Willow Glen's Holiday Calendar Keeps Returning to a Theater That Closed in 1988

From Halloween through mid-December, most of the dates on downtown Willow Glen's calendar are aimed at children and the parents with them. Many of them happen in a building that hasn't shown a film in almost forty years. The Garden Theater at 1165 Lincoln Avenue hosts the free book giveaway on Trick or Treat day, a makers market in November and four mornings of Santa photos in December. The newest restaurant change on the avenue fits the same pattern. A brasserie built for date nights is now a family grill with sports on TV, and its owner says he made the switch to match the community.

At the north end of Lincoln, City paving crews have a work window that runs through November 20. Those are the three things on Lincoln Avenue this season, and they're connected.

A cinema that became offices, with its sign left on

The Garden Theater opened on June 22, 1949. Otto A. Deichman designed it, and it gave Willow Glen families first-run films without a drive into downtown San Jose, according to a history from the Willow Glen Community Foundation. By the mid-1970s it was showing Spanish-language films. That ran for more than a decade, until it stopped being profitable, and the theater closed in 1988.

In 1989 the interior was gutted and rebuilt as offices and retail space. The facade, the marquee and the vertical sign stayed, and the foundation notes that the neon still lights up every night. Some of the original artwork went to other theaters before the conversion. Etched glass doors and mural figures ended up at the Orinda Theatre and the Oaks Theatre in Berkeley.

That's why the old theater works as the season's base. It sits in the middle of the business district, everyone knows it, and the marquee is easy to point a child toward. The Willow Glen Business Association has placed three of its fall and holiday events there, starting tomorrow.

Friday, October 30: candy on the avenue, books under the marquee

Trick or Treat Along Lincoln Avenue is tomorrow, Friday, October 30. Participating businesses from Minnesota Avenue to Willow Street will hand out candy and other treats, and the WGBA event page asks families to move clockwise around the route. The day runs in two sessions:

1. 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for toddlers. At the Garden Theater, this window is for kindergarten-age children and younger.
2. 3 to 4:30 p.m. for school-age children. At the Garden Theater, this window is for first through sixth graders.

The theater stop belongs to Books for Treats, a nonprofit founded in 2001. Its volunteers help each child pick one free book at 1165 Lincoln. The group has made books part of Halloween for more than twenty years. Its founder, Rebecca Morgan, says on the WGBA page that Halloween "is the perfect time to give children another kind of treat—one that can take them on countless adventures long after October 31." Books for Treats also accepts donations of new or gently used children's books.

If your family has a toddler and an older child, plan on two trips. The sessions are three and a half hours apart, and each one has its own age group at the book table.

The newest switch on Lincoln was made with families in mind

Between the morning and afternoon sessions, there's a new place to eat at 1202 Lincoln Avenue. For about two years that space ran as two restaurants. Stacks served breakfast during the day and Black Sheep Brasserie served French dinners at night. The Mercury News reported on October 21 that the evening side is now Stacks' Wild Oak Grill.

Owner Nate Habash told the Mercury News he made the change to "better align with community preferences." He said Black Sheep had an intimate, date-night feel, while the grill is "designed to be a welcoming, family-friendly restaurant featuring an approachable price point, sports on TV and a great cocktail selection."

The new menu brings over the most popular dishes from the Wild Oak that Habash opened in Morgan Hill earlier this year, such as baby back ribs, pasta jambalaya, hanger steak with housemade chimichurri, grilled salmon and a house burger. Several Black Sheep dishes are staying, including the tomahawk pork chop, Mary's roasted half-chicken, rack of lamb and the shrimp skillet. It's open daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Breakfast and lunch are served until 2 p.m., so a toddler-session family can arrive for a late breakfast and stay for lunch.

Black Sheep opened in 2015 as a modern take on Le Mouton Noir, Don Durante's restaurant that ran for twenty years in Saratoga. The dishes that carried over from that line give longtime diners something familiar on the new menu.

Farther down the avenue, Crewners Barber Shop opened at 1393 Lincoln Avenue in February 2026, according to the shop's own history. District 6 Councilmember Michael Mulcahy's April newsletter covered a grand opening there on March 14 and noted it was the shop's first storefront since the pandemic.

The repaving crews are on the north end through November 20

If you're driving to any of these events, check the route first. San José's Cone Zone report, updated October 22, lists pavement resurfacing on Lincoln Avenue in two connected segments, Park Avenue to Morris Avenue and Morris Avenue to Lonus Street. Both run from October 14 to November 20, 2026, under the City's "2026 MS Resurfacing #2" project.

This stretch has been on the schedule for a while. At the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association's February 2025 meeting, the published notes split Lincoln into two jobs. One was a resurface-and-stripe from Curtner to Lonus. The other was a 1.55-mile "seal & stripe" from Park to Lonus, set for 2026 "after undergrounding projects are finished." Mulcahy's July 2025 newsletter described Lonus as the north end of the Lonus-to-Curtner work. So the segment listed this fall is the part of Lincoln north of Lonus Street, on the Park Avenue side.

The Cone Zone entry doesn't say what the job will mean for drivers. The City's pavement program page says repaving in general can bring parking restrictions, detours, dust and noise, and that schedules can change. If you usually come in from the Park Avenue end, look for posted no-parking signs before you leave. The November 8 market is the last downtown event inside the listed work window.

November and December, stop by stop

After Halloween, the calendar goes back and forth between the theater and the WGBA check-in point at 1245 Lincoln Avenue. The WGBA marks its schedule as subject to change.

A few notes on the table. The tree lighting is a free community event at Lincoln Glen Church in south Willow Glen, not on downtown Lincoln Avenue. The trolley runs leave at six evening times over twelve nights. The WGBA's pages have posted different ticket status, so check the trolley page before you plan around a particular night.

The Santa sessions take the Garden Theater back to where Trick or Treat starts, with a child at the door of the old cinema. Like the book giveaway, they're split across short morning windows on two weekends, which spreads out the crowd.

If your family is new to Willow Glen this year, or new to the Bay Area, these dates are an easy way to get to know Lincoln Avenue before the holidays. Nick Delis is a third-generation Peninsula local who helps transferees and growing families settle into neighborhoods across the South Bay and the Peninsula. If you'd like to talk through which parts of Willow Glen put you within walking distance of the avenue, Nick Delis offers a private Peninsula market consultation at a time that works for you.