Halloween Decorating in Wilmette

Wilmette's lakefront is its signature — the luminous Baha'i House of Worship glows above Sheridan Road, and Gillson Park and the harbor anchor an east side where the holidays draw walkers from the Linden CTA terminal. Downtown Wilmette and the Plaza del Lago center light up for the season, and residential displays cluster in Kenilworth Gardens, Indian Hill Estates, and the Victorian blocks of the CAGE neighborhood. Because so much of the housing here is a manageable two stories on plain shingle roofs, Wilmette sees a healthy mix of confident DIY and hired work — but the older east-side homes near the temple, with their slate roofs and taller gables, are firmly installer territory. Crews serving Wilmette also cover Kenilworth and Evanston, and while the season runs less frantic than Winnetka's, the dependable installers still fill their pre-Thanksgiving dates through October. Homeowners near Gillson often want their displays lit early for the park's steady holiday foot traffic.

Wilmette's stock is denser and more varied than its northern neighbors: brick Georgians and center-entrance Colonials in Kenilworth Gardens, Victorian and traditional frame houses in the CAGE district, Tudors and mid-century homes on the larger lots of Indian Hill Estates, and lakefront properties in Michigan Shores near the harbor. Most are solid two-story homes from the 1910s through the 1950s with moderate gabled rooflines in asphalt shingle, joined by a share of slate and tile on the older east-side houses. Lots are comfortably landscaped with mature parkway trees rather than sweeping estate acreage.