Who puts on Christmas on Atlantic Avenue? The city doesn't, and neither does a national retailer. It's the Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corporation, which its 2025 press release describes as a not-for-profit local development corporation. Its holiday page promises "stunning windows, tree-lighting festivities, and special events" along with "the most unique gifts and personal service." Each part of that program is designed to bring people onto the sidewalk and through a shop door. Its most public moments don't happen at the busy western end near the waterfront. They happen east of Court Street, on Boerum Hill's own blocks.
Two Boerum Hill addresses anchor the season. One is a small community garden at Hoyt Street and the other is a church at 401 Atlantic Avenue. The other pieces of the season, from the dates and the window judges to the toy drive and the newer counters worth a stop on the walk, are organized around them.
The 2026 Calendar, in Order
This year the AALDC has packed its program into the first three weekends of December:
- Saturday, December 5, 12 to 3 p.m. The Holiday Children's Party at Hoyt Street Garden.
- Saturday, December 5. The winner of the holiday window competition is announced.
- Sunday, December 6. The first Holiday Weekend Festivity day, with holiday deals and events from local businesses.
- Saturday, December 12, and Sunday, December 13. Two more festivity days.
- Saturday, December 19. The last festivity day before the holiday.
The festivity weekends come with a brass quartet schedule, which the AALDC links from its holidays page. The calendar is different from last year's. The AALDC's 2025 press release set that party on December 6 and the festivity weekends on December 6, 13, 14 and 20. If you kept last year's dates, replace them.
The tree lighting usually comes first. In 2025, Macaroni KID Brooklyn NW listed the Annual Atlantic Avenue Tree Lighting Ceremony in Boerum Hill for Tuesday, November 25, from 6 to 6:30 p.m. at 401 Atlantic Avenue. Assembly Member Jo Anne Simon and Council Member Lincoln Restler officiated. Girl Scout Troops 2133 and 2518 counted down to the lighting, and the Brooklyn High School of the Arts choir sang. The organizers handed out free "Shop & Dine Atlantic Ave" tote bags filled with deals from businesses on the avenue. Elected officials led the ceremony, scouts counted down and a high school choir sang, and the take-home gift was a bag of deals from the shops behind them. The whole program fits into that one half hour. The AALDC's 2025 release named the venue as St. Cyril of Turov Belarusian Church, at 401 Atlantic.
Hoyt Street Garden, Where the Children's Party Lives
The Children's Party takes place at Hoyt Street Garden, which NYC Tourism lists at 100 Hoyt Street, at the Atlantic Avenue corner. The Historic Districts Council's Six to Celebrate profile describes it as a 25-by-50-foot community garden, started in 1975 and kept up by community members.
The garden is 1,250 square feet, which is small for a party that runs three hours. Volunteers have looked after it for more than half a century. Holding the season's family event there points a shop-focused program back toward the residential side of the avenue. Families coming from Bergen, Dean or State Street reach the party before they reach a single cash register.
The garden also lies on a stretch the city has been studying. The NYC Department of Transportation describes its Atlantic Avenue work as a traffic study of possible public-realm, transit and bicycle improvements ahead of a capital project. On a December Saturday, though, the sidewalk at Hoyt is still the same narrow strip it has always been.
The Windows Are Judged by Neighbors
If the garden is the program's front porch, the window competition is its storefront. The AALDC's judging panel this year is made up of people who make things in, and write about, this part of Brooklyn:
- Michael James Freedman is a Gowanus-based artist who has worked for more than 30 years. He paints people and places he encounters in Brooklyn, both in small brush-and-ink and gouache pieces and in large-scale oils.
- Meredith Kurnov is the editor and publisher of Macaroni KID Brooklyn NW, a family events newsletter. Her bio on the AALDC page says she and her family are often out on Atlantic Avenue.
- Marj Kleinman is a filmmaker, founder, producer and photographer.
None of the three judges is a retail consultant. A Gowanus painter, a neighborhood family publisher and a filmmaker will judge a window by what makes someone on the sidewalk stop, and that is the behavior a shop-focused season is trying to produce. The winner is announced on December 5, the same day as the party at the garden. That puts the family crowd and the window results on the avenue on the same Saturday.
Where the Toys Went Last Year
The toy drive shows most clearly that the program's reach goes past sales. The AALDC describes its Annual Toy Drive as providing toys and donations to children and families at local homeless shelters. According to its 2025 press release, shoppers could leave unwrapped toys in boxes at businesses along the avenue through December 11.
The AALDC also published a 2025 recipient sheet showing where those boxes went:
| Recipient, 2025 | Boxes |
|---|---|
| Camp Friendship | 17 |
| The Alex House Project | 11 |
| Council Member Lincoln Restler's Office | 8 |
| Lutheran Social Services' Concord House | 8 |
| Council Member Shahana Hanif's Office | 5 |
| Trellis | 5 |
| Brooklyn Community Housing and Services' Arbor Inn | 4 |
| Safe Horizon's Jane Barker Brooklyn Child Advocacy Center | 3 |
| South Beach Psychiatric Center's Elm Place | 3 |
That adds up to 64 boxes across nine recipients. Camp Friendship alone received more than a quarter of them. This season, organizations that want to receive toys apply through an AALDC request form. The form closes Monday, November 30, 2026, and recipients will be notified by Friday, December 11, 2026. That deadline applies to the organizations receiving toys, not to the people donating them. In 2025, the shops on the avenue served as the collection points, and the toys went to shelters and programs elsewhere in Brooklyn.
Stops on the Walk West, New This Year
The festivity weekends are meant to keep you moving down the avenue, and in 2026 the western blocks, toward Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill, have given people more reasons to keep walking. These are short walks west of Court Street, past Boerum Hill's edge, and all four opened, moved or reopened this year.
- Sheba Bees, 176 Atlantic Avenue. This Yemeni honey shop opened below Yemen Cafe, as noted in Brooklyn Magazine's October roundup. Cititour reported that founder Waleed Alhariri's shop serves Adeni chai, Yemeni Mufawar coffee, teas, and pastries that include honeycomb bread, and it also offers honey tastings. It's a natural place for a gift that isn't a toy.
- Bebo, 145 Atlantic Avenue. This Georgian restaurant opened September 23. Pineapple Street BK reported that owners Gio Kopaliani and Gio Lemonjava based it on family recipes, with chef Giorgi Tchulukhadze running the kitchen. At opening it was pouring Georgian wines and beers.
- Frenzie, 129 Atlantic Avenue. WhatNow reported that this pizza-and-wine bar opened August 13, with chef-co-owners Brendan Kelley and Daniel Grossman.
- Confidant, 127 Atlantic Avenue. The same pair reopened their restaurant two doors down on February 4, after moving it from Industry City, according to Eater NY. Henry Goldman and Martin Borkan are co-owners as well.
So within one year, one team has opened two rooms at 127 and 129, and two more businesses have opened within 50 street numbers of them. The holiday program was built to send foot traffic to exactly this kind of cluster.
Closer to Home, a Sign at Smith and Pacific
Closer to home, one corner on Boerum Hill's own side of Court Street is worth watching. Mokafé is a Yemeni coffee-house chain with locations in Greenpoint and on Caton Avenue. Gensa reported in late October that the chain had put up its sign at the corner of Pacific and Smith streets. Together with Sheba Bees and Yemen Cafe, that makes Yemeni coffee and tea one of the threads running through this year's openings on and just off the avenue.
The December 5 party at Hoyt Street Garden, followed by the window announcement and a walk west toward the honey shop at 176 Atlantic, makes one Saturday that runs from one end of the AALDC's season to the other. If you own a home on the blocks near Hoyt and Atlantic and want to know how this stretch is valued today, Bill Kowalczuk and Guy Hobson can share what we're seeing on these streets. Request a complimentary home valuation, and we'll walk the avenue with you.
