The Magic of Christmas in LA

The semi-tropical climate of Los Angeles doesn’t lend the city to a white Christmas, but what the city lacks in winter snow it more than makes up for in beauty and community spirit.

Please don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel.

That shouldn’t be a surprise.  Los Angeles is home to more creative people than any city in the world.  We see it reflected in every inch of the city.  At Christmas time the creativity Angelenos are known for reaches its zenith.  Some may attack it as “commercial” but many of the events are entirely volunteer run affairs and server to bring the community together in beautiful ways.

Some of the Christmas displays and events are decidedly non-traditional.  Such as Winter Glow at Grand Park. While there are two large Christmas trees in this DTLA park and the colors are those associated with Christmas the rest is not. Winter Glow is actually a massive illuminated interactive art installation spanning 12 acres!  Yet we yearn for the traditional as well and we see winter wonderlands created in large outdoor shopping malls, complete with falling snow.  Likewise, Burton Chace Park in Marina Del Rey puts on a snow day each year with slides you can go sledding on.

Also traditional is the century old Hollywood Christmas Parade.  But tradition steps aside once again for the numerous holiday boat parades in the marinas and harbors throughout Southern California.  These parades on the water are probably the most beautiful parades you can hope to see and here again we find snow in Los Angeles.  Many of the boats in the parades have installed snow blowers as part of the decorations.  Fireworks displays are big all over the city for Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations, but the ones held over the water are especially beautiful.  And nothing is much more refreshing than a nighttime stroll along one of the piers decked out in its Christmas finest.

Massive traditional evergreen Christmas trees are all over the city.  But so are non-traditional Christmas trees as well: from the “art” trees made of balls of light shaped like Christmas ornaments and stacked into the shape of a tree to LA’s signature Christmas tree, the palms trees wrapped in tiny lights up to their chins. You can find out where some of them are at in our Where to Find Christmas Trees in LA post.

LA isn’t about to be outdone by the Rockefeller Center in New York.  Several ice skating rinks appear around the city over the holidays.  The most notable is the skating rink at Pershing Square in DTLA which remains open until the third week in January.

We were so moved by the beauty and “magic” of the holiday season in Los Angeles that we created this video to share with you for Christmas.  We hope that you enjoy it and will share it with your family and friends.

As a closing note, we spent a considerable amount of time going to as many places where LA Christmas festivities were occurring as we could while making this video.  We were considerable impressed with how friendly, and just what great people Angelenos are when they can take a moment to step away from the stress of our daily lives.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with friendship, success and good health.

See more LA Christmas photos after the break…

This site does contain some affiliate ad links from various companies including Amazon and I do earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.  I try to only recommend products and services I believe are of good value.