Trees, Lights and Skating: Fun Holidays in Sunny Los Angeles

For most Americans, the idea of celebrating the December holidays in Los Angeles strikes a strange note. Sunshine? No snow? People are at the beach? Then it can't be holiday time! But actually, people in Los Angeles do celebrate the holidays as enthusiastically as anyone in New England or the Midwest. We just do it a little differently, that's all.

Holiday Trees in Los Angeles

Christmas trees (or holiday trees, as malls are fond of calling these conifers these days, to include into the celebrations anyone with a wallet) are a big part of the holidays all over the country. In some places, people go off into the woods and chop down a tree of their own. In other places, people drive off to a tree farm, and walk through snowy woodland, and select the perfect tree. In Los Angeles, you go to the corner of Burbank Boulevard and Coldwater Canyon, and choose your tree on what is a vacant lot the rest of the year. In Los Angeles, you see, you don't go to the trees, the trees come to you. It is a sure sign that the holidays are drawing near when tree vendors begin to set up their lots on their traditional spaces. These spaces may be parking lots, fields, or even lawns the rest of the year, but at this magical time, they sprout forests overnight. Tree vendors flock to the city with their wares, coming from far and wide. The trees at the corner of Burbank Boulevard and Coldwater Canyon, for example, spend their lives in Oregon before being cut and dragged a thousand miles south, to end their days out on a curb in Los Angeles.

Light Displays in Los Angeles: Candy Cane Lane and Crystal Springs Drive

Holiday light displays are popular in most suburbs, with neighbors competing to demonstrate their creativity, their community spirit, and the simple ability to put an unimaginable amount of stuff on their lawn. In the less temperate parts of the country, these displays are decorated with natural snow and are difficult to view because of frigid temperatures. In Los Angeles, though, this is never a problem. On Candy Cane Lane, in Woodland Hills, neighbors have been achieving extraordinary displays since 1952, competing with one another to show who really can make the holiday spirit shine most brightly. Most years, the lights on display in front of these houses attract so many people that traffic becomes completely jammed and people park blocks away and walk. Don't worry about frostbite, though, because the temperature in Los Angeles during December includes a high of 66 degrees. Many houses are simply overwhelmed with light displays, showing the effects of annual refinements that have culminated in the amazing, thematic, and multi-colored creations.

For a municipal version of the light show, don't miss the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power light display on Crystal Springs Drive in Griffith Park. A mile-long display that emphasizes many of the famous sites in Los Angeles, it is on display for the month before Christmas.

The Tree at the Grove and Skating

And if that isn't enough, and you want to combine your love for lights with your love for trees, why not drop by The Grove, where the largest public tree in Los Angeles (larger than the tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City, if you are competitive that way), with more than 200,000 lights on it, is on display.

And speaking of Rockefeller Center, could you really consider it the holiday center without ice skating? You don't have to do without it in Los Angeles. In Pershing Square, located in the center of downtown Los Angeles, there is outdoor ice skating every day from November 16 through January 15, including on the holidays. Skating costs only $6 per session, and the session lasts as long as you can stand it. Pershing Square draws over 200,000 skaters during the holiday season and over 500,000 spectators. There is also a series of free live concerts, free hockey clinics, "glide in" movies, a free winter carnival and community special events. So whether you live here or are coming from out of town for the holidays, you will have a great time here.

Santa Sons Holiday Trees
12901 Burbank Blvd
Sherman Oaks, CA 91401

Candy Cane Lane
Woodland Hills, CA

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Municipal Light Display
Crystal Springs Drive
Los Angeles, CA

The Grove at Farmers Market
189 The Grove Dr
Los Angeles, CA 90036

Pershing Square
532 South Olive Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013