Annual Light a Light of Love Holiday Celebration in Huntington Beach held in December

Huntington Beach, California's Light a Light of Love is strategically geared toward and for youth. It is the city's main Christmas holiday celebration created as a fundraiser for the city youth shelter. Over a decade in existence, the Light a Light of Love Pier Lighting, plus a kids parade is a small-town affair in a city of around 200,000. Growing by leaps and bounds, this tourism destination still focuses on community during the winter months especially. With projects near and dear to many such as a youth shelter and Project Self Sufficiency to help women become independent, there's an increasing need for extra funding and help.

Light a Light of Love allows sponsors to buy a snowflake light that will sport a plaque with the individual's name or corporate name on it throughout an entire holiday season. The lights normally are lit the first weekend in December, and go out (are taken down) the first or second week in January.

The celebration itself is a parade down Main Street with kids, a band or two, and Santa riding on a City of Huntington Beach fire engine. The parade passes five blocks on Main and the public then heads over to the Huntington Beach Pier for a stage show with youth groups singing and dancing holiday songs, then the countdown occurs and the pier lights go on.

There best thing to a tree lighting in "HB" is at Bella Terra Mall. Malls are great at lighting trees for the holidays and Bella Terra does not fail in this account. Just down the road from the HB Pier a 10-15 minute drive is Fashion Island's tree lighting. The mall claims their tree is the tallest holiday tree in the U.S.