Dec 15, 2015 Christmas in San Diego
My niece’s birthday is on December 24, so her party always takes place a couple of weeks earlier because what kids can attend a function on Christmas Eve? Children gotta be in bed before the Fat Man parks his sled on the roof. Yet the celebration inevitably has a lot of overlap with the holidays–making decorations, elves bringing a live tree, a White Elephant gift exchange, and a walk through a nearby neighborhood’s Christmas lights.
I’ve shared pictures and thoughts about the lights on this blog before, and you’ll be glad to know that the San Diego tradition not only lives on but has continued to mutate. There are more stands selling cookies and hot chocolate than ever before–gotta pay the electricity bills–and now there’s a guy in a Santa suit posing for pictures unless he’s pretending to be an electronic prop. Yes, we saw a Darth Vader, too.
The more commercialized decorations used to get me down. But now I’m beginning to appreciate the inflatable Mickey Mouse and princesses from Frozen being right next to Las Vegas style nativity scene. It’s like being in a gigantic thrift shop!
My family is lucky and can just walk from my brother’s house, but most visitors seem to drive over. Many park on outskirts. Others don’t even get out of their vehicles and drive through as if it is Lion Country Safari, although with headlights turned off and Christmas songs turned up. Good thing it was a chilly evening and we pedestrians were seasonally bundled up because we were part of the ambiance.
There are plenty of amazingly spirited neighborhoods that I’ve seen around Los Angeles–Saint Albans Road in San Marino, Christmas Tree Lane in Altadena, Hastings Ranch in Pasadena–but I especially enjoy Clairemont because it seems like the homeowners and renters put up their own lights. It’s an imperfect but sincere and loving mishmash of stuff.
My brother and I used to have other traditions when we were teenagers–making sample gingerbread houses for our mom’s elementary school classroom, watching the carnage at South Coast Plaza on Christmas Eve, going to Tower Records with gift money on Christmas evening–and this one seems to be sticking. See you there next year!
Happy holidays, and follow Imprint on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, too!