The Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade, Newport Beach, California, United States

However, back in 1946, Newport Beach City employees had 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.
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.
In later years, the Beek family came to the front again and provided one of their ferryboats for the floating Christmas tree celebration. Gradually, each year, other lighted boats fell in line behind the city employees’ floating tree. Soon the Tournament of Lights came back as a Christmas celebration. However, in the early 1970s the crowd draw forced the Beeks to withdraw their ferry, for it was needed for service transport for all the people, by then there were more than enough boats glad to lead the parade.
Today the Tournament of Lights, now called the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade, features as many as 150 boats. The parade is proudly hosted by the Commodores Club of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce and is hailed as “one of the top ten holiday happenings in the nation” by the New York Times. With this year’s theme, “Twas the Lights Before Christmas,” the parade is the premier event of the holiday season in Southern California.