Santa Claus was popular, as usual, at the Flossmoor holiday festival on Saturday, Nov. 26. He had some difficulty starting the trek from the library lawn to Flossmoor Park for the tree-lighting ceremony because so many late-arriving kids needed his attention.
But Santa had some competition from two new features at the event, one planned and one spontaneous.
Santa Claus arrives at Flossmoor Park for the tree-lighting ceremony on Nov. 26. (Eric Crump/H-F Chronicle)
The South Suburban Trombone Choir was on the schedule, and the nine-member all-trombone group charmed the crowd with brass versions of traditional holiday melodies.
“We all need a little more trombone choir in our lives,” Mayor Michelle Nelson said as the group entertained the crowd on the library lawn.
The group’s first set was performed earlier on the other side of the train tracks in Flossmoor Park. As the band headed through the tunnel to the library to continue setting the holiday mood, Mary and Bert Schefler of Flossmoor said they really enjoyed the performance.
“This was adorable,” Mary said. “Who knew Christmas trombones would be the thing?”
She noted that her husband, Bert, plays trombone.
“So I do love a good trombone choir,” he said. “It was awesome.”
The unplanned feature of the event was impromptu bike rides for youngsters.
Chris Bednarek and Steve Buchtel stopped by the festival after finishing their bicycle-powered Christmas tree delivery rounds.
Kids knew a fun ride when they saw it and hopped onto Bednarek’s bike trailer.
“This was just an accident,” Bednarek said. “We came by and they started hopping on.”
He obliged the youngsters with a ride around the traffic island on Sterling Avenue and found more kids queued up when he returned. He ended up making a number of trips before Santa Claus headed for Flossmoor Park to preside over the tree-lighting ceremony, taking the crowd with him.
After their daughters, Alivia, 6, and Aria, 4, jumped off the bike trailer, Ashley and Norm Baker of Flossmoor said the family was having a great time at the festival.
“It gets better and better every year,” Ashley said.
“It’s a great way to start the season,” Norm said.
After Santa and his entourage arrived at the community Christmas tree in front of Park Place, Homewood-Flossmoor High School choir groups sang several holiday favorites before turning the mic over to Nelson.
In addition to trombones and bike rides, the event had two other new features that appeared to be popular — a photo op featuring a 1967 Chevrolet pickup truck, decked out for the holidays, and six pop-up shops offering craft items and baked goods in Park Place during the afternoon.
The truck was on loan from Jim Knetl and provided an opportunity to create what Nelson called “Istagram moments,” referring to the social media platform that specializes in sharing images.
The village had photographers posted to capture those moments as well as kids and families meeting with Santa at the library. Those photos are available for free at village-sponsored photo galleries online, one for truck photos and one for Santa photos.
Nelson thanked the H-F singers, village staff for doing the work to prepare and run the event, trustees for their support, and the Homewood-Flossmoor Park District its partnership and for running the pop-up shops.
She gave a special shoutout to the village’s Green Commission for its work to make events as environmentally friendly as possible by providing compostible cups for the event.
“This is their fourth nearly-zero-waste event this year,” she said. “That’s pretty incredible for a town this size.”