Dana Point Harbor Lights
With the last 11 months of the year feeling like an endless nightmare, people are in desperate need of some holiday cheer this season. It’s finally the holiday season here in the US which means people are starting to decorate their homes and businesses for Christmas and other holidays.
During this part of the year, the Dana Point Harbor is transformed into a beautiful display of Christmas lights and boat owners decorate their vessels and it is a great place to go to get out and safely get into the Christmas spirit. The lights were put up on November 11th, well before Christmas, and will be up until January 3rd in case there is anyone who didn’t make it before the holiday.
The Harbor Lights will also feature a few boat parades that take place on December 4th, 5th, 11th, and 12th. The owners of the boats in the harbor will decorate their boats to the theme “Fiesta Holiday” and will drive their boats through the harbor on display for everyone in attendance. On the nights of the parade, it will begin at 7:30 pm.
Since moving to Southern California four years ago, I have now visited the lights 4 years in a row. I go back every year with my boyfriend because I love the lights so much.
When you first arrive at the Harbor, before you even pull into the parking lot you can see some cool things. Outside the parking lot, there is a huge whale made of strings of lights with his mouth open that you can take pictures in and there’s even a baby whale next to it, and a huge wooden sign that says #HAPPYHARBORDAYS
After making it down to the actual harbor, the first thing you see is called the “Merry Kiss Me” Arch. It is the entrance to the lights hallway called Candy Cane Lane.
If you keep walking through to the end of Candy Cane Lane, there is a little area where there are stores for fishing and other things during the day. During the Harbor Days, there are Christmas light snowflakes in the ground that you can walkthrough. There’s also a cute Candy Cane display set up, however, it’s not made of lights. There was a super long line to take pictures there so we used the snowflakes instead.
The snowflakes are the end of the path, and you have to turn around and walk through Candy Cane Lane again in order to get back to the parking lot. It’s a nice walk though and the lights are incredible. When you head back to the lot, there are more snowflake lights that are hanging in the air. At the top of the stairs, there's a big statue of Santa waiting to greet you and he looks like a true SoCal native in his board shorts and holding his surfboard.
I really enoy going to look at Christmas lights during the holiday season in general, but now I get even more excited when I get to visit the display at the Dana Point Harbor. I was worried that the city wouldn’t be putting up the lights this year due to COVID-19, but they implmented social distancing stickers and are requiring visitors to wear masks in order to keep the event going and to keep it safe. I reccommend 100 percent reccommend going out to see the lights and bring yourself some holiday cheer!