31 dazzling holiday light displays that make SoCal shine

Think back to your earliest fond memories of the holidays. Chances are they involve nippy weather and some kind of sparkly lights.

We don’t have much snow in Southern California to ring in the holidays, but we have plenty of nighttime light shows. This year you can experience the sparkle at festive neighborhood displays, elaborately festooned botanic gardens and zoos, and drive-through extravaganzas with music, dance and animation.

Some of the free neighborhood displays might feel a bit cheesy, until you consider how much heart goes into the decor, especially when volunteers spend weeks and sometimes months stringing tinsel, inflatables and lights just to entertain people they’ll never meet.

There’s some solid history to a few of these events as well. At Upper Hastings Ranch in Pasadena, the Holiday Light Up is marking its 71st year of a friendly neighborhood rivalry that grew from one street in 1952 to 45 streets today and some 1,100 homes (although not everyone in the area joins the decorating frenzy).

But for those who do, it’s a huge labor of love, and not inconsiderable expense, although technology has reduced some of the electricity costs with LED lights that use a fraction of energy and are less prone to breakages or fire.

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That became abundantly clear in Altadena, where about 100 volunteers spend 10 weekends ahead of the holidays using ropes and pulleys to hang 18,000 lights along the boughs of 155 venerable deodar cedar trees on Santa Rosa Avenue, a.k.a Christmas Tree Lane. Switching to LED lights meant the association’s electric bill “went from thousands of dollars a year to $400,” said Christmas Tree Lane Assn. President Scott Wardlaw of Arcadia, who’s been active in the organization since 2008. He got involved when his son chose the group as his high school freshman community service project and asked his dad to drive him so he could volunteer.

Fifteen years is nothing, though, Wardlaw said, compared to volunteers like Tony and Maureen Ward, who moved onto Santa Rosa Avenue in 1971. Initially, they just helped string lights outside their home. However, in 1996 they threw themselves into volunteering for the association once their children were grown. Over the years, they took on leadership roles, and Tony supervised the annual light stringing in September, October and November and unstringing in February as a volunteer foreman for nearly 18 years.

At 80, Tony says he’s still helping, but he’s tapped 22-year-old Derek Nowak to take on the foreman role. “We’re working on getting some younger people in here to take over,” he said, adding that Nowak has been “working with us since he was 8 years old and he’s got the experience and commitment.”

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That staying power is the secret sauce for organizations like Christmas Tree Lane, said Wardlaw.

“It’s amazing to me that people come out year after year to do this job,” he said. “They don’t have to, but they decide to do it anyway because it’s a good idea. I always remind myself of this because sometimes it can feel like the world’s pretty crummy ... and then I think of things like our organization and I think, ‘Yeah, the world’s not so bad after all.’”

A few final things to note:

• Most of these shows are rain-or-shine events, so don’t expect a refund if it starts to drizzle on the night you bought tickets. Dress warmly, bring an umbrella and count your blessings that Southern California’s low temperatures rarely dip below 50 degrees.

• Several of the free light shows are in residential areas where an informal group of neighbors voluntarily go all out to create holiday displays, so the start and stop dates for these events are sometimes vague. Pro tip: If you can, try to visit on weekday nights because traffic can get congested on weekends. Or better yet, if the area has sidewalks, park your car a block or two away and walk the route. (You’ll get in some steps, and in some neighborhoods residents sell hot chocolate or other treats from their driveways).
  
• The holiday light shows are divided into four loose categories: free or paid walk-throughs and free or paid drive-throughs, which you can filter using the navigation bar above.
  
• If we’ve missed any venues, send an email with details to [email protected] and we may be able to include it. We’re also interested in hearing about single homes that put on a lavish, not-to-be-missed display, so if you find a great one, email me the address and your name and contact information. If we get enough, we’ll share those extravaganzas too.

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