Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade

There’s a hundred plus year old tradition at Newport Beach. Every year around Christmastime, dozens of brightly decorated boats cruise through Newport Harbor. Some are over-the-top!

Because Max is in the Sea Scouts, we joined our cousins at the Newport Beach Sea Base. They have a great location, on an inlet with Lido Island across the way.

There was lots of pre-parade traffic on the roads and inlet. PCH was jammed. On the water, lots of people were out for dinner and a cruise on huge multi-decked boats that could almost be called ships. Smaller boats darted back and forth.

Yes, we wore coats and gloves! Doppler came in her pink hooded sweater. My cousins supplied blankets. I had ear muffs, but they stayed pocketed.

I’ve never seen anything quite like it. There might not be anything quite like it! Dozens of boats, some very large, passing through the channel. All were lit up like (and decorated with) Christmas trees.

If you’re planning on being in SoCal, it runs Saturday and Sunday evening. It’s very cool.

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7 thoughts on “Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade”

  1. Fort Lauderdale runs a similar type of boat parade every year and it’s televised by the local Fox tv station there. No need to get out of bed to see it!

  2. This Christmas Boat Parade reminds me of the Rose Parade. Years ago, I was working for a flower shop in Newport Beach. John Wayne came in one night, looking for decorations he could put on his yacht, so he could be in the parade. I became tongue tied when he started asking me questions.

  3. Thanks for sharing Geoff, what a cool California holiday happening! My husband and daughter love Newport Beach. They just came back from a stay at Pelican Hill…gorgeous!

  4. Great photos—not quite as good as being there, I’ll bet. It is amazing what extensive decorating can be done, now that we have the L E D lights—the chinese graphics were cool.

    So,are you folks going to go over to Pasadena on New Year’s eve and camp out to see the parade. That was great fun, many moons ago. You can also go to one of their parks, after the parade, and see many of the floats, on display there. I always wanted to go to the construction sites where they glue all those flowers onto the floats.

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