Local Holiday Traditions

LESTER COMMUNITY STUDENTS LEND A HAND IN THE TREE SET-UP PROCESS.

Special Feature: Local Holiday Traditions

BY VALERIE HARDY

Two neighborhoods in Downers Grove have made it a tradition to deck the streets—rather than the halls—each winter. The neighborhoods that feed into Whittier and Lester Elementary Schools make holiday decorating a collective effort, brightening up their blocks on the coldest of days and darkest of nights by embodying both the spirit of community and giving.

Back in 2001, Heather and Scott Isacson, residents of the Randall Park neighborhood near Whittier, wanted to bring one of their childhood holiday decorating customs to their current block on Park Ave.

“Coincidentally, both Scott’s family and my family put out luminaria growing up,” Heather said.

FAMILIES ON BLODGETT AVE. PREPARE FOR THE LUMINARIA.

The Isacsons began putting luminaria in front of their own home on Christmas Eve for a couple years, before asking some neighbors to join in.

“It’s so pretty in Randall Park, so we thought, ‘Let’s do the whole street,’” Heather said.

Initially, the Isacson's and a few neighbors decorated Park from Summit to Randall Street with luminaria, and some friends around the corner on Randall also put luminaries out.

“After a couple of years, someone further south on Park said, ‘Hey, we want candles too.’ So it expanded south on Park to Farley,” Heather said. “At the beginning, all of the [costs for the luminaria supplies] were out of our pocket. As we expanded, we asked for donations to help cover costs.”

The first year they collected money, there were contributions beyond the cost of the luminary supplies, so they donated the extra funds to the Whittier PTA. Each year that followed, the number of Randall Park neighbors that wanted to put out luminaria on Christmas Eve snowballed.

“As it got bigger, there were lots of people participating who didn’t have any connection to Whittier, so we decided on donating the extra money to St. Jude’s,” Heather said. “After that year, we decided the proceeds should go to a non-profit that is more local, so we donated to Sharing Connections.”

KIDS ON PARK AVENUE HELP LIGHT UP THE HOLIDAYS WITH LUMINARIA.

Now every block in the Randall Park neighborhood is lit up with luminaria on Christmas Eve, thanks to the coordination of not only the organizers, but also the captains from each block, who coordinate the materials and accept the monetary contributions from their neighbors. After Downers Grove resident Noah VanHoutan was diagnosed with the rare genetic condition CLN2 Batten disease, the annual proceeds from the Randall Park luminaria have been donated to the non-profit Noah’s Hope.

“We had raised over $12,000 over the years to Noah’s Hope by the time I passed the leadership of the luminary process,” Heather said.

The Isacsons transitioned the luminaria coordination to Susan and Simon Lorenc, residents of Lyman Ave., in 2016. The Lorencs lived on Lyman south of 55 th Street before moving into the neighborhood, and they “used to look across 55 th on Christmas Eve, and enjoy how beautiful the luminaries were,” Susan said.

The Lorencs shared that while coordinating and setting out the luminaria takes time and work, it is undoubtedly worth the effort, and has become an extended family affair for them.

“My dad and brother, in particular, look forward to coming in town, and helping put out luminaria on Christmas Eve morning," Susan said. "It’s kind of become a larger family tradition as well. Our kids love it too. They look forward to it, and they know the charitable aspect of it; so it helps drive home the meaning of Christmas.”

Cindy Maquet, who lives on 5 th Street, also saw the value and beauty in the luminaria, and led the extension of them across Fairview Ave. in 2016.

“I just wanted to expand what they had started in the Randall Park neighborhood to make it a full part of the Whittier community,” Maquet said.

Maquet loves seeing neighbors coming together on Christmas Eve morning to assemble and set out the luminaria bags and again at dusk to light them.

Brittany's Tree

“What makes it worth it is, the gratitude from the neighbors when they come out and see the luminaries," Maquet said. "To some of these people, the luminaries might be the only brightness in their holiday."

Her 11-year-old daughter Sophie also helps with the luminaria and said, “Even though it’s freezing a lot of the time, I like getting hot chocolate while we work, and my favorite part is lighting up the luminaries.”

Lindsay Whalen of 8 th Street took over the luminary coordination for the neighborhood east of Fairview from Maquet last year. Whalen hopes to continue to expand the luminaries more and more each year, and to continue to use the proceeds to support Noah’s Hope.

The neighborhoods near Lester School also work together each holiday season to light up their streets and raise money for charitable causes. About ten years ago, Julie Jacobs got a handful of her neighbors on Chicago Ave. to purchase and line their block with small Christmas trees from the non-profit Brittany’s Trees.

“I grew up with Jim Guthrie, the founder of Brittany’s Trees, which he started to honor the memory of his neighbor, Brittany, who passed away from a congenital heart condition,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs liked the idea of decorating her block, while remembering Brittany and raising money toward congenital heart disease research, and providing automatic external defibrillators to local schools. But she never imagined how quickly and widely the tree tradition would expand within Downers Grove.

“We started so simple, with a few neighbors right near us, but by year three or four, the trees went [down Chicago] all the way from Main Street to Fairview,” Jacobs said. “It’s gotten so big.”

As of last year, 700 lit trees lined many blocks throughout the Lester community and beyond. This was an increase of more than 450 trees from the prior year.

“This blew Brittany’s Trees away," said Joy Myers, a Chicago Ave. resident. "Downers Grove was the largest community supporting this foundation, and even surpassed Brittany’s Trees’ home community of Carol Stream in tree orders."

In fact, Downers Grove’s participation in the Brittany’s Trees tradition grew so much that the organization can no longer support it with their volunteers. But the tree tradition will still continue within Downers Grove. This year, though, the trees will come from a farm in Wisconsin, and proceeds from the tree purchases will go to Lester Community Playground (LCP), which Myers called “a not-for-profit organization that we created three years ago to build an adaptive, inclusive playground for Lester School and the entire Downers Grove community— similar to Hillcrest’s playground—where all children can play."

(L-R) HARPER MYERS, OLIVIA SLOCUM, CAROLINE FREYER AND MICHELLE FREYER HELP WITH THE TREES.

Vicky O’Boyle, who is on the LCP board and is helping with the 2019 tree coordination, is glad to see the tradition continue.

“I found that people are gracious and grateful to bring, again, such a heartwarming tradition [to our community],” O’Boyle said.

In the past, members of the participating neighborhoods would come together the Friday after Thanksgiving to put up the trees and string the lights. Myers said, on Chicago Ave., “Volunteers would gather in our front-yard with warm drinks and food. The moms would proceed down the block with the littles with wagons and string the lights. The men would follow with their poles [to finalize the tree setup]. It culminated with a trip down to see the downtown Downers Grove tree-lighting."

Myers hopes to see this community-building and philanthropic tradition continue.

“We’ve seen this community light up their streets—whether it’s every house on the block or only a few—and it all is adding to our community’s future,” she said.

O’Boyle also wants the tree tradition to carry forward for years to come.

“I think this time of year is one of reflection and memories," she said. "It would be nice if it could be individualized for each neighborhood’s charity of choice.” ■