Orland Park's Holiday Season Happens on One Stretch of Ravinia Avenue

Nearly every official holiday event in Orland Park this year has a Ravinia Avenue address between 14650 and 14750. The Thanksgiving race starts at the low end of that range. The Christmas festival fills the middle. The indoor crafts and DJ are at the high end. On New Year's Eve, the kids' party returns to the building where the race started.

So getting around is easy. The tricky part is the calendar. A few of these events fill up or close well before the day they happen, and one of those deadlines lands about ten days after this post goes up.

Three buildings and a parade route

Here is the Village's holiday footprint for 2026, address by address:

1. Franklin Loebe Center, 14650 S. Ravinia Ave. Start line for the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot and home of the Children's New Year's Celebration.
2. Village Green, 14700 S. Ravinia Ave. The tree lighting, the lighted lawn display and the Community Tree Trim.
3. Civic Center, 14750 S. Ravinia. The indoor side of the Christmas Festival, with a coloring contest display, kids' games, crafts, a DJ and performances by local organizations.
4. Ravinia from 151st to 146th Street. The parade route, which runs north and finishes at 146th Street.

Put a pin at each one and you get a cluster around Village Hall. Everything below happens inside that cluster, starting on Thanksgiving morning.

The race that closes before the race

The Turkey Trot starts at 8 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 26. It's a 2.5-mile chip-timed cross-country course on paved roads, paths and wooded stretches near Village Hall.

Signing up is the hard part. The Village's event page opens with a warning in bold: last year's Trot "SOLD OUT well in advance." Registration closes on Nov. 15 or when the race fills, whichever comes first. The Village won't take race-day signups, and the fee is non-refundable. Registration runs through RunSignup's Orland Park Turkey Trot page.

A few details from the Village's Turkey Trot listing that help with planning:

• Check-in on race morning starts at 6:30 a.m. if you didn't pick up your packet early.
• Runners 18 and older have to sign their own registration form, so one family member can't handle the whole household's paperwork for adult children.
• Every participant gets a long-sleeve dri-fit shirt and goes into the post-race raffle.
• Prize turkeys go to the top overall male and female finishers. They also go to the top three in each of 14 age groups, for both men and women, from U9 to 70+.

With 14 age brackets and a podium for each, a lot of runners leave with a bird. A 10-year-old and a 72-year-old each have their own shot at one.

Two days later, the same curb lights up

On Saturday, Nov. 28, the crowd comes back to the same stretch of Ravinia for the Christmas Parade, Tree Lighting & Festival, which runs from 5 to 8 p.m.

The Village has a name for the parade itself: Holiday Lights on Ravinia. The name describes the rule for entries. Every float, vehicle, walking group or performing group has to be at least 50% light elements. That's why a parade starting after sunset in late November works. The entries carry their own light.

The timing, straight from the Village:

• 4 p.m. Entries stage at 151st and Ravinia.
• 5 p.m. The parade heads north on Ravinia from 151st to 146th.
• 0.40 mile is the full route.
• 45 to 60 minutes is the expected run time, depending on how many entries sign up.

The route is under half a mile, but the Village plans for up to an hour from start to finish. The tree lighting and festival start right after the parade.

Parade entries and holiday market vendor applications were both due Nov. 2, so those slots are set for this year. If you want to spend some of the evening indoors, the Civic Center will have the kids' games, crafts, DJ and local performances. Santa will be at the festival too.

The part of the festival that stays up for five weeks

Most of the festival is over by 8 p.m. The Community Tree Trim lasts much longer. This is its 12th year, and the trees go up on the village lawn on Nov. 28 and stay through Monday, Jan. 4, 2027.

Here's how it works:

Adoption is handled through the Village's recreation registration page. The decorating deadline is the same day as the festival, so a tree has to be finished before the crowd shows up. If your family, office or team wants one, decorate the week before. Waiting until Saturday afternoon won't work.

Those five weeks of trees connect the late-November events to the last event of the year. That one is back where the season began.

New Year's Eve ends where Thanksgiving started

On Thursday, Dec. 31, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Franklin Loebe Center hosts the Children's New Year's Celebration. That's the same building where the Turkey Trot starts. The Village lists a DJ, dancing, themed activities, lunch and a countdown. Tickets cost $12 for residents and $17 for nonresidents.

The countdown happens at midday, so younger kids get the moment without staying up. Details are on the Village's event listing. That makes three Village events at 14650 and 14700 Ravinia in five weeks, plus a display on the lawn the whole time.

Where to sit down afterward, a little farther north

Most of the cold-weather plans happen on Ravinia, but two new places to eat have opened or are about to open in the new downtown to the north.

Weber Grill Restaurant, 14210 LaGrange Road. Weber Grill opened at LaGrange and 142nd as part of the new downtown development, according to an August 2026 announcement. The menu is built around charcoal-grilled steakhouse and American dishes. The restaurant's Orland Park page lists hours of 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It also offers dine-in, carryout and delivery. The August announcement lists a weekday happy hour from 3 to 6 p.m. Since the festival wraps at 8 p.m. on a Saturday, you'd have about two hours before a 10 p.m. close. Weber's Thanksgiving page offers reservations and catering but doesn't list special hours for Thanksgiving Day or Nov. 28. Call before you head over that weekend.

Mala Sweets, 9750 Crescent Park Circle. This dessert-and-drinks café at Ninety7Fifty on the Park planned a soft opening for Oct. 29 and has a grand opening set for Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 10 a.m. That timing should put it in its first month of business by Thanksgiving weekend, Patch reported. The menu covers croffles, cakes and pastries, gelato, coffee, matcha and hojicha, smoothies and refreshers. A hot hojicha after an hour on a November curb sounds about right.

The one December night off Ravinia

The adult outing this season belongs to the Orland Park Area Chamber of Commerce. Its HoHo Holiday Trolley Bar Crawl is on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2026, and the Chamber says more details are coming. It's the only date on this list that isn't tied to the Village Hall campus.

Here are all the dates in order:

• Nov. 11: Mala Sweets grand opening, 10 a.m.
• Nov. 15: Turkey Trot registration closes, or sooner if the race fills
• Nov. 26: Turkey Trot, 8 a.m., with check-in from 6:30 a.m.
• Nov. 28: Tree decorating deadline. Parade at 5 p.m., then the tree lighting and festival until 8 p.m.
• Dec. 12: Chamber Trolley Bar Crawl
• Dec. 31: Children's New Year's Celebration, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• Jan. 4: Last day of the community tree display and the deadline to remove decorations

If the parade passes your block this year, or you're curious what homes near Village Hall are selling for these days, ask us. Tim Good Group will put together a free, no-pressure estimate of your home's value based on recent Orland Park sales. Just ask "What's My Home Worth?" and we'll get back to you, holidays included.