Streator's Saturday After Thanksgiving Moves Across Downtown, From the Toy Drive to the Carriage Rides

The City Park lights come on at 6:30 p.m. and the lighted parade heads down Main Street at 7, but that evening is the last part of a day that starts at 9 a.m. On Saturday, Nov. 28, Keeping Christmas Close to Home and Light Up Streator spread their joint celebration across City Park, Heritage Park, the Streator Incubator, Park Place and Bruce Township Hall. The toy drive packs up at 2 p.m. The model trains and all three holiday markets close at 4. If you show up for the parade, you miss most of the day.

The city's tourism page calls the 2026 schedule tentative, so check the Keeping Christmas Close to Home and Light Up Streator event page the week of Thanksgiving before you lock in plans.

The day, hour by hour

Here is the posted 2026 schedule, sorted by when each piece starts.

Laid out like this, the day has a clear break. Daytime is mostly indoors and spread across several buildings. Evening pulls everyone into City Park and onto Main Street. Ice sculpting at Heritage Park fills the gap between the two.

Morning starts at the corner of City Park

The Screaming Eagle MC toy drive opens the day at 9 a.m. at the southwest corner of City Park and runs until 2 p.m. In 2024, Shaw Local's preview of that year's event reported that the club took new, unwrapped toys for children 10 and younger, plus cash donations, at that same corner. The 2026 listing gives the location and hours but not what the club is asking for this year. Buying a toy that fits the 2024 guidelines is a reasonable bet. Just bring it before 2, because the drive is gone by the time the crowds arrive for the lighting.

City Park covers four blocks in the 200 block of North Park Street. The amphitheater and fountain will be familiar to anyone who went to summer movie nights there. In late November it is just the starting point.

Three markets, three buildings

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the holiday markets are split among three buildings, and each one is a different kind of space.

1. Park Place Conference Center, 406 E. Hickory St., in the downtown business district.
2. Bruce Township Hall, 216 N. Sterling St., also downtown.
3. Streator Incubator, 401 W. Bridge St., in the former Illinois National Guard Armory.

The Incubator is the only stop with two things going on, since the model trains run there on the same 10-to-4 schedule as the market. If you have kids, starting there gives them the trains before anyone gets tired of shopping. Then you can work your way back toward Hickory and Sterling.

The markets are also the reason the day is worth planning ahead. They close at 4, an hour and a half before the food trucks open and two and a half hours before the lighting. Anything you want from a market vendor has to happen in daylight.

Heritage Park bridges the afternoon

Ice sculpting runs from 2 to 4 p.m. at Heritage Park, at the corner of Main and Monroe streets. The pocket park already has more going on than most downtown corners: the replica Kerr Clock, a glass bottle mold, a coal pick, public art and a three-story mural. On Nov. 28, carvers are working in the middle of those pieces of Streator's history.

The ice sculpting ends at 4, the same time as the markets. From there you can head straight onto Main Street, where the extended shopping hours start at 5 and run until 9.

The evening belongs to volunteers

Food trucks set up in City Park at 5. Light Up Streator turns on the park at 6:30, the lighted parade starts on Main Street at 7, and carriage rides go around City Park from 8 to 9:30.

Shaw Local's 2023 story on Light Up Streator turning 25 traced the effort back to 1998, when it began with decorations on Main Street. It moved into City Park after that and had decorated the entire park by 1999. The same report described fundraising that goes on all year, business sponsorships, and displays built with help from Streator High School's welding program. Over the years the display has included decorated arches, handmade and sponsored figures and signs, and decorations at City Hall and the fire station. Shaw Local's 2023 photos also show a large lighted tree in the park. In 2024, Shaw Local called that year's display the group's biggest yet. Last December, Shaw Local described thousands of lights strung across City Park by Light Up Streator volunteers, with a "Merry Christmas" sign welcoming visitors.

It is a small group of people. The Times reported in 2022 that the Light Up Streator committee had 18 members. That same year, Keeping Christmas Close to Home was in its 18th season, and coordinator Heather Patterson told the paper she expected about 40 floats, most of them built by local businesses. According to the 2023 history piece, the parade grew out of the partnership between Light Up Streator and the former Santa parade organized by Ace Hardware. Shaw Local's 2023 photo gallery shows the kind of entries to expect: lighted semitrailers, a penguin, a train, the Streatorettes, Mickey and Minnie, Truth Tabernacle, a Shaw Appliance float themed on "A Christmas Story," and Santa and Mrs. Claus.

The dates on either side of Nov. 28

Nov. 28 is the biggest downtown day of the season, but it falls between several other events.

Saturday, Oct. 31. Downtown Trick-or-Treat starts at 9 a.m. at participating downtown businesses.

Nov. 13 and 14. Streator's Holiday Open House brings downtown shops into the season two weeks early. Hours are Friday 5 to 8 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Derek Barichello at the Streator Chamber of Commerce is the event contact.

Nov. 19 to 22. Engle Lane Theatre stages "How the Other Half Loves." Details are at englelane.org.

Dec. 11. Merry on Main runs from 5 to 8 p.m. downtown, with shopping, food, drink, a raffle and sales.

If you missed the Nov. 28 markets because you planned around the parade, Merry on Main is the next chance to shop downtown on a holiday evening.

From the Holiday Open House to Merry on Main, our team at Chismarick Realty, LLC will be downtown with everyone else this season. If you have a question about what's happening around town or about anything else in Streator, Contact Us. We're glad to help.