mid-January
| Date | Hours | What's there |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, Nov. 25 | 9 a.m. to noon | Thanksgiving Market: preordered turkeys, sides and desserts, plus a wine tasting and holidayware |
| Dec. 4 to 6 | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. | About 14 local vendors in the Hay Barn, greenery, Courtyard food and cocktails |
| Dec. 11 to 13 | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Elawa's own gift collection, greenery, groceries and pastries; no outside vendors |
| Dec. 18 to 20 | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Greenery, bread, holiday pastries and the gift collection for last-minute shopping |
The Holiday Market weekends run Friday through Sunday. That puts the vendor weekend right in the middle of Lake Forest's busiest stretch of December, as you'll see below.
Wednesday, Nov. 25: The turkey pickup
The first opening is a pickup window more than a market. You preorder through Elawa Farm: pasture-raised turkeys, seasonal sides and desserts from the kitchen team. Then you collect it all the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, between 9 a.m. and noon. The farm also pours a wine tasting with sommelier Tim Clark that morning and sets out holidayware and seasonal goods to browse.
There's a three-hour window and a preorder deadline you'll want to know about, so this one goes on the calendar now, well before the Thanksgiving menu is settled.
Friday, Nov. 27: Market Square takes over
Two days later, the center of the season moves downtown. The 42nd Annual Tree Lighting Holiday Celebration comes back to Market Square the day after Thanksgiving. Lake Forest Parks & Recreation has posted a schedule that fills most of the afternoon:
- 1 p.m. Holiday movie at Gorton Community Center
- 3 p.m. Kids' activities begin
- 3:15 to 6 p.m. Visits with Santa
- 3:30 to 4:15 p.m. Lake Forest Civic Orchestra and the Lake Forest High School Festival Brass Ensemble
- 4:40 p.m. Caroling by the Lake Forest High School Choristers
- 5 p.m. Lake Forest Dance Academy performance, then the lights go on
Food comes from the neighbors. Rosati's, Left Bank, the LF/LB Rotary Club and Sage Explorers will be on site, and Aire Serv of Lake Forest-Gurnee is serving hot chocolate and coffee.
If you have kids, the 1 p.m. movie at Gorton is the easiest way to fill the gap between a late lunch and the 3 p.m. start. If you only want to see the lights come on, plan to be in the square a little before 5 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 28: Cocoa, shops and a trolley
The next morning, the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Chamber of Commerce keeps things downtown with its Cocoa Crawl. You stop in at local businesses for gifts and cocoa and ride the Holiday Trolley between them. Once Upon a Bagel Lake Forest is on the list for cocoa and treats. The Chamber's listing doesn't give hours, so check with the Chamber before heading out. Taken together, the Tree Lighting and the Cocoa Crawl make Thanksgiving weekend a downtown weekend, and Elawa stays closed until the following Friday.
The weeknights in between
Between Thanksgiving weekend and Elawa's first vendor weekend, the calendar moves indoors, to weeknight stages and one long-running sale.
The longest run of the season opens in mid-November. Citadel Theatre at 300 S. Waukegan Road is staging It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, with previews Nov. 11 and 12 at 7:30 p.m. and the regular run from Nov. 13 to Dec. 13. Evening shows are Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday performances are at 3 p.m. There are Wednesday matinees at 1 p.m. on Nov. 18 and Dec. 2.
Before that, on Tuesday, Nov. 10, Lake Forest College hosts One World 2026, a celebration of music, art and dance at Gorton Center from 6:30 to 9 p.m.
From Nov. 30 through Dec. 23, the Friends of the Lake Forest Library run their Holiday Book Bazaar. At more than three weeks, it outlasts every Elawa weekend.
Wednesday, Dec. 2, is the busiest weeknight of the stretch. Three events overlap:
- Gorton Center's Kids Only Holiday Shop runs from 2:30 to 6 p.m. for children ages 4 to 10. It costs $5, and 2:30 to 3 p.m. is set aside as a low-sensory shopping time.
- Citadel's second Wednesday matinee starts at 1 p.m.
- The Lake Forest College Choirs perform their December Choral Concert from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in Calvin Durand Hall.
Dec. 4 to 6: The weekend everything lands on
The Holiday Market's vendor weekend opens Friday, Dec. 4. About 14 makers set up in the Hay Barn with holiday décor, jewelry, ceramics, fashion, stationery, sweets and liqueurs. Greenery fills the Courtyard, Potting Shed and Greenhouse, Courtyard vendors serve food and cocktails, and the Wagon Shed holds Elawa's gift collection along with pastries, potted plants, forced bulbs, groceries and fresh bread. It's the only weekend of the three with outside vendors, and it shares the calendar with nearly everything else in town.
Here's how Saturday, Dec. 5, fills up:
| Time | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 7 a.m. to noon | Pancake breakfast with Santa | Grace United Methodist Church, Lake Bluff |
| 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Elawa Holiday Market, vendor weekend | Elawa Farm |
| 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. | Holiday Express to Fox Lake and back | West Lake Forest Train Station, 911 Telegraph Road |
| 3 to 5 p.m. | Holiday artisan market | Beside the Village Green, Lake Bluff |
| 5 p.m. | Lighting of the Orbs | Village Green, Lake Bluff |
| 7:30 p.m. | It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play | Citadel Theatre, 300 S. Waukegan Road |
| 7:30 to 9:15 p.m. | The Second City's Nut-Cracking Holiday Revue | Gorton Center, 400 E. Illinois Road |
The Holiday Express is the Parks & Recreation train ride. It leaves West Lake Forest, rides to Fox Lake and back, and fills the trip with holiday games, sing-alongs, a Grinch story and Santa. Tickets are $55 for residents and $65 for nonresidents, and there's a second departure on Sunday, Dec. 6, from 1 to 3:30 p.m.
The Lake Bluff events in the table are part of the village's It's a Wonderful Life day, which also includes library activities from noon to 5 p.m. and holiday music from 4 to 5 p.m. before the orbs light up. Lake Forest's evening options then split between two stages, The Second City at Gorton and Citadel's Saturday show, both at 7:30 p.m.
You can string these together. The Holiday Express is back by 1:30 p.m., which leaves time for Elawa before it closes at 4 p.m. From there, Lake Bluff's artisan market and the 5 p.m. orb lighting work as an early evening, with Gorton or Citadel at 7:30 p.m. If you want Elawa's vendors and fewer people, Friday the 4th and Sunday the 6th have the same hours.
Dec. 11 to 20: The two quieter weekends
The second Holiday Market weekend, Dec. 11 to 13, is built as the calm one. The farm's market page describes it as having "no outside vendors," "a quieter, more relaxed shopping experience." You'll find the gift collection, seasonal greenery, groceries, fresh bread and Elawa-made pastries. It's also Citadel's final weekend, and the run ends Sunday, Dec. 13.
The third weekend, Dec. 18 to 20, is for wrapping things up, with greenery, bread, groceries, holiday pastries and the gift collection. The farm also plans holiday crafts and other children's activities across the season. After Dec. 20, the market stays closed until the Friday-through-Sunday winter schedule starts Jan. 15. The Library's Holiday Book Bazaar runs three more days and closes Dec. 23.
This is your last window for Elawa greenery and holiday pastries in 2026. If the wreath or the bread for a holiday table is coming from the farm, it needs to be picked up by Sunday, Dec. 20, at 4 p.m.
For many of us, the holidays are also when the year ahead comes into focus, including what the house might be worth in the spring. If that question is on your list between the Tree Lighting and the last Elawa weekend, Sondra Douglass is happy to talk it through over coffee in Market Square. Request a Home Valuation, and you'll have the numbers in hand before the new year.
