I've always wondered: "When does the Holiday Season officially start?" It seems like as each year passes this date gets earlier and earlier on my calendar. In my distant memory, Black Friday after Thanksgiving used to be the official start date of the holiday season, but this year we start seeing Santa and Christmas tree before we even take down our Halloween decorations!
Lighting of Holiday Tree at the Grove
Last Sunday, we got invited to attend the 10th annual Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony and Concert at The Grove at the Farmers Market. The event was such a blast that the shopping mall had over 30,000 spectators arriving by 6pm, not only did the traffic around Fairfax and 3rd Street all jammed up, the fire marshall had to stop letting guests enter the mall after 7:05pm in sight of safety issue.
Luckily, we arrived right before 7pm and got into the Grove safely, and enjoyed an extravaganza of live music, fireworks show, and of course, witnessed the lighting of the tallest holiday tree (100-feet) in Southern California!
It took us 30 minutes just to squeeze our way to the front of the stage, we tought we could never make it!
The Grove is aimed to become the "Rockefeller Center of the West Coast". In fact the show put on stage last Sunday was telecasted widely and boasted a strong line up of famous singers and performers:
- Backstreet Boys
- Colbie Caillet
- Scotty McCreery
- Philip Phillips
- Michael Bolton with Melanie Fiona
- Far East Movement
- Rickey Minor and His Band
- DJ JibbJock
The center of attention was, of course, the Holiday Tree (what happened to the term "Christmas Tree"?) which is, over 100 feet in height, one of the two tallest trees in Southern California. Its twin sister tree, which is also 100 ft tall, is located at the sister shopping mall The Americana at Brand. Here are the photos of the tree BEFORE and AFTER lighting:
Santa is not in yet
Our kid's main interest was actually at Santa Claus, but too bad he is way too busy working on the toys at the North Pole that day. The sign in front of his Santa's Cabin says that he will drop by regularly every weekend starting this week!
More Tree Lighting Ceremonies this weekend!
Don't be sad if you missed the event last Sunday. There are several more tree lighting spectacular coming up:
Americana at Brand (see the other tallest tree in LA)
889 Americana Way Glendale, CA 91210
11/18 @ 7:30pm
* be sure to arrive early for admission and a good spot to watch the fireworks!
Santa Monica Place (dramatic snowfall, 54 ft tall tree, and a parade)
395 Santa Monica Place Santa Monica, CA 90401
111/17 @ 6:00pm
Tallest Christmas Tree in the U.S.
Do you know where the tallest Christmas tree in America is located at? Here is our top 10 list for 2012, you might be surprised to see that the famous tree at NYC's Rockefeller Center is only rated as number 10!
#1, The Tree at Coeur d'Alene Resort, Idaho
Height: 161 feet (and growing)
#2, The Tree at "Victorian Village" Ferndale, CA
Height: 150 feet
#3, The Outlets at Anthem, Arizona
Height: 110 fet
#4 & #5, The Grove at Farmers Market & The Americana at Brand, Los Angeles
Height: 100 feet (each)
#6, Mayor’s Christmas Tree at Crown Center Square, Kansas City, MO
Height: 100 feet
#7, Toledo Zoo's Christmas Tree
Height: 85 feet
#8, Faneuil Hall Tree, Boston
Height: 85 feet
#9, Portland's Christmas Tree at Pioneer Square
Height: 75 feet
#10, Rockefeller Center, New York
Height: 74 feet