At 4:30 on Sunday, December 6, the 21st annual Holiday Tree Lighting starts at Fletcher Cove with the ocean behind it. This year the City is bringing in something new: a snow hill for sledding and a snow play area next to the hot cocoa and cider.
Most of the season happens inland, though, at one address in the city's oldest neighborhood. Between now and mid-December, La Colonia Park and Community Center at 715 Valley Avenue hosts more of the City's and the Civic & Historical Society's holiday-season events than Fletcher Cove does. On the one Saturday when both parks have something going, the La Colonia event starts first.
One Address, Four Dates
The upcoming dates at 715 Valley Avenue:
- Tuesday, November 10, 6 p.m. Solana Beach Community Connections holds a free lecture, Pathways to U.S. Citizenship, at the La Colonia Park Community Center.
- Wednesday, November 11, 11 a.m. to noon. The City's Veterans Day ceremony at La Colonia Park.
- Saturday, November 14, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Civic & Historical Society's 73rd Annual Holiday Boutique at the La Colonia Community Center.
- Sunday, December 13, 5 to 7 p.m. The free Holiday Tree Lighting at La Colonia Park, hosted by the City and the La Colonia Community Foundation.
Fletcher Cove has two dates over the same stretch: World Kindness Day on November 14 and its tree lighting on December 6. The Veterans Day ceremony makes sense at La Colonia. Under the park's 2008 draft master plan, the City has already built a Veterans' Courtyard there, along with the skate park.
Why the Calendar Lands on Valley Avenue
The park didn't come with the neighborhood. People had to fight for it. On its history page, the City of Solana Beach calls La Colonia de Eden Gardens the city's oldest neighborhood. It was built by workers who maintained the Rancho Santa Fe estates, and they lived in tents before they could get the materials for their own homes. According to the La Colonia de Eden Gardens, Inc. history page, the neighborhood formed in the 1920s, and a land developer added the name "Eden Gardens" later as a marketing tool.
The Solana Beach Civic & Historical Society wrote about the neighborhood's centennial celebration in 2021, marking a 1920 founding. Families there remembered that in 1927, Frank "Pancho" Garcia turned his house at the southeast corner of Valley and Genevieve into a grocery store and built a cantina next door. Residents also remembered fighting to keep the park and community center site after it had been earmarked for condominiums. The Coast News, covering a 2025 park dedication, credited Cipriana Martínez Gonzalez with helping establish La Colonia Park in the 1970s.
That history shows in the December 13 lighting, which the La Colonia Community Foundation co-hosts with the City, with Mexican hot cocoa on the table.
Saturday, November 14, Runs at Both Ends of Town
November 14 is the one day this season when both parks have something scheduled, and the hours mostly overlap.
| Holiday Boutique | World Kindness Day | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | La Colonia Community Center, 715 Valley Ave. | Fletcher Cove Park |
| Hours | 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. | 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. |
| Host | Solana Beach Civic & Historical Society | City of Solana Beach |
| Getting there | Not specified | Bike storage from the San Diego Bike Coalition in the Fletcher Cove lot |
The boutique sells handmade items that crafters have been making all year. It also has a "buyers choice" vintage quilt sale and an opportunity drawing for a group-stitched quilt with a bookcase theme. The SeaWeeders will be there selling Christmas cactus in 6-inch pots for $12 and taking orders for Red Ecke poinsettias at $15 each. New this year, the SeaWeeders are also selling a 2027 calendar at the Post Office's "Love Above All" bench.
At Fletcher Cove, the City's World Kindness Day page lists RebikeSD tuning bikes at a repair station and live music from Rockademy. The Solana Beach Lifeguards will teach hands-only CPR. There will also be lawn games and craft stations for painting kindness rocks, making friendship bracelets and writing thank-you notes. A Fix-It Clinic runs inside the Fletcher Cove Community Center at 133 Pacific Avenue, and a clothing swap takes over the lawn outside. City Hall accepts clothing donations for the swap from November 2 through November 13.
Because the boutique opens an hour earlier, you can do both. Start on Valley Avenue at 9 for the best choice of handmade items, then head to the coast. Both events end at 2.
Two Tree Lightings, Same Santa Time
The two December lightings are a week apart, both on Sundays, and both are free.
At Fletcher Cove on December 6, festivities begin at 4:30 p.m. Mayor Lesa Heebner and the City Council flip the switch, and Santa arrives by fire-truck escort at 5:20. Besides the new snow hill there are sweets, hot cocoa and cider.
At La Colonia Park on December 13, things start at 5 p.m. and wrap up at 7. The mayor and council light the tree here too, and Santa arrives with his elves, again at 5:20. One heads-up: the City's page calls the day both Sunday and Saturday. December 13, 2026 is a Sunday.
Between the two lightings, the City runs Santa's Sleigh Ride on Friday, December 11, starting at 2:30 p.m. Santa rides along with Fire, Sheriff and Marine Safety personnel. The route starts and ends at the Solana Beach Fire Station, 500 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, and the City posts a map with estimated times for each part of town. The Civic & Historical Society's Holiday Luncheon falls a week earlier, on Friday, December 4, from noon to 2 at Lomas Santa Fe Country Club. It costs $50, reservations close December 1, and this year it honors Society Treasurer Holly Smith Jones as the 2026 Distinguished Citizen.
Dinner on Valley Avenue Has Been There the Longest
Each lighting comes with its own dinner options, and the ones near La Colonia have been around for generations.
Tony's Jacal at 621 Valley Avenue turns 80 this year. The Coast News covered the anniversary in April, reporting that Tony and Catalina Gonzalez opened it in their home in 1946, after Tony came back from World War II. That was 40 years before Solana Beach incorporated. The restaurant expanded several times into the building that's there now, with an outdoor patio, large dining rooms and a bar. Their grandson, Raymond Rincon Jr., manages it now. He told The Coast News:
"We're not just a restaurant to people, we're part of their lives."
The schedule works out well for the season. Tony's Jacal's posted hours run Sunday from noon to 8:30 p.m., so it's open on both tree-lighting Sundays. On Saturdays it serves lunch from 11 to 2, which matches the boutique's hours, then dinner from 4:30 to 9. Tuesday isn't on its regular schedule.
Fidel's Little Mexico has an origin story just as local. On its own site, the restaurant says it's been a Solana Beach tradition since the 1960s and that Fidel Montanez first served tacos out of his barber shop in Eden Gardens. The lounge opens every day at 4:30 p.m., with happy hour from 4:30 to 8. The taco bar runs Tuesday and Thursday through Sunday. If you're there on December 13, happy hour starts half an hour before the lighting and runs well past the 7 p.m. finish.
On the coast side, the newest option is Encore Sushi at 112 S. Cedros Avenue, in the space Kai Ola Sushi left in June. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that it's open Sunday from noon to 9 p.m., with happy hour Tuesday through Sunday from 3 to 5:30. It's closed Mondays. On December 6, Sunday happy hour starts before the 4:30 Fletcher Cove lighting and goes past it.
If you haven't walked down to the sand at Fletcher Cove lately, the access is new. The City finished the Fletcher Cove Beach Access Improvement Project in April. It replaced the ramp, nearby walkway, curb, handrail and drainage grate, added a shower at the bottom of the ramp and upgraded the existing shower area.
The Lot Next to La Colonia Park
La Colonia Park has room to grow, too. On July 16, 2025, the City Council unanimously approved updates to the park master plan and a set of interim improvements under Resolution 2025-088. For the vacant three-quarter-acre lot next to the park, the City's announcement listed a trail, shaded seating, landscaping and an event lawn. Interim construction was expected to start in 2026. The longer-range plan includes renovating the existing community center and building a proposed three-level youth-and-senior center on that lot. When the event lawn is finished, the park that already hosts the Veterans Day ceremony, the boutique and its own tree lighting will have more space for events.
If you're also thinking about how places like La Colonia and the blocks around Fletcher Cove fit your own plans, Aaron Castagna is glad to talk it through, whether that's over coffee or between the two tree lightings. Let's Connect.
