The La Mesa Holiday in the Village event is being held today. I swung by as it opened at noon. The free community festival goes until 9 pm.
I found singing groups, dancers, carolers, Christmas trees, holiday crafts, lots of food, elf hats, and many smiles!
Enjoy these photos…
Young members of Greene Tree Theatre sing together on stage during La Mesa Holiday in the Village.Greene Tree Theatre youth wow the audience with an energetic dance routine!Christmas trees and decorations can be found throughout La Mesa’s holiday festival.Holiday smiles!Plenty of popcorn!The Salvation Army Kroc Center had a booth.The King’s Carolers perform beloved Christmas carols during the holiday event.Snowmen inside wreaths.Beautiful winter scene at a vendor’s table.Caroling on Mt. Helix will take place next Saturday, December 9, beginning at 4 pm.Is that the Polar Express?Sentimental Journey performs on a second stage.Let’s get this party started!The holiday season is about joy!
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Poinsettias have appeared on street corners in downtown San Diego. Festive lights and banners along sidewalks anticipate another holiday season!
This morning I came upon a Downtown San Diego PartnershipClean and Safe worker planting poinsettias along Fifth Avenue in the Gaslamp Quarter. He smiled for a photo!
Thank you to those who strive to keep our city clean and safe. Downtown residents like myself are especially grateful.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Enjoy these photographs of a walk through December Nights 2023 in Balboa Park!
I started east across the Cabrillo Bridge this afternoon, shortly after San Diego’s big holiday festival opened. I visited the Grinch tree at the Old Globe, then entered the Plaza de Panama where there is a stage and small ice skating rink. I strolled down El Prado, took a side trip to Spanish Village, then eventually found myself at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, International Cottages and Palisades area. You can see one fun photo near the end where I peeked inside the Comic-Con Museum.
December Nights is very crowded after dark, with families enjoying colorful lights, live entertainment on multiple stages, many Santa photo ops, a huge number of vendors, and lots and LOTS of food! My old camera doesn’t take good photos at night, unfortunately.
December Nights continues tomorrow–Saturday–from 11 am to 11 pm. At 6:30 there will be a free concert by world-famous local rock band Switchfoot at the organ pavilion. That should draw quite a crowd!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Five years ago, during the month of December, San Diego experienced several festive holiday events, including December Nights, a briefly resurgent Christmas on the Prado, and fun activities around the Holiday Bowl.
I took photographs of these events and shared them here on Cool San Diego Sights!
I also took a variety of walks around San Diego. You might recall photos of some surprising artwork, including a 180 ton teddy bear made of boulders! And I captured the beauty of sunrise at the South Bay Salt Works!
Coming up are links to blog posts from December 2018.
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Do you know San Diego has a Community Christmas Tree in Balboa Park?
Few seem to know.
It appears our city’s Community Christmas Tree will be ignored for a second straight year at December Nights. I walked past the tree this evening, and it’s surrounded by vendor tents, all but forgotten.
Some would say this is a scandal.
The tree replaced an earlier Community Christmas Tree that was planted behind the same iron fence in 1981.
The original tree eventually became overgrown and unsuitable for decoration. The beautiful new tree is thriving and certainly large enough for lights and ornaments.
I’ve spoken to various people about this situation (including people who should care), but no one knows anything. Most people, it seems, have very short memories or simply don’t want to be bothered. How sad.
Read more about San Diego’s Community Christmas Tree by clicking here or here.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
The San Diego Civic Youth Ballet has been an institution in Balboa Park since 1945. Their annual performances of holiday favorite The Nutcracker begin in early December. That’s quickly approaching!
A preview of several Nutcracker dances was offered this afternoon at Balboa Park’s Spreckels Organ Pavilion.
Most of the weekly Sunday organ concert was devoted to the youthful dancing. And it was quite good!
Light, graceful movement, as if on a cloud, shined up on the stage. The professionalism and poise of the young ballet dancers was remarkable.
Several times during today’s preview a connection problem with an iPhone caused the music to unexpectedly stop, but the dancers danced on, unfazed. When the music suddenly started again, it was as if the glitch had never happened.
These photos show how wonderful The Nutcracker is bound to be. The upcoming performances will be at the Casa del Prado Theater in Balboa Park. Get your tickets by clicking here!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Unfortunately, exhibitions in Gallery 21 typically last two weeks, and tomorrow is the final day of this one. But I figured I’d post a few photos anyway, to bring attention to a group of local professional artists who actively support the San Diego Museum of Art.
I moved in a circle through the gallery, peering at various types and styles of art, wowed by the talent of these great artists.
Friendly artist Ed Whitmore, who was manning the information desk, answered my questions about his own pieces–very unique, strangely organic works. He uses the controlled oxidation of iron, copper, and bronze metal effects paints, a process that quickly creates patina.
Check out one of his pieces…
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
San Diego’s incredibly popular December Nights event is less than a week away.
Holiday decorations are being set up throughout Balboa Park. Hundreds of thousands of visitors are anticipated next Friday and Saturday.
Will San Diego’s new Community Christmas Tree be forgotten again? Regrettably, it was forgotten last year. Read that sad news by clicking here.
The tree, encircled by a fence opposite the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, was planted about four years ago. It replaced an overgrown, spindly, misshapen Community Christmas Tree that could no longer safely support lights and ornaments.
The new tree has grown to be very beautiful. But, as I explained, it was forgotten last holiday season. Will that happen again this year? I hope not.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Several weeks ago a new exhibit opened at the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park. San Diego’s New Deal Renaissance: An Artist’s Experience concerns the life and work of notable local artists during the Great Depression, with a focus on Belle Goldschlager Baranceanu.
Belle Baranceanu was painter, muralist, lithographer, engraver and illustrator who moved from Chicago to San Diego in 1933 looking for opportunity. She found employment with the Works Progress Administration curriculum project.
Her work included two monumental murals at Roosevelt Junior High School (not far from Balboa Park): Building Mission Dam and Portola’s Northern Expedition. Those two amazing murals were moved to the San Diego History Center where they have been preserved and can be viewed. The exhibit includes studies that she produced before painting the murals.
By the way, you might have seen more of her work in Balboa Park. The Progress of Man can be found in the grand foyer of the Balboa Park Club building. The mural was created for the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition. The History Center exhibit includes a reproduction of the large mural.
San Diego’s New Deal Renaissance: An Artist’s Experience provides information concerning other local artists during this era, as well, including sculptor Donal Hord and painter Charles Reiffel. (Yes, the same Charles Reiffel whose pieces include two huge murals at the History Center and two canvases on a wall inside the Casa de Balboa, the building that houses the History Center.)
There’s far too much to describe here, so it would best to visit the San Diego History Center yourself! It’s always super interesting and free!
During your visit, check out the History Center’s seasonal poinsettia Christmas tree. Perhaps swing on by during Balboa Park’s big December Nights event next week!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Tigers, Unicorns, & Puppy Dog Tales is the latest exhibit that the public can enjoy in the La Jolla Historical Society‘s Wisteria Cottage museum.
Colorful displays recall the years when the Green Tiger Press, the Unicorn Cinema and the Mithras Bookstore were much loved La Jolla institutions. The local publisher, theater and bookstore were all established by Harold and Sandra Darling in the 1960s. The Darlings were a visionary couple who loved art, literature and the magic of imagination.
The exhibit contains printed material–postcards, stationery, children’s books, and more–bursting with unicorns and dragons and rainbow dreams and talking animals. Step into the museum and you might feel as if you stepped into a fairy tale. Or traveled through time back to your own childhood.
Bring kids to the exhibit and they will be enchanted. There’s a table where they can pore through picture books and create their own art!
Adults will be intrigued by Green Tiger printed posters that promote the eclectic, often independent films that screened inside the Unicorn Cinema. The dark theater was located through the back door of the Mithras Bookstore. The docent with whom I spoke loved the tiny theater and its popcorn machine. It sounds like a place I would have loved, too.
The Green Tiger Press relocated to Seattle, but they have lent their wonderful “carousel tiger” for this exhibition.
If you want to see all this magic for yourself, make sure to visit the Wisteria Cottage museum by January 21, 2024.
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!
Cool San Diego Sights! 