Visit Newport Beach’s ‘50 Days of Festive Fun’ keeps the party going into next year
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Visit Newport Beach wants locals and travelers to know that when it comes to the holidays, the city has them covered.
Its third annual “50 Days of Festive Fun” holiday campaign started Nov. 14 and runs through Jan. 2, with daily holiday events ranging from light displays and dining experiences to shopping and seasonal activities.
“We are the most festive city in America, based on the sheer number of things happening throughout the community,” said Gary Sherwin, president of Visit Newport Beach. “We thought, we need to celebrate that and also give people a reason to come here beyond the boat parade.”
A clickable 50DaysOfFestiveFun.com calendar neatly corrals all the events happening in Newport Beach during the holidays into one spot.
“We wanted to pull it all together, make it easy for people to experience it and access them, rather than trying to hunt all over the internet trying to find all these things,” Sherwin said of the online clearinghouse.
The headlining attraction is the 117th Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade, themed “Magical Nights of Lights” and running Dec. 17-21, with Newport Beach native and actor Ted McGinley serving as this year’s grand marshal — but the city’s holiday calendar is full.
“Eighty to 100 boats will be registered for this year’s parade,” said Steven Rosansky, president and CEO of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the boat parade as well as a Ring of Lights Home Decorating Competition.
“I’ve noticed that we’re getting some good-sized boats this year, which is always nice,” Rosansky said. “They always seem to be very well decorated, the larger they are — although we have some unbelievably decorated really small boats.”
Rosansky said for Ring of Lights Home Decorating Competition, organizers usually see between 20 and 25 homes sign up every year.
“Occasionally, a home is so well decorated that we’ll give them a prize even if they haven’t signed up, but we prefer that they do because, this way, if they sign up and they win, they also get two free tickets to our boat parade awards reception,” he said.
The chamber president acknowledged there have been some reals standouts among the decorated homes over the years.
“This lady has thousands of stuffed animal bears in her house,” he said. “There are ones that return every year, and they always have great displays in front.”
Other activities in the city include the Fashion Island tree lighting, Roger’s Gardens Christmas Boutique and the Newport Dunes Fire & Lights Festival.
Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort Director of Marketing Jan Yerzik said the Lighting of the Bay has been going on for 35 years, and the Fire & Lights Festival was added in to the mix three years ago. The festival runs Nov. 28 to Jan. 4.
“This year, we’re running the Fire & Lights Festival Thursday through Sunday evenings only,” Yerzik added. “We have various entertainment planned, like Saturdays is photos with Santa. And then, Friday and Saturday nights, we have a fire dancer doing two performances a night.”
There are also activities for children, including giant inflatables like a new Toboggan Tunnel, a Gingerbread Slide and a giant 40-foot Snowzilla Slide.
“On the beach, we have fire pits and we sell s’more kits, so that families can sit around the fire pit and have s’mores and hot chocolate,” Yerzik said.
Sherwin said it’s nice they have enough events in the city that the celebration can extend beyond Jan. 1.
“We have so many things going on, we could go literally to the end of the first week in January with different activities,” he said. “This is a true labor of love from our community, and they gladly do it — I don’t know where that level of generosity exists in other places, but I’m sure glad it exists here.”
