With the last of the wrapping paper thrown away and the Christmas tree out of the living room, the holidays might now be the last thing on people’s minds. But in La Jolla, those who plan holiday celebrations are already thinking about how to secure money and permits for their 2026 events.
As with years past, in 2025 the organizers of La Jolla’s signature holiday events struggled with city of San Diego permits and processes and donations that didn’t come in when they were needed, sending some things down to the wire or requiring them to be modified so they could be carried out.
December events
The La Jolla Christmas Parade & Holiday Festival has had fewer or slower donations in recent years in the face of increases in San Diego fees. Organizers at times have said they might have to cancel the event.
Chairwoman Ann Kerr Bache said that in recent years, “city costs have skyrocketed to have a safe event, which is so important, but the city continues to increase the number and complexities of things we need to have to make it safe.”
When Kerr Bache started working with the event, the cost for police presence for the day was less than $1,000 but is now $11,000, she said. Overall, the cost of holding the parade has jumped from about $12,000 to almost $50,000, including signs, portable restrooms and permits.
Additionally, Kerr Bache said, “people don’t realize that we have expenses throughout the year, such as the website and storage. … I file for a permit for this year’s parade later this month and have certain fees I have to pay in May and June.”
Kerr Bache said she is in the process of paying off expenses related to the 2025 parade and will begin raising money for the next one soon.
“Now is the time to start thinking about volunteering or donating for the [2026] parade,” she said. However, she acknowledged that “If I wasn’t running the parade, I wouldn’t be thinking about it now.”
The fundraising and planning process for the parade has been more and more difficult the past few years, Kerr Bache said.
Though donations often can be slow, 2023 was particularly challenging, she said. The first week of November that year, Kerr Bache said the event was running short about $35,000 and was at risk of cancellation.
“We need the community’s help to raise the money to have the parade,” she said at the time. “We may have to pull the plug.”
Soon after, La Jolla philanthropist Dianne Bashor gave an undisclosed amount that enabled the parade to proceed.
Looking to prevent a similar crunch in subsequent years, parade organizers in 2024 created different levels of donation opportunities, ranging from the Founder’s Circle for annual donations of $5,000 to the Santa’s Helper level for donations of less than $500.
But as of the third week of November last year, about $30,000 was still needed to cover last-minute expenses for the event and help seed the 2026 parade.
Again, Bashor gave an undisclosed amount that allowed the parade to proceed. “If it wasn’t for Dianne, we wouldn’t have had a parade,” Kerr Bache said.
Though she is starting to plan this year’s parade, Kerr Bache said “I have to figure out if this is sustainable. The [2026 parade] would be our 70th, and it would be a shame for that not to happen.”
Similarly, the Kiwanis Club of La Jolla faced hurdles associated with city fees and permits for hanging the traditional “Season’s greetings” sign on the footbridge over Torrey Pines Road, leading it to be placed elsewhere in 2025.
In previous years, the sign was hung on the footbridge without going through the city’s permit process. But in 2024, the La Jolla Village Merchants Association decided it would no longer put it up because of the permit issue and costs and risks and that it would focus on other decorations and enhancements.
The Kiwanis Club offered to continue the tradition, partly with proceeds from its La Jolla Half Marathon and La Jolla Shores 5K. The club bought the sign from LJVMA for $1.
The club was unable to secure the city permit in time, and the sign was placed in front of resident Dan Courtney’s property facing Torrey Pines Road.
The traditional “Season’s greetings” sign is placed in front of La Jolla resident Dan Courtney’s home near the corner of Torrey Pines Road and La Jolla Shores Drive. (Noah Lyons)
So in 2025, the club began the city permit process in the middle of the year, but the costs of the required traffic plan proved prohibitive.
“This was considered an unusual permit for the city because they had never granted a permit to hang a sign on the footbridge,” said Kiwanis Club member Glen Rasmussen. “So we were told we had to pay an application [fee], have a traffic plan and a permit.”
The Kiwanis Club fronted the $5,000 for the permit, which is good for five years. But the $15,000 annual cost for the traffic plan was considered beyond the club’s budget. So late last year, the sign again was placed at Courtney’s property.
Going forward, Rasmussen said, “we have to consider whether it is worth it or whether to find someone to donate to make this happen year after year. We need to see what the community wants. It’s a lovely sign, but now that we know how much it costs, it’s a lot to do. The club will donate what we can, because we want to do this, but we have to have some financial support.”
Tax-deductible donations can be made for the “Season’s greetings” sign through the La Jolla Kiwanis Foundation at kiwanisclublajolla.org/make-a-donation.
Summer celebrations
It isn’t just the winter holidays that face obstacles.
When La Jolla hosted an annual Fourth of July fireworks show, which it did for more than 30 years before the COVID-19 pandemic, fundraising was a hurdle.
In 2018 and 2019, the event had to be canceled due to lack of funds. It was canceled again in 2020 because of the pandemic. In 2021, the California Coastal Commission said the display should be moved from La Jolla Cove, citing potential disturbance of sea lions at Point La Jolla and a failure of organizers to secure necessary permitting in time.
Despite a last-minute effort to put the show together or move it to another location, the 2021 event was canceled, and the fireworks show has not been revived.
A drone show that would not be disruptive to the pinnipeds was planned to replace it, and in 2023, a July Fourth drone show was launched from La Jolla Shores.
But that, too, is facing ongoing difficulties.
“It clearly is a challenge to fundraise for these events,” said show organizer Bill Kellogg, president of the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club. “We end up getting down to the wire, and I think as we get closer it gets more real for people and they step up at the last minute. But that is challenging because to plan events like that, we have to sign a contract and hire a firm and make deposits.
“The cost of the show is at least $50,000 … so if we have to make a $20,000 down payment in January, that money needs to come from somewhere, and that is not when people are really eager to give. It’s been a trick to figure it out.”
In the past few years, the club has paid the deposits or down payments to secure the permits, but that will not go on forever, Kellogg said.
“We would love to have people [donate] a little earlier because it gives us more options for planning and improving annually,” he said. “If the community is willing to help us do it, we are willing to do it every year indefinitely. But if we hold the bag every year, it might not be the best use of our funds.”
Therefore, he said, “it comes down to whether the community wants to hold it or not. If it doesn’t matter to people, at some point it won’t happen. … We’re not asking for large donations, we are just asking for a lot of small donations. People might think their smaller donations are meaningless, but that is not the case.”
Organizers are looking to establish a nonprofit entity to facilitate tax-deductible donations. Details are expected at the end of this month.
Alternative approach?
Looking to avoid the challenges associated with working with the city, the La Jolla Sunrise Rotary Club took an alternative approach to the traditional holiday tree lighting at the La Jolla Recreation Center.
The La Jolla Recreation Center Christmas tree is lighted following the ceremonial flipping of the switch last month. (Ashley Mackin-Solomon)
The decades-long custom of decorating and lighting the 80-foot pine at 615 Prospect St. stalled during the pandemic but was resurrected in 2024 by the Sunrise Rotary Club and La Jolla-based GDC Construction with a price tag of about $15,000 for new ornaments and lights. Community members ended up raising more than $20,000.
Following the success of that effort, Sunrise Rotary members again raised money and secured permits to light the tree in 2025.
But at the beginning of last year, the city revised how it issues permits and made it “more complicated [with] more provisions,” according to Rotarian Steve Cross.
“So we respectfully said no and we pivoted to working with the San Diego Parks Foundation because it already had a [right-of-entry] permit. … So we did the work under their permit,” Cross said. “That was the change that made things work in 2025.”
Should Rotary and the Parks Foundation decide to continue that partnership in 2026 and ’27, Cross said they will soon begin fundraising to add more decor to the tree and possibly have music and hot cocoa at the ceremonial lighting in December.
“We’re going to continue to broaden the fundraising effort,” he said. “We had some large donations and had some that were modest, [and] all of those are important. So the sooner we can get a permit and an agreement, then we will be in active communication with the community.”
Donations for the tree lighting can be given to the La Jolla Sunrise Rotary Foundation. Learn more at lajollasunriserotary.com.
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