Visit Newport Beach’s ’50 Days of Festive Fun’ continues into January

Visit Newport Beach needs locals and vacationers to know that relating to the vacations, town has them coated.

Its third annual “50 Days of Festive Fun” vacation marketing campaign began Nov. 14 and runs by Jan. 2, with every day vacation occasions starting from mild shows and eating experiences to purchasing and seasonal actions.

“We are the most festive city in America, based on the sheer number of things happening throughout the community,” mentioned Gary Sherwin, president of Visit Newport Beach. “We thought, we need to celebrate that and also give people a reason to come here beyond the boat parade.”

A clickable 50DaysOfFestiveFun.com calendar neatly corrals all of the occasions taking place in Newport Beach throughout the holidays into one spot.

“We wanted to pull it all together, make it easy for people to experience it and access them, rather than trying to hunt all over the internet trying to find all these things,” Sherwin mentioned of the web clearinghouse.

The headlining attraction is the 117th Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade, themed “Magical Nights of Lights” and working Dec. 17-21, with Newport Beach native and actor Ted McGinley serving as this 12 months’s grand marshal — however the metropolis’s vacation calendar is full.

“Eighty to 100 boats will be registered for this year’s parade,” mentioned Steven Rosansky, president and CEO of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce, which organizes the boat parade in addition to a Ring of Lights Home Decorating Competition.

“I’ve noticed that we’re getting some good-sized boats this year, which is always nice,” Rosansky mentioned. “They always seem to be very well decorated, the larger they are — although we have some unbelievably decorated really small boats.”

Rosansky mentioned for Ring of Lights Home Decorating Competition, organizers normally see between 20 and 25 properties enroll yearly.

“Occasionally, a home is so well decorated that we’ll give them a prize even if they haven’t signed up, but we prefer that they do because, this way, if they sign up and they win, they also get two free tickets to our boat parade awards reception,” he mentioned.

The chamber president acknowledged there have been some reals standouts among the many adorned properties over time.

“This lady has thousands of stuffed animal bears in her house,” he mentioned. “There are ones that return every year, and they always have great displays in front.”

Other actions within the metropolis embrace the Fashion Island tree lighting, Roger’s Gardens Christmas Boutique and the Newport Dunes Fire & Lights Festival.

Newport Dunes Waterfront Resort Director of Marketing Jan Yerzik mentioned the Lighting of the Bay has been happening for 35 years, and the Fire & Lights Festival was added in to the combo three years in the past. The competition runs Nov. 28 to Jan. 4.

“This year, we’re running the Fire & Lights Festival Thursday through Sunday evenings only,” Yerzik added. “We have various entertainment planned, like Saturdays is photos with Santa. And then, Friday and Saturday nights, we have a fire dancer doing two performances a night.”

There are additionally actions for youngsters, together with big inflatables like a brand new Toboggan Tunnel, a Gingerbread Slide and an enormous 40-foot Snowzilla Slide.

“On the beach, we have fire pits and we sell s’more kits, so that families can sit around the fire pit and have s’mores and hot chocolate,” Yerzik mentioned.

Sherwin mentioned it’s good they’ve sufficient occasions within the metropolis that the celebration can prolong past Jan. 1.

“We have so many things going on, we could go literally to the end of the first week in January with different activities,” he mentioned. “This is a true labor of love from our community, and they gladly do it — I don’t know where that level of generosity exists in other places, but I’m sure glad it exists here.”