{"id":74788,"date":"2025-11-29T19:12:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/74788\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T19:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T19:12:07","slug":"ocean-beach-christmas-tree-eclectic-weird-very-ob-coming-dec-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/74788\/","title":{"rendered":"Ocean Beach Christmas tree \u2013 eclectic, weird, very OB \u2013 coming Dec. 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Last<\/a>Last year\u2019s Christmas tree arrived with live music provided by a couple of buskers on the Ocean Beach seawall. (Photo by Thomas Melville\/Peninsula Beacon) <\/p>\n

OCEAN BEACH \u2013 Last year\u2019s traditionally left-leaning Christmas tree in Ocean Beach tilted the wrong way.<\/p>\n

This year, that\u2019s going to be corrected, said Shelly Parks, an Ocean Beach Community Foundation<\/a> advisory board member and co-chair of the tree committee responsible for ensuring this year\u2019s standout pine gets planted and properly displayed in the sand on the beach at the end of Newport Avenue.<\/p>\n

The prize pine hits the sand on Tuesday, followed by a lighting ceremony kicking off the OB Holiday Parade on Dec. 6. Enjoy the tree all month long. But be sure to visit before it comes down on Jan. 2.<\/p>\n

Parks said the \u201cstar\u201d of OB\u2019s holiday festivities, the two- to three-story pine repurposed from a Peninsula donor, will fit right in with this year\u2019s holiday theme \u2013 Galactic Holiday Beach Bash.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have some weird aliens and planets on it,\u201d said Parks of the decorations, noting the theme, though a little otherworldly, definitely is in keeping with the community\u2019s offbeat character. \u201cIt\u2019s eclectic and weird and that\u2019s very Obecian,\u201d she pointed out.<\/p>\n

Parks added that community members wishing to participate in decorating the OB Christmas tree can pick up wooden stars to paint at the Vervor Shop, 4689 Voltaire St., and the Ocean Beach Business Center, 4967 Newport.<\/p>\n

OB Elementary students will be pitching in to decorate the pine with spacemen, aliens and spaceships, during a field trip on Friday after the Christmas tree has been installed at the beach.<\/p>\n

Of this year\u2019s donated tree, Parks said it\u2019s presently leaning against a fence in an apartment complex.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the chosen tree will be transported by flatbed truck with a police motorcycle escort down Newport where it will be planted with the aid of a crane. It\u2019s a significant effort with a sizable price tag.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe budget for this year\u2019s tree is $4,000, and it may end up costing up to $6,000,\u201d noted Parks, who explained that this year\u2019s tree is three stories and a bit longer \u201cso the cost of transporting it is a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parks said everyone involved in the annual OB Christmas tree planting and decoration is proud to be involved because, \u201cWe want to be OB, leaning a little to the left, a little funky and a little bit different than everyone else. That\u2019s why we can put aliens in our tree, and it\u2019s going to fit right in with our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tree origins<\/p>\n

Mike James, who is currently involved in Luminosity, a long-term project to find a viable high-tech alternative to launching Fourth of July fireworks from OB Pier, related the tale of how the community\u2019s first Newport Avenue Christmas tree got chosen, inaugurating the community\u2019s tree-planting tradition.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne evening, in the fall of 1980, my brothers Ron and Rich were having a few beers at the Sunshine Company Saloon,\u201d said James, noting that, earlier that year, Ocean Beach had its first community-supported Fourth of July Fireworks Festival. \u201cThe brothers began talking about what could be done to continue that positive community spirit for the upcoming Christmas holidays.<\/p>\n

\u201cRich mentioned the famous Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center (in New York City) and thought maybe OB could have its own community Christmas tree.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added James: \u201cThe story goes that at first they talked about a 20-foot tree. Then, as more beer was consumed, the proposed tree grew, so by the end of the night it became a 60-foot-tall tree.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The next morning, said James, \u201cRich began making phone calls to find out how someone could get a 60-foot tree. He finally found the people who supplied Disneyland with its giant Christmas tree and made an order. A committee was formed and money was\u00a0raised to pay for the tree and the lights by mainly selling commemorative T-shirts.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo save cost, Rich talked his friend Kenny into taking his semi-truck to Mt. Shasta to pick up the tree,\u201d said James. \u201cThey returned to Ocean Beach with a stunning 70-foot Star Pine to grace the beach at the foot of Newport Avenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is almost \u2013 but not quite \u2013 the end of James\u2019 story.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few days after the tree had arrived, Rich went to numerous bars up and down Newport and handed out kazoos to his many friends,\u201d he said. \u201cThey then assembled in front of Pacific Shores and Rich then led them down the middle of the street to the tree, while they hummed Christmas carols on their kazoos.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year\u2019s Christmas tree arrived with live music provided by a couple of buskers on the Ocean Beach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[29535,3101,43517,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-74788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-newport-avenue","tag-ocean-beach","tag-ocean-beach-christmas-tree","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}