Old, New Traditions Mark Arrival of Oak Lawn Holiday Season

There was plenty of fresh air at this year’s Santa On the Green, one of the coldest in recent past. Families flocked to Oak Lawn’s annual holiday celebration on Saturday.

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Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus arrived on a village fire truck. Waiting to greet the North Pole power couple were dozens of kids and Frosty the Snowman, who seems to have acquired a girlfriend since last year.

Santa took orders in the gazebo and posed for pictures while inside the hospitality tent families lined up for hot chocolate and listened to the Kolmar and Sward Elementary School choirs.

Mayor Dave Heilmann and wife, Erica, were strolling the hospitality tent with their youngest daughter, Brook, 2. The mayor said his three older children were carousing Santa On the Green with an aunt.

The Small Business Saturday trolley also wound its way up and down 95th Street.  Passengers were serenaded by Mike, an accordionist from Italo-American Accordion Company.

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Sandra Bury, chair of the Small Business Saturday Oak Lawn Committee, said the committee threw the local shopping event in just a few weeks.

"We hope to expand the event next year with more trolleys running and make it a premier shopping event for the area," Bury said.

Like past years, retired Oak Lawn police officer Dennis Kitching disappeared shortly before Santa arrived.

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