12 Christmassy things to do in L.A. that’ll cost you nothing

L.A. had a few years there where it became overstuffed with drive-through Christmas attractions, but this century-old tradition has always been the best of the batch—and it’s free. From the second Saturday in December through early January, you’ll find a mile-long stretch of evergreens in Altadena (Santa Rosa Ave, between Woodbury Ave and Altadena Dr) covered in twinkly lights.

Feel as though you’ve escaped to a small-town fishing village during the Marina Del Rey Boat Parade. Bring a blanket and gather around Fisherman’s Village or Burton Chace Park to watch as 70 boats glide through the marina with holiday lights and decorations in competition. Categories include Best Theme, Best Animation, Best Band, Best Lights and more. The festivities begin on December 11 at 5:55pm with fireworks, and the boat parade starts at 6pm, rain or shine.

Gather up your friends and family and go hear L.A.’s biggest holiday show, which includes more than 20 choirs, music ensembles and dance troupes from all over the city. The free three-hour show—you can pop in and out as you please—celebrates L.A.’s multicultural observation of the holidays with everything from an all-female mariachi ensemble to a Korean dance troupe.

Nope, that’s not some sort of catastrophic explosion in the center of the city—that sound’s just the arrival of Christmas at the Grove. Brace yourself: L.A.’s shopping mall metropolis lights up its Christmas tree with fireworks and a slew of special guests, including Santa himself and performances by David Foster and Katharine McPhee. Stick around for the fireworks finale (and we’ll reiterate that, yep, anxious Angelenos, those are indeed fireworks that you’re hearing on November 13).

In addition to the canals’ long-running and gleefully irreverent boat parade, you’ll find some houses—and bridges—decorated for the season. If you want a quick glimpse, you can just drive down Dell Avenue, but for a more relaxed look you’ll want to wander the canals’ walkways on foot.

Beverly Hills always knows how to add a bit of opulence to the holidays, and—starting November 16—this year’s run of decorations along Rodeo Drive is no exception. Elsewhere in the area, you can see lights swirl around the palm trees and up buildings.

Sometimes you simply want to see as many lights as possible, and Torrance’s Seaside neighborhood (sometimes referred to as Sleepy Hollow) surely delivers. Follow the stream of brake lights overflowing from Robert Road for a trek through this visual overload.

We all like showing off to our neighbors, but the homeowners behind Candy Cane Lane take it to the extreme. You can drive around eight blocks blanketed in lights, centered around Lubao Avenue and Oxnard Street. Expect to see plenty of homeowners put up decorations and switch on their lights for the six-decade-old tradition—but of course it varies from house to house.

Riverside’s stunningly beautiful Mission Inn is bathed in 4.5 million twinkly lights during the annual Festival of Lights. The free seven-week-long holiday tradition runs from mid-November to early January and typically features more than 400 animated figures.

Ah, the joys of Christmas in a Mediterranean climate, where boat owners can deck out their ships in holiday lights and set sail without the impediment of icy weather. For the 115th year, the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade is doing just that as over 100 decorated yachts and ships parade around a 14-mile circuit in the Newport Harbor. You can see the parade for free during each of the five nights (Dec 13–17) from any bay-facing point along the harbor.

Like an Angelyne billboard on Sunset Boulevard, the Hollywood Christmas Parade (Nov 26) is an essential part of L.A. kitsch. The nearly nine-decade–old parade will feature floats, balloons, bands, equestrians and celebrities as they ride in a U-shaped route that begins at Hollywood and Orange and ends up at Sunset and Orange. Reserved grandstand seats can be purchased, but free curbside seating is also available.

Step inside an oversized, crystalline Christmas ornament and a tree made of lights during the return of this Downtown installation. Sparkle DTLA is setting up shop at the Bloc through the end of the year, and every night you can expect its displays to dance to music on the hour (5–9pm).