"We go all out for Halloween and Christmas," Lilley Hall's owners told Toluca Lake Magazine in 2021, recalling how drivers on Moorpark Street would roll down their windows to say, "Thank you for doing what you do." In the same piece the owners described themselves as "stewards of this iconic home" who "want to share it with everyone."
Until now, sharing it meant the front yard. On Saturday, December 12, the Toluca Lake Homeowners Association is opening Lilley Hall for a self-guided Holiday Home Tour. The HOA says this is the first time the public has been invited inside the house the neighborhood calls its "Christmas House." Every dollar from tickets goes to two neighborhood organizations. That makes the house the newest addition to a holiday season in which the HOA's community events raise money for named local causes.
A composer's house on Moorpark Street
The HOA describes Lilley Hall as a storybook English Tudor estate built in 1927. It shares its name with a well-known former resident. As Toluca Lake Magazine reported in 2017, the composer Joseph J. Lilley bought a house on Moorpark Street in 1954 and lived there until his death in 1971.
Lilley bought the house the same year he scored the film White Christmas. The Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame lists him as musical director at Paramount Studios, with White Christmas, Paint Your Wagon and Anything Goes among his credits. In the full credits for the 1954 film on IMDb, he is listed as composer and as music director and vocal arranger. His credits go back further: IMDb also lists him for vocal arrangements on Holiday Inn in 1942.
The nickname carries that history with it. Toluca Lake has a deep history in holiday music, and Lilley's is only one strand of it. The same 2017 magazine piece retells Mel Tormé's account from his memoir, It Wasn't All Velvet. On a blistering July afternoon in 1945, Tormé drove to Bob Wells' house in Toluca Lake and found four lines of verse beside the piano, starting with "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire." In Tormé's telling, the two finished "The Christmas Song" in about 45 minutes, and Nat King Cole recorded it in 1946. The magazine also notes that Bing Crosby, the singer most identified with "White Christmas," was one of the neighborhood's best-known residents. Lilley scored Crosby's Road pictures with Bob Hope, another Toluca Lake resident.
On December 12, visitors walk through a house where the man who scored White Christmas lived for 17 years.
What the December 12 ticket covers
The Eventbrite listing describes exterior decorations that "draw thousands of visitors each year." Inside are the owners' holiday collections and eight decorated Christmas trees. For a 1927 Tudor, the architecture matters as much as the décor. The listing calls the house a Tudor Revival and promises "timeless architectural charm" next to the collections. Anyone who has only seen the house from the curb, behind its lights, will finally get to see how the inside fits together.
The practical details, from the HOA's announcement and the Eventbrite listing:
- When: Saturday, December 12, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Format: Self-guided, about 30 minutes per visit, with light refreshments afterward.
- Age: All guests must be 16 or older.
- Price: The HOA lists tickets at $30, purchased in advance. The Eventbrite page shows "From $33.85," so expect a checkout fee on top of the base price.
- Refunds: Available up to 7 days before the event, which puts the cutoff at Saturday, December 5.
The age rule shapes the day more than anything else on the list. This is a tour of a lived-in home full of collectibles, not a family stroll. Households with younger children may prefer to see the house the usual way, from the sidewalk after dark.
Where the $30 goes
All proceeds go to the Toluca Lake Discovery Shop/American Cancer Society and to the Toluca Lake Homeowners Association. The American Cancer Society lists the Discovery Shop at 10124 Riverside Drive and describes it as a thrift boutique that supports the Society. Toluca Lake Magazine's 2018 profile called it an upscale, volunteer-run resale shop.
The other half of the money goes to the HOA itself. On its events page, the association describes itself as a volunteer-driven nonprofit working to make the neighborhood "a welcoming and vibrant place." Its Turkey Trot sponsor package says TLHOA runs entirely on volunteers, with a board of local residents who are all association members.
The structure looks familiar because the HOA's November event works the same way.
The season the tour joins
The 14th Annual Turkey Trot & Fall Festival comes three weeks before the tour, on Sunday, November 22. It also raises money for named beneficiaries. The sponsor package lists LAFD Fire Station 86 and East Valley PALS as the event's charitable partners, alongside the HOA's own mission.
Both beneficiaries are local. The LAFD's station listing places Station 86 at 4305 Vineland Avenue, serving Toluca Lake. The Toluca Lake Chamber's directory describes East Valley PALS as a nonprofit booster organization for the LAPD's North Hollywood Division. On its own site, the group lists support for the Cadet and Jeopardy youth programs among its work.
The race's track record shows what a neighborhood event of this kind can raise. Toluca Lake Magazine reported that the 11th edition drew more than 400 participants to its 5K run/walk and 1K kids' run and raised $56,000. The next year again drew more than 400 and set attendance and fundraising records. TLHOA board member Scott Morris told the magazine that the association donated $15,000 to Fire Station 86 and another $15,000 to East Valley PALS.
Put the dates side by side and the tour reads as the closing event of a three-week run:
| Date | Event | Where | Who benefits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, November 21 | Lendway's Salon & Boutique Grand Re-Opening | 10115 Riverside Drive | A local business marking its reopening |
| Sunday, November 22 | 14th Annual Turkey Trot & Fall Festival, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. | 4444 W Riverside Drive | LAFD Station 86, East Valley PALS, TLHOA |
| Friday, December 4 | Riverside Drive Holiday Open House | Riverside Drive businesses | The village business district |
| Saturday, December 12 | Lilley Hall Holiday Home Tour, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. | Lilley Hall, Moorpark Street | Toluca Lake Discovery Shop/American Cancer Society, TLHOA |
For the Turkey Trot, the Chamber lists 4444 W Riverside Drive, a parking lot run by the Riverside-Clybourn Building, according to a City of Burbank parking agreement. The sponsor package promises a 5K, a kids' run, family activities, food, entertainment and wellness activities. Race start times and entry fees for 2026 haven't been posted on the public listing. Registration runs through the Toluca Lake Chamber's event page, which points to MembershipWorks. Last year's advance schedule gives a rough idea. For 2025, it set the 5K for 10:30 a.m. and the kids' run for 11:15 a.m.
A December built around one house
Lilley Hall stands out from the rest of the calendar because what it offers is access. A 5K or a shop open house brings people out on Riverside Drive. The tour asks people to buy a ticket to see a house they may have driven past every December, and the price goes to a resale shop on Riverside Drive. Neighbors already treat the display as a shared thing, and the 2021 thank-yous through rolled-down windows show it. The tour lets them pay toward it.
Last season the house was something you saw from the street. On December 12 you can see the rooms where Joseph J. Lilley lived after scoring White Christmas, decorated with eight trees, and the money goes to the Discovery Shop at 10124 Riverside Drive and the volunteer association that runs the neighborhood's calendar.
A 1927 Tudor like Lilley Hall rewards a builder's eye, from how the rooms connect to how carefully the house has been kept up over the decades. If you'd like to talk about a period home in the neighborhood, whether it's one you own or one you're thinking about, Joan Duffy would be glad to hear from you. Let's Connect.
