Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane To Relight Saturday Following Eaton Fire

ALTADENA, CA — Altadena's historic Christmas Tree Lane will glow again Saturday, a hopeful milestone in the community's recovery from the Eaton Fire and the first lighting of the display since the disaster.

Widely regarded as the nation's largest and oldest outdoor holiday lighting display, the tradition dates to 1920 and relies entirely on volunteers who spend months stringing lights with ropes and pulleys.

Starting Saturday, more than 20,000 lights will flicker back on along the trees lining nearly a mile of Santa Rosa Avenue, near the fire's burn scar.

For much of its 105-year run, Altadena's Christmas Tree Lane has gone dark only in moments of true crisis — during World War II and amid the 1970s energy crisis. After the Eaton Fire, organizers briefly debated whether this would be another such year.

"We did talk about whether it would be depressing because of what was lost," Scott Wardlaw, president of the Christmas Tree Lane Association, told LAist. "But people were urging us to do it again and saying, `Please put the event on and put those lights up."'

Some of the holiday lights — still wrapped around the trees when the fire hit — were damaged along with branches, not by embers but by the fierce winds that drove January's flames. A few homes at the north end of the lane were scorched. But none of the 153 deodar cedars — the towering evergreens that line the street, some reaching 130 feet — were lost.

Every holiday season, thousands of people from throughout Southern California make the trip to Altadena to cruise under the glowing canopy.

"It's just the simplest thing ever — just lights in a tree," Mikayla Arevalo, who coordinates volunteers for the association, told LAist. "I feel like that's what made us so special. We're not bright. We're not flashy."

Organizers expect a larger-than-usual turnout for Saturday's 6 p.m. kickoff. The ceremony will feature several new touches, including a moment of silence for the 19 Altadena residents who died in the disaster. Longtime volunteer families will help flip the switch alongside L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena in the 5th District.

When the lights return Saturday, visitors may notice the display shining brighter than before. A donation from the Walt Disney Co., which employs many Altadena residents, funded thousands of additional lights for this year's show.

But the brightest part of the display's return isn't the new lights — it's the volunteers who refused to let the tradition fade after the Eaton Fire.

"The thing that's impressive to me, that symbolizes Christmas Tree Lane — it's the people," Wardlaw told LAist.

City News Service