During December, Homewood is hosting a house decorating contest, a holiday lights event, and a Homewood-Flossmoor lights tour. 

The house decorating contest is open from December 1 – December 18. Judging takes place on December 21 and the winners will be announced on December 22. This isn’t the only big holiday event this month though, as the 2 lights events are the most anticipated events in Homewood this month. 

   The Holiday Lights which occurred December 6, is from 5:00-9:00 pm in downtown Homewood. There were many activities during this event from shopping at antique stores to the grand holiday carousel to the antique car parade and many more. 

The H-F lights tour is making its first ever appearance as a holiday Homewood event. Flossmoor will be joining Homewood in this event as they will be making a tour map of festival houses. The first 50 houses will be put on the official map for this event and houses after the first 50 will be put on the self-guided tour. The deadline to enter your house for this event was November 28.

From Oct. 5 to Oct. 29, Homewood hosted a Halloween house decorating contest organized by the Homewood events manager Marla Youngblood, and the Village of Homewood, according to the Village of Homewood’s website.

To be judged, houses had to apply by Oct. 21 and all decorations had to be PG-rated and not discriminatory, political or inappropriate for children and neighbors to see.

Youngblood said there were 27 participants in this year’s Haunted Homewood Halloween House Decorating Contest, nearly double the number from last year.

Judges looked for specific qualities in the Halloween displays. 

Six judges evaluated entries in three categories: child-friendliness (judged on cheerful, age-appropriate decorations), scare factor (judged on the overall sense of fright) and special effects (judged on mechanical effects).

The winners were 2828 Birch Road, who won in the child-friendly category, 17560 Hillside Ave, who won scariest house and 18436 Homewood Ave who won in the special effects category.

Winners received a $50 gift card to Aurelio’s and a yard sign.

David Benjamin, a Homewood resident, said, “When I walk around on Halloween night, I want to see houses with many decorations, and not just basic ones, but scary ones.”

For more information, visit the Village of Homewood’s website.