When does the holiday season start in downtown Geneva? Most people would say Friday, Dec. 4, when the Great Tree on the Kane County Courthouse lawn lights up for the Christmas Walk. This year's calendar puts the start four weeks earlier, on the weekend of Nov. 7 and 8.
On that Saturday, nearly 30 downtown businesses serve cocoa and chocolate to anyone with a ticket. On Sunday, runners start a chocolate-themed race from the same courthouse where the tree will be lit, and the French Market is still running a few blocks away. When Shaw Local announced the crawl on Oct. 8, its headline called it "a sweet start to holiday season." The four weeks after it are built the same way.
Saturday Starts With Pumpkins
The first event on Nov. 7 has nothing to do with chocolate. From 9 a.m. to noon, the City of Geneva's free Pumpkin Smash runs at Prairie Green Community Gardens at Peck and Bricher roads. You can bring your leftover Halloween jack-o'-lanterns to be recycled instead of sent to a landfill. Take off the candles, stickers, googly eyes, yarn hair and other plastic decorations first. The City's Natural Resources Committee and the Geneva Park District sponsor the event, and the City calendar says pumpkin-themed food vendors will be there too.
The timing works for a full day. The smash ends at noon, and the Cocoa Crawl starts at 11 a.m., so you can clear out the porch, drive downtown and make the second half of the morning. If you didn't pick up your crawl ticket and map at the Chamber office, 8 S. Third St., between Nov. 4 and 6, you can get them at the Chamber's Visitor Center, 10 S. Third St., from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday.
How the Cocoa Crawl Works
The Geneva Chamber of Commerce runs the crawl from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It works like an open house. You visit the stops in any order, and each $27 ticket gets you one cocoa or chocolate sample at every stop. With 26 stops on the Shaw Local list, that works out to about a dollar a sample if you reach them all. Expert Roofing is the presenting sponsor. The order page includes a map and each stop's featured drink, so you can see who is pouring what before you set out.
The stops on the Shaw Local list cover more of downtown than a typical restaurant crawl.
- Restaurants and bars: Aurelio's Pizza, Burger and Sushi House, Ella's Italian Eatery, GIA MIA, Le Cochon Wine Bar and Bistro, Livia Italian Eatery, Mosaic Kitchen & Cocktails, Stockholm's Restaurant & Brewery and Chianti's Catering & Take Out
- Cafes, kitchens and specialty shops: Inglenook Pantry, Mill Race Cyclery & Café, Steep N' Clay and House of 423
- Boutiques and home goods: Liz & Kate Boutique, Little Red Barn Door, Midwest Nice, Pärla, Scout & Gem, Shoppes at 127, The Kate at 318, The Little Traveler, Urban Artisan and Mia's Wish
- Galleries and others: Proud Fox Gallery, GROW Geneva and INLURO
More than half of the stops are shops, not places to eat. A cup at The Little Traveler or Scout & Gem walks you past the windows they're starting to set up for December. A five-hour crawl through two dozen storefronts is also a good chance to start your holiday shopping.
Sunday Starts at the Courthouse
The weekend continues on Sunday morning at the Kane County Courthouse, 100 S. Third St. The race the City calendar lists as the Ooh La La Chocolate Half Marathon now registers on RaceRoster as Graham's Chocolate Run * Walk. Start times are spaced 15 minutes apart.
| Distance | Start time | Current registration fee |
|---|---|---|
| Half marathon | 7:00 a.m. | $122.98 |
| 10K | 7:15 a.m. | $78.98 |
| 5K | 7:30 a.m. | $56.99 |
The current fees apply through Nov. 7, the day before the race. The City describes the route as running through historic Geneva and along the Fox River Trail. Finishers get custom medals, premium hoodies and gourmet chocolate treats. If you can't make race morning, a virtual option for all three distances runs Nov. 9 through 17.
If you live near downtown, the bigger question is your car. The race page says the course maps currently posted are from 2025 and that the 2026 routes will be the same or similar. For the 2025 race, the City's closure notice closed these streets from 4 a.m. until they reopened by 11 a.m.:
- Third Street from James to Franklin
- Campbell from River Lane to Second, and from Fifth to Sixth
- Franklin from Second to Sixth
- Second, Fifth and Sixth from Campbell to Franklin
- River Lane from Campbell to South
Route 31 stayed open with periodic stops at Campbell, and drivers detoured on James, Seventh, Fulton and Third. Those were last year's closures. If you need to leave early on Nov. 8, look for the City's 2026 notice before that Sunday.
By 9 a.m. the race is usually finishing and the Geneva French Market opens in the commuter lot at Fourth and South streets, running until 2 p.m. The City says the market runs weekly through mid-November, and its calendar lists Nov. 15 as the last date after Nov. 8. So the chocolate weekend ends at one of the last outdoor markets of the year.
The Two Weeks Leading Up to It
This post goes up a day before the Halloween stretch begins, so here are the dates between now and the chocolate weekend.
- Friday, Oct. 23, and Saturday, Oct. 24: The Geneva History Museum's annual Ghost Walks, at 4 and 6 p.m. on Friday and at 4, 6 and 8 p.m. on Saturday, $15 to $20.
- Saturday, Oct. 24, 9 to 10 a.m.: The Park District's free Howl O'Ween Dog Parade at Peck Farm Park, with prizes. Pre-registration is required.
- Saturday, Oct. 24, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Halloween Hayday at Stephen Persinger Recreation Center, with a costume contest, bounce houses, a Halloween Egg "Haunt" and hayrides if the weather allows. Adults get in free, and kids 14 and under pay admission.
- Thursday, Oct. 29, 2 to 5 p.m.: Free Downtown Trick-or-Treating. Look for signs in the doors and windows of participating shops and restaurants.
- Saturday, Oct. 31: The Little Traveler's 5th Saturday Charity Shopping Day. The store gives 10% of the day's sales to the customer's choice of Association for Individual Development, Cal's Angels, Lazarus House or Northern Illinois Food Bank.
- Sunday, Nov. 1, 1:30 to 3 p.m.: "Holiday Ring Bread with Bill the Baker" at Geneva Public Library, for Geneva cardholders, registration required.
Some of the year's first holiday-themed events show up in this stretch, while the calendar still reads as Halloween. Then the Pumpkin Smash on Nov. 7 clears away the jack-o'-lanterns the same morning the cocoa starts pouring.
What Follows the Chocolate Weekend
The Christmas Walk is easier to understand once you know it doesn't start the season. It closes out four weeks that began on Nov. 7.
The Park District comes next. Its Winter Wonder Lights kickoff at Peck Farm Park runs 5 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 28, with a 5 p.m. courtyard lighting, hot cocoa and s'mores, letters to Santa and holiday music. The lights then stay on daily from 5 to 10 p.m. through Jan. 1. The next day, Sunday, Nov. 29, the City calendar lists the Artists Sunday Road Rally downtown from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It's a self-guided art tour with artist meetups, demonstrations and in-store exhibits, and it follows the same any-order format as the crawl.
Then comes Friday, Dec. 4. The Christmas Walk starts at 6 p.m., and Santa's arrival and the tree lighting are expected between 6 and 6:30. The City lists hours of 6 to 9:30 p.m. and puts the first lighting of the Great Tree on the Kane County Courthouse lawn, the same spot where runners will have lined up on Nov. 8. The Chamber's list of features includes Santa Lucia, carolers, a live nativity, roasted chestnuts, special offerings from merchants and the first candy cane of the season. Its page also shows a photo of candy cane making at Graham's. The City's listing adds business window displays to the evening.
The Holiday House Tour runs Dec. 4 and 5, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, through five decorated Geneva homes. Tickets are $42 on the Chamber's ticket page. They include tea at First Congregational Church, 327 Hamilton St. You'll need to drive between the homes, and part of the proceeds goes toward decorating Geneva for the holidays. The Chamber describes the five homes as Modern Transitional, Custom French Provincial, Stunning Modern Contemporary, Spanish Colonial Revival and Traditional Beauty. One is in the Historic Downtown District and another overlooks Eagle Brook Golf Club.
The same businesses run from one end of the season to the other. Little Red Barn Door, a stop on the Nov. 7 crawl, is also one of the design firms credited with decorating the tour homes, along with The Polished Nest, A Rooted Home, Farmdog Flowers and bb Interiors. Blumen Gardens, It's A Wonderful Light, Fox Valley Lighting and Neri Landscaping handle the outdoor lighting. The Chamber organizes both the crawl and the tour. The courthouse that holds the race start on Nov. 8 holds the Great Tree on Dec. 4. The Christmas Walk and the chocolate weekend are both organized by the same people and held in the same few blocks downtown.
Our team at Holzl Homes works out of these same Fox Valley streets, and we put the same care into how a house looks for the season as Geneva's decorators do for the tour. If you're thinking about a 2027 listing and want to know what your Geneva home is worth before the winter quiet, request your free home valuation and we'll walk through it with you over a cup of cocoa.
