At a time when “reality” can feel a bit too much, Madison Street will be transformed into a fantasy land complete with a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus during the Forest Park Holiday Walk and Festival of Lights on Friday, Dec. 6, 6 to 9 p.m.
All of this magic is courtesy of the Forest Park Chamber of Commerce.
Start off at Forest Park Bank, 7348 Madison St, to have your picture taken with Mr. and Mrs. Claus in the bank lobby between 6 and 8 p.m.
While inside the bank, children can enjoy the train as it runs around the Christmas tree. Bank volunteers will be serving cookies and hot chocolate and a team from the Forest Park Art Alliance will provide props for fun family photos.
Walkers who head east will discover that Connie Brown has transformed the Brown Cow, 7347 Madison St., into a gingerbread house where kids can play in the parlor’s gingerbread house window.
“We will feature our homemade gingerbread house kits, gingerbread cookies, gingerbread lattes and our hand-crafted super-premium holiday flavors: Peppermint, Egg Nog, Gingerbread and Figgy Pudding, homemade hot cocoa (made with steamed ice cream) & famous COWzones (savory hand pies).
A block east of the ice cream parlor walkers can listen to live music at Robert’s Westside (located at the corner of Circle and Madison) where Donnie Biggins will be staging what he is calling a Holiday Honky Tonk Spectacular with live music provided by Hoover & Harley and the Boys plus Daniel Rey & The Revenirs.
The Hoover and Harley website reports: “We’re a Chicago-based hillbilly band playing originals, the classics and soon-to-be classics with a big hat tip to Hank, Waylon, Willie, Merle, Buck, Carl, and Cash.”
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the music will begin at 7:30 p.m. A $5 discount on the cover charge will be given to everyone who brings an unwrapped toy being collected for Toys for Tots.
The Old Foal Horse Trailer will be serving hot cocoa and children from the Montessori Language Academy will be caroling outside of Bobby’s Eastside.
A block further east walkers can visit Mala Gandhi and Amanda Aggarwal at Elements Message, 7239 Madison St. and will be able to much on holiday cookies while crafting their own aromatic therapy bath salt tree ornament.
Charlie Grundas, the owner of We, the Collective Fitness, 7247 Madison St., said, “We will be A-plus, we’ve got activities for kids, including ornament-making, face-painting, and showing short holiday films to bring extra doses of cheer.”
Across the street at Fantastic Sams, owner Kevin McCrory will be offering free hot chocolate and adult beverages and face painting for the children.
Joanna Fischer will be “torching” her homemade marshmallows at Twisted Cookie, 7401 Madison St., and will, of course, have a variety of cookies for sale.
Walking west from the bank, students from the Gasse School of Music will be playing live in the window of Play it Again Sports, 7443 Madison St. Daniel Gasse, the director of the school, said, “We’ll play duos, trios, and quartets, music from the baroque, classical, and romantic periods, and holiday music, mainly Christmas carols, Hanukah, and movie music.”
In addition, Erich Krumrei, the store’s owner, is offering 30% off all used equipment and 20% off all new equipment.
Correction, Dec. 5, 11:55 a.m.” This article has been updated to correct the spelling of the name of a cocktail bar. It is Bobby’s Eastside. It also corrects the name of the drink The Old Foal is serving. It is hot chocolate. We apologize for the error.