Willow Glen is known for its historic downtown, dining and shopping, and is one of the most expensive neighborhoods to live in San Jose.

Don Antonio Suñol, who owned Rancho de los Coches and built the Roberto-Suñol Adobe, is considered to be the founder of the community.

By the late 1800s, Willow Glen was generally considered one of the most prized locations in all of the Santa Clara Valley for raising wheat, barley, hay, tobacco and hops.

[4] The railroad was instead re-routed to its current route through a then-unincorporated area now known as North Willow Glen,[5] where its principal user is now Caltrain.

Because the area was marshy before being drained for Willow Glen,[6] the high water table resulted in raw sewage often spilling above-ground from flooded cesspools.

[8] Willow Glen neighborhoods are almost exclusively composed of custom or semi-custom homes in a diverse range of architectural styles.

Many architect-commissioned houses can be seen in the neighborhood, including Victorian, Neoclassical (Queen Anne Cottage and Neocolonial), Colonial Revival, Craftsman, Mission, Prairie, Spanish Eclectic, Eichler Homes, and Tudor.

The event celebrates the rich history, cultural heritage, and progressive present of the neighborhoods, homes, and community of Willow Glen.

This tradition involves buying similar, very small, Christmas trees and placing them in the front yard ten feet from the sidewalk with multicolored lights.

One section of the Guadalupe River Trail terminates near the far north east edge of Willow Glen but otherwise does not run through it.