Deerfield's Field of Honor Returns to Jewett Park. Here's How the Rest of the Season Lines Up.

In Deerfield, the stretch from the first leaf pile to the Winter Market is now largely put on by the Village itself. Village Hall presents the flag display at Jewett Park. Village Hall runs the December market at the Patty Turner Center. A Village commission sponsors the library's appraisal night. And this month Village Hall started writing about local restaurants in a newsletter of its own. Each of those events has also shifted since last year: new dates, a new venue, a redrawn map, a new count. A calendar copied from 2025 will put you in the wrong place.

Here is the season as it stands for the week of October 29.

The Leaf Map Changed Before Anything Else Did

The season's first change is already on your street. The Village's annual leaf collection began the week of October 26 and runs through November 25. Public Works crews make one pass by each home every week for five weeks. The pickup map has been redrawn this year so that leaf collection and LRS collection no longer fall on the same day in the same location. If you know your pickup day by habit, check the new map in the Village's October 16 e-news before you rake.

Last year crews collected more than 7,000 cubic yards of leaves across the Village. The rules that keep that volume moving haven't changed:

• Rake piles no wider than five feet.
• Put leaves at the curb or carriage walk edge no earlier than the evening before your pickup.
• Keep cars off the street on your pickup date.
• Keep grass clippings, sticks, rocks, branches and mud out of the piles.
• After November 25, leaves can go in compost containers at any time, or be bagged for collection through December 15.

Bad weather can delay pickups. Questions go to Public Works at 847.317.7245.

An Appraisal Night Opens November

On Monday, November 2, from 6 to 8 p.m., antiques appraiser Sophia du Brul will give verbal appraisals and estimates at the Deerfield Public Library for What's It Worth? An Antiques Appraisal Show. Each registered participant may bring one item. Fine jewelry, weapons, precious metals and large furniture can't be appraised. Registration is open online.

The sponsor is the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission. The same commission backed the Leo High School Choir concert at Holy Cross Church on October 17. Both events came to residents through the Village's own channels. That has been the pattern all fall.

Year Two for the Flags at Jewett Park

From Monday, November 9, through Friday, November 13, Jewett Park becomes the Village's Field of Honor, a display of United States flags under this year's theme, "Honoring Our Veterans." It's free and open to the public, and visitors are invited to walk among the flags. Proceeds benefit Midwest Veterans Closet and Lake County Honor Flight.

This is the second year for the display. In 2025 it ran November 7 through 11, with 500 flags and the same two beneficiaries. This year's Village announcement describes 600 flags. The Colonial Flag Foundation's event page, which handles flag dedications, donations and sponsorships, lists 500. Either way, it is a field of several hundred flags, and each one stands for a veteran or personal hero sponsored by someone in the community.

The calendar has shifted too. Last year's display ended on Veterans Day. This year it runs Monday through Friday, so Wednesday, November 11, falls in the middle of the week. Last year's opening gathering ran 5 to 6 p.m. with bagpipes, an honor guard, the pledge, the national anthem, remarks from the mayor and a veteran speaker. Special events and speakers followed daily through Veterans Day. No 2026 ceremony times have been posted yet, so check the event page before planning a visit around one. Volunteers can sign up through the Field of Honor volunteer page.

The Flags Come Down the Day the Curtain Goes Up

The display closes on Friday, November 13. That same night, Deerfield Family Theater opens Irving Berlin's White Christmas The Musical at Caruso. The show runs November 13 to 15 and November 20 to 22, and tickets are on sale through the Deerfield Family Theater site. The production credits Ryan Elliott as producer, and the Park District calendar sends visitors to the theater's site for show details.

So the season turns over on one Friday. A week built around a veterans tribute in a neighborhood park ends with a holiday musical, starting the same evening.

The Winter Market Moved, Then Moved Its Date

The Village's Winter Market has changed buildings since it began. A Village release republished by Patch in November 2022 described that year's market as its second annual edition, held at Jewett Park after a Winter Celebration at Village Hall. By 2025 it had moved to the Patty Turner Center at 375 Elm Street. It ran Saturday, December 6, the morning after the Winter Lighting Celebration at Village Hall.

That 2025 weekend gives a sense of the scale the Village is now running. Friday night brought live ice sculpting, tractor rides, the Deerfield High School Choraliers and Frozen Robins, roasted chestnuts, and Mayor Shapiro switching on the lights at Village Hall. Saturday's market featured a giant outdoor snow globe, a visit from Santa and a Polar Express train ride.

This year the market moves from the first Saturday of December to the second. The Village's October 9 vendor call sets it for Saturday, December 12, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Patty Turner Center. It promises live entertainment, retail and craft booths, nonprofit charities, food vendors and children's activities. Local artisans and retailers can still apply to be vendors. One Park District calendar entry still shows December 5. The Village's own announcement and the Park District's detailed listing both say December 12. The Village hasn't announced a 2026 date for the lighting at Village Hall yet.

The same morning, Jewett's Jolly Jamboree runs from 11 a.m. to noon at the Jewett Park Community Center. The two buildings that hold most of this season, Jewett Park and the Patty Turner Center, share the same December Saturday.

Village Hall Is Writing About Restaurants Now

The newest thing the Village is producing isn't an event. It's Good Taste, Deerfield, a twice-monthly e-newsletter about local restaurants, with featured dishes, seasonal specials, chef and owner stories and dining tips. Current Village e-news subscribers will get the first four issues. To keep receiving it after that, you need to sign up on the Village site.

The first issue featured Taco Vida at 469 Lake Cook Road. The owners, Susan Munic and Freddy Sanchez, are Deerfield residents. The menu is built on house-made corn tortillas and guacamole made to order, using peppers the owners grow themselves and produce from area farmers markets when it's available. Happy hour runs Monday through Friday from 3 to 5 p.m., and Tuesdays are Tamale Tuesdays.

The same issue laid out the weekly specials at Deerfield Italian Kitchen:

• Wednesday: 15% off in-house dining, excluding alcoholic beverages.
• Thursday: Veal Parmigiana for $25.99 and half off all bottles of wine, with live jazz every third Thursday.
• Friday: All-you-can-eat fish fry with Lake perch and wild-caught cod.
• Family and student deals: In a new offer, children under 10 eat free from the children's menu, one per adult entrée purchased. Deerfield High School students get 20% off.

Italian Kitchen also ties into the rest of the civic calendar. It sponsored last year's Winter Lighting Celebration and Winter Market weekend. It catered the Deerfield Area Historical Society's spaghetti dinner at the Patty Turner Center on October 22. The Village's first dining newsletter put the spotlight on a restaurant that already helps carry its event calendar.

The Village's September Harvest Fest was canceled on September 17 because of forecast severe weather. The calendar from here to mid-December comes largely from the Village and its partners: Public Works, the Fine Arts Commission, the Field of Honor and the Winter Market, mostly at Jewett Park and the Patty Turner Center.

Seasonal changes like these shape how Deerfield's neighborhoods feel week to week, and they are part of how we advise both sellers and buyers here. If you're wondering how the stretch from Field of Honor week through the Winter Market affects timing for your own plans, the team at Wexler Gault Group can walk you through it. Get a Complimentary Home Consultation.