Three holiday traditions in La Jolla Village this year are each paid for in a different way. Village merchants chip in about $150 to $200 per shop toward the Holiday Open House's shared promotion. A volunteer foundation funds the 70th Christmas Parade, and its costs have roughly quadrupled. A service club owns the Season's Greetings sign, which it bought for a dollar and which now costs about $15,000 a year in permits and traffic control to hang where it used to go. The way to read this season's calendar is to know who covers each event.
November 22: A Festival With No Center Stage
The season starts on Sunday, November 22, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the La Jolla Village Holiday Open House. Adelaide's started it more than 40 years ago. The La Jolla Village Merchants Association describes it as "rather than one centralized festival": shops, galleries, restaurants, salons and studios across the Village each host something of their own.
That might be hot cocoa at one counter, live music at another, or an artist demonstration, a children's craft table, story time, a raffle or a photo spot.
Each business that takes part pays in. The merchants association set early participation at $150, and the fee rose to $200 per business after November 6. The association says those fees help cover the shared promotional costs of a campaign that includes posters, print ads, social media and newsletters. The association's fall planning post described a similar request of about $150 to $200 per participating business.
Of the three traditions, this one has the most predictable funding. No single party carries the bill, and each participating shop chooses how much effort to put in. Nothing has to be closed, barricaded or patrolled, because the event happens inside businesses that are already open on a Sunday. The parade two weeks later has none of these advantages.
December 6: The Parade's Bill Has Grown Faster Than the Parade
The 70th annual La Jolla Christmas Parade & Holiday Festival is on Sunday, December 6, with the theme "A Village Christmas: Celebrating 70 Years of Holiday Tradition." A volunteer 501(c)(3) foundation organizes it, and donations from local businesses and residents pay for everything. The foundation lists its costs as permits, security, administration, portable toilets, barriers, tables and cleanup, and it says those costs "increase every year."
Chairwoman Ann Kerr Bache put numbers to that in January in the San Diego Union-Tribune:
| Cost line | When Kerr Bache started | As of January 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Police presence for the day | Less than $1,000 | $11,000 |
| Total cost to hold the parade | About $12,000 | Almost $50,000 |
The same article tied the increase to safety requirements. Kerr Bache said there:
"City costs have skyrocketed to have a safe event, which is so important, but the city continues to increase the number and complexities of things we need to have to make it safe."
The costs also don't arrive all at once in December. In the same report, Kerr Bache said the foundation pays for its website and storage all year, files in January for that year's parade permit, and owes certain fees in May and June. That means the parade is spending money months before most people think about it.
The parade has come close to running short twice recently. The Union-Tribune reported that in the first week of November 2023, the event was about $35,000 short and at risk of cancellation. It was also still about $30,000 short in the third week of November 2025. Both times, La Jolla philanthropist Dianne Bashor gave an undisclosed amount that let the parade go on. "If it wasn't for Dianne, we wouldn't have had a parade," Kerr Bache told the paper. After the 2023 close call, organizers created tiered giving levels in 2024 to spread out the load.
In January, Kerr Bache said she had to "figure out if this is sustainable," and added that the 2026 parade "would be our 70th, and it would be a shame for that not to happen." The parade went ahead with its planning. The La Jolla Town Council endorsed it on June 11, after the La Jolla Traffic & Transportation Board endorsed it on May 19, and the Town Council will ride in the parade with its own float, as the Union-Tribune reported in June.
What the 70th Adds, and How to Spend the Afternoon
This year's biggest addition also brings in money. New for 2026 is the Village Christmas Market, with local makers, artisans, small businesses and vendors, according to KPBS's event listing. Vendors applied through the parade's own form and pay a $250 participation fee. Applications closed October 29. So the market adds a revenue line for an event that is otherwise free from start to finish.
Here is how the day is laid out, based on the official parade site and KPBS:
- 1 p.m.: The Holiday Festival opens at the La Jolla Recreation Center. It runs until 5 p.m. with arts and crafts, robotics and technology, local animal rescues, pony rides, bounce houses, face painting and games.
- Early afternoon: The parade starts at Kline Street and Girard Avenue. It lasts about 90 minutes and ends at the Recreation Center, where Draper Avenue meets Prospect Street. Expect marching bands, floats, riders on horseback, vintage cars, canine groups and service organizations.
- All afternoon: Sounds by the Sea, the festival's live music and performance stage, plays on the Recreation Center lawn.
- After the parade: Santa visits, and families can reserve a time through the parade site.
- 5 p.m.: A tree lighting is planned to close the day, according to the June report.
On parking, organizers ask visitors to park outside the event perimeter. They publish downloadable no-parking and tow-away maps, and anyone who lives on or near Girard or Prospect should check those maps before Saturday night. ADA parking is in the Wells Fargo lot at 7714 Girard Avenue. A pass is required to get past the barricades, and you can request one at (858) 922-4046. To reach the lot, enter from Fay Avenue, turn onto Silverado Street, and take the alley just before Kline Street. The parade site directs transit riders to MTS. Organizers note that the event has never been canceled for weather in its 70 years.
The Sign That Costs More to Hang Than to Own
The Season's Greetings sign shows the same cost problem on a small scale. For years, the lighted sign and its reindeer display hung on the La Jolla Shores pedestrian bridge over Torrey Pines Road without ever being formally permitted by the City of San Diego, according to the Kiwanis Club of La Jolla. In 2024, the merchants association decided to stop putting it up because of the permit process, costs and risks. Kiwanis bought the sign from the association for $1 to keep the tradition going.
Once the sign needed a permit, it became expensive. Kiwanis started the 2025 permit process months ahead of time, but the permit came through only two weeks before the holiday season ended. Between traffic control and permits, the total came to about $25,000. Kiwanis member Glen Rasmussen told the Union-Tribune that the club fronted $5,000 for a permit good for five years. The $15,000 annual traffic plan was beyond the club's budget. "It's a lovely sign, but now that we know how much it costs, it's a lot to do," he said. So for the second year in a row, the sign went up on a private resident's wall along Torrey Pines Road.
Kiwanis says it hopes to put the display back on the bridge for the 2026 season. It estimates ongoing permit and traffic-control costs at $15,000 a year and has set up a tax-deductible donation fund for the effort. Some of the club's money comes from the La Jolla Half Marathon and the La Jolla Shores 5K, and the club also routinely gives a grant to help pay for the Christmas Parade.
The Giving Menu Behind the 70th
The parade foundation's response to rising costs is laid out in its 2026 sponsorship tiers:
- Event Sponsor: $10,000
- Parade Sponsor: $7,500
- Founders' Circle: $5,000
- Festival Sponsor: $2,500
- Gold: $1,000
- Silver: $750
- Village: $500
- Santa's Helpers: any amount
The foundation recognizes every supporter on the event website for the 70th, and higher tiers get more recognition through the parade and festival. Put next to the cost table, the tiers show the scale of the gap. An Event Sponsor at $10,000 covers less than the $11,000 police line by itself. It takes the combined giving of many households and businesses to keep a nearly $50,000 event free to attend. The parade's online and mail-in donation options stay open through the season.
Watching the Open House, the parade and the sign this season, we're thinking about which of these traditions our team at The Kaiser Team can help carry into their next 70 years. If you're a Village neighbor wondering where a gift would do the most good this December, or you'd like to catch up on what's changing around Girard and Prospect, we'd love to hear from you. Book a consultation and we'll talk about it over cocoa.
