Huntington Beach silhouettes at sunset are accented during the Christmas holiday season in the month of December with artificial snowflake lights that are mounted to light posts on the pier.

Huntington Beach, Calif.―Are you dreaming of a Christmas filled with snowflakes and sand? Then one beach option in California to delight Christmas revelers is Huntington Beach with its miles of sand and snowflake-lit pier. Each year the Huntington Beach youth shelter program seeks sponsors to purchase the artificial flakes containing lights that are mounted to light poles on the Huntington Beach Pier. The views of this seasonal lighting event are not quite a traditional tree lighting that takes place in so many other cities around the globe, but the holiday celebration that carries a tradition does reflect the local culture and its love of the beaches and ocean.

Each year around the first weekend in December a small parade marches down the city's old-fashioned Main Street just around dark. It is a small parade that only lasts maybe 15 or 20 minutes, but the crowds do line up to see children dressed in candy-cane stockings, children dressed in festive clothing and Mr. & Mrs. Santa riding a fire truck.

The parade makes its way to the end of Main Street at Pacific Coast Highway, and the merriment continues across the busy highway at the Pier Plaza next to the Huntington Beach Pier. Once the crowd arrives there, some official provides a  welcome, a band plays, maybe some kids perform a dance and then the switch is thrown on the snowflake lights. 

It doesn't get much simpler. But that is the beauty of it. Now if you are seeking a fancier light show, north in Sacramento near the State of California capitol is a computer light show with music that is state-of-the-art.