Featured Event: Christmas Boat Parade

The Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade

Many Imitators, Only One Original!

The Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade has a long history as a yuletide favorite. In 1919 Joseph Beek, the owner and operator of the Balboa Ferry, helped establish the “Balboa Tournament of Lights”. Support for this event came from both Balboa Island and the Peninsula. Most of the early participants were children who decorated floats that were towed around the harbor. The floats were constructed in Beek’s garage and many were patterned after those seen in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade. As each tournament followed, the decorations became more varied and imaginative. In 1946, Newport Beach City employees outfitted a barge during the holiday season and installed a lighted Christmas tree. The barge was towed around the harbor while its passengers sang Christmas carols to residents on shore. Today the Tournament of Lights, now called the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade, features as many as 200 boats. The boat parade along with one of the tallest Christmas trees in the United States at Fashion Island, make Newport Beach one of the most popular places to visit at Christmas time.

• #2 U.S. Destination for Holiday Lights”

- Yahoo! Travel 2011 (#1 Rockefeller Center)

• “Top 10 World’s Best Holiday Lights”

- Frommer’s 2011

• “Top 10 Holiday Happenings in the Nation”

- New York Times

• The longest-running and largest Christmas boat parade in the U.S.

Small Children and The Newport Beach Boat Parade

For kids viewing the Newport Beach Boat Parade, this promises to be an event they will never forget. There are so many things going on with the boat parade that we adults might take for granted. The first being all the elaborate decorations and music, then viewing all the boats and homes in full décor stimulates and excites the senses. For a child, the Newport Beach Boat Parade may be their first nautical experience, whether they are on land or sea. The smell of the ocean air and the lights reflecting off the bay provide a pleasurable experience. To see all the different sized boats and to be so close to these decorated ships will have them in awe. In this age of computer generated animation, the scope of the lighted displays is sometimes lost, but not with small little kids.

Options for Viewing The Newport Beach Boat Parade

However you view the parade, it will be an experience that you will not soon forget. Here are the options for viewing the parade: You can view the parade from shore either from one of the public access areas along the bay, from one of the many restaurants that line the harbor, or by ship either in the parade or stationary in the bay.

For shore based options to view the Newport Beach Boat Parade, here are some popular locations to view the parade: The Balboa bayside Boardwalk on the Balboa Peninsula is one of the best places or on the walkways around Balboa Island.

Another option for shore based viewing are the numerous restaurants that line the bay. Restaurants such as the Newport Landing Restaurant, Harborside Restaurant, and Woody’s Wharf are just some of the restaurants that provide a view of the parade. Viewing the parade by ship is the last option. It does require a bit more planning as reservations should be made at least a week out and a month or more is not uncommon especially for weekend dates. You can reserve a spot with either the Newport Landing or Davey’s Locker Sportfishing companies in the Balboa Village.