Celebrate the holidays in SoCal with light displays and drive-through extravaganzas

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Saturday, Dec. 9. Here’s what you need to know to start your weekend:

• 30 dazzling holiday light displays
• The two most likely candidates to replace Kevin McCarthy
• 12 unbearably cute markets to shop in L.A.
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper

Dazzling holiday light displays in SoCal

We don’t have chestnuts roasting on an open fire or Jack Frost nipping at our noses in Southern California. But the holidays have arrived with light shows all over the place.

Our guide highlights the 30 best ones in SoCal. Some are casual: Drive through a neighborhood where every house is adorned in glamor. Some are more official: Pay to be dazzled by a city, zoo or community’s extravagant displays.

Volunteer light shows

Some of the most creative holiday displays adorn people’s houses in fancy neighborhoods. These all-volunteer efforts bring in thousands of visitors every year.

In Torrance last year, as part of the Seaside Holiday Lights show, I saw houses decked out in lights and decor representing California football teams and Disney characters. One house even had a machine on the lawn that spewed out fake snow, which was so cool!

Motorists cruise Santa Rosa Avenue, better known as Christmas Tree Lane, in Altadena.

(Los Angeles Times)

Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane starts its 103rd year of elaborate drive-by holiday decorations tonight. Nearly a mile of twinkling lights and dazzling decor is strung among 155 massive deodar cedar trees lining both sides of Santa Rosa Avenue. A group of volunteers spends 10 weekends manually hanging some 18,000 lights every year.

Light festivals and enchanted gardens

Neighborhood light displays aren’t the only way to ring in the holidays in SoCal.

Mission Inn Festival of Lights — the granddaddy of SoCal’s holiday light shows — in Riverside drapes a full city block with lights and moving figures. The tradition began 31 years ago and is now one of the largest public light displays in the country. It’s so popular that the inn opted to run it for an extra week this year!

Linda and Joe Rodriguez of Fontana take photos among the sights and sounds of the 29th annual Festival of Lights display which features Christmas-themed displays, fake falling snow and roaming carolers performing for diners at the restaurants at the historic Mission Inn Hotel & Spa in Riverside.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

There are more around, too: A cosmic light show meshing lights, projection and sound illuminates the garden walk at Astra Lumina, while a new hanging light installation under the oaks and a labyrinth of 3-D geometric sculptures transform Descanso Gardens into a luminous paradise.

Read our full list here: 30 dazzling holiday light displays that make SoCal shine.

The week’s biggest stories

Hunter Biden leaves court in July.

(Julio Cortez / Associated Press)

Politics

• Hunter Biden was indicted Thursday in Los Angeles on several federal tax charges.
• As deficit estimate hits $68 billion, Newsom seeks ‘major changes’ to healthcare wage law.
• President Biden to visit L.A. for a Hollywood fundraiser: Brace yourself for traffic headaches.
• Who will replace Bakersfield Republican Kevin McCarthy in Congress? Here are possible candidates.
• Four takeaways from Wednesday night’s GOP presidential debate.

Crime and courts

• The Supreme Court leans in favor of the Purdue Pharma deal with $6 billion from the Sackler family.
• The twisted path of Jerrid Powell, from jock to accused L.A. serial killer of three homeless people.
• Three people were killed, and one was injured in the UNLV mass shooting; the shooter was an academic in his 60s, sources say.
• Dumped body parts, a missing couple and abandoned kids: Horror and mystery inside a Tarzana home.

Animal shelters

• Despite promising to save dogs, two Los Angeles County shelters are euthanizing more of them — nearly doubling the number killed in recent years, a Times investigation has found.
• As a result of the Times investigation, L.A. County seeks to add kennels and review policies at animal shelters.

More stories

• Norman Lear, who revolutionized prime-time TV with ‘All in the Family,’ has died. He was 101.
• COVID, flu, RSV on the rise in California. Is another ‘tripledemic’ coming?
• With Israel ramping up its bombardment after the collapse of a temporary truce with Hamas, Palestinians wonder where they will go next.
• Why do California and Texas differ so much? Religion and priorities of a white minority play huge roles, a poll shows.
• A statue of a controversial USC founder was removed from campus last month.

Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

Column One

Column One is The Times’ home for narrative and long-form journalism. Here’s a great piece from this week:

(Alex Tatusian)

Who rides the subway in Los Angeles? They’re your co-workers, your neighbors and some of the only people you can’t blame for making rush-hour traffic worse.

More great reads

• Seeing people like me on TV led to my career. I have Norman Lear to thank.
• Tiki Theater in Los Angeles is the last porn theater in a city that once had scores of them.
• Black-trimmed homes, tiny libraries and other signs your neighborhood is about to be gentrified.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your weekend

DTLA Cheese Superette is the new, expanded version of the beloved Grand Central Market stall, which closed in late April. DTLA Cheese Superette opens May 8.

(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

• 🏪 12 unbearably cute markets to shop in L.A.
• 📸 Make the most of the last weeks of 2023 by getting a dose of cultura at a Virgen de Guadalupe photography exhibit and more this weekend in L.A.
• 🥘 🥙 From an Inglewood bistro that homes in on West African flavors to a Filipino rotisserie that doubles as a natural wine bar, here are the 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles.

Staying in

• 📺 The best movies of 2023 — and where to find them, plus the best TV shows of 2023.
• 🧑‍🍳 Here’s a recipe for rainbow cookies.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

(Liam Eisenberg / For The Times)

I was absolutely attracted to him. Then he body-shamed me. We were on the same kickball team. He was handsome, muscular and smart, but he later told me: “I looked like you once. Then I started working out.”

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Elvia Limón, multiplatform editor
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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