Christmas Lights

The 2012 Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade will celebrate the beach. The 104th annual event's theme "Surf, Sand and Santa" was submitted by local Adam Gafke and was chosen out of more than 100 submissions. Gafke won two VIP spots on the official Santa Boat, which leads the parade. Newport Harbor residents decorate their homes, yachts, kayaks and boats with Christmas lights based on the theme every year for the five-night event hosted by the Commodores Club of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce.

Are yours up? Mine aren’t. Soon though. Speaking of Christmas lights, I’ve gotten a couple of requests to reprise “The Complete Guide to Hanging Christmas Lights,” or “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” We may do that at some point, ideally before Dec. 25, but there are important new developments in the tiny little light department that cannot wait. Remember, patience is a virtue — you can’t always get what you want, but sometimes, you get what you need.

DECORATE SAFE Here are some tips to best protect your home when hanging Christmas lights: Take time to inspect your lights before plugging them in. Look for places where the wires are bare or broken. Verify that all lights are designated for outdoor use. If an extension cord is needed, wrap the connection juncture tightly with electrical tape and keep suspended off the ground. Do not overload wall sockets. Be aware of power drains from extra appliances and common circuits.

Gondola Company of Newport owner Georgia Mahoney has seen a steady stream of newly engaged couples deboard her gondolas in the past few weeks. Suitors can opt to write out their marriage proposals, which are put into a bottle. A gondolier discreetly drops the bottle into the water for women to discover. “We are having a record number of proposals the week before Christmas this year,” Mahoney said. “We see a lot of diamonds, let me tell you.” Twinkling Christmas lights and fireworks make the holidays the ideal time for a romantic moonlit cruise on Newport Bay and beyond.

It's deja vu all over again. This is the day, my brothers. There's no way around it. It has to be done. Get them out, untangle them, climb that ladder and start tacking or stapling, your choice. Due to a deluge of requests -- assuming you consider three a deluge -- we herein reprise "The Official Peter Buffa Guide to Hanging Christmas Lights." Read it. Absorb it. Memorize it. But most of all, don't climb the ladder without it. Stretch and hang. Stretch and hang.

They called it “100 Years of Christmas Cheer.” Members and guests of the Center Stage Chapter of the Guilds supporting the Orange County Performing Arts Center came together to celebrate the holidays in grand style. The Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, Corona del Mar, welcomed the black-tie crowd for a holiday feast centered on a viewing of the spectacular Newport Harbor Christmas Boat Parade. The upbeat crowd braved the winter chill on the outside terrace of the yacht club singing holiday tunes as the boats passed by showing off their Christmas lights; some simple and others sensational.

Stretch, hang. Stretch, hang. Stretch and hang the Christmas lights. It is time. Interesting, isn't it? Every night, driving home, a few more houses shine bright. The neighborhood becomes an oversized jigsaw puzzle, a few pieces falling into place at a time. Christmas lights are a gender-sensitive issue. Women tend to notice the aesthetics of Christmas lights. Men are much more interested in timing. In our culture, getting the bulbs up is a guy thing. We hunt, we gather, we hang the lights.

From an 11-foot dinghy illuminated with flashing red and green lights to look like a Christmas tree to 70-foot yachts topped with saluting toy soldiers and dancing Santas, the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade set sail for its 101st year Wednesday night. Sail boats, electric boats and massive power yachts all adorned with strings of red, green and white Christmas lights crisscrossed Newport Harbor. Although it’s illegal for boats in the harbor to display Christmas lights, unless the vessel is a sanctioned entry in the parade, “the Harbor Patrol kind of looks the other way at this time of year,” parade emcee Mike Whitehead said.

For each of the past 15 years, Gay Wassall-Kelly has stood on the dock in front of her Balboa Peninsula home during the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade, wrapped from head to toe in Christmas lights and green tulle — a human Christmas tree of sorts. The outfit is rigged with 40 batteries to keep her Christmas cheer twinkling for the duration of the parade. “Now I’m down to double A’s,” she said Thursday. “LED lights help a lot.” Wassall-Kelly’s East Edgewater Avenue home also is illuminated with about 150 boxes worth of Christmas lights.

The 2012 Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade will celebrate the beach. The 104th annual event's theme "Surf, Sand and Santa" was submitted by local Adam Gafke and was chosen out of more than 100 submissions. Gafke won two VIP spots on the official Santa Boat, which leads the parade. Newport Harbor residents decorate their homes, yachts, kayaks and boats with Christmas lights based on the theme every year for the five-night event hosted by the Commodores Club of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce.

COSTA MESA - A white fir tree towering at a whopping 96 feet requires equally impressive presents. "If you have a tree as big as this, I would expect to see Santa sitting under there," said Newport Beach resident Jordan Kessler, 13, looking up at South Coast Plaza's holiday tree while waiting for the annual lighting ceremony to begin on Thursday. "Or Justin Beiber," added friend Rainey Finley, 13. The girls had just finished performing in an acting class at nearby South Coast Repertory and were meeting Jordan's family at the annual event, which attracts about 2,500 participants each year.

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays of the year. But it's actually become a second Father's Day in our house. It could have something to do with the kids going back to school, the changing of the seasons or the anticipation of a good scare, or the scores of candy that we purchase for the kids in our neighborhood. Since we live in my childhood home, I can recall that the house has been decorated many different ways. When I was younger, DayGlo green paper skeletons and funky homemade decorations adorned the windows.

I love Christmas and I'm a rabbi, so my love for Christmas is the love of a happy and respectful stranger. However, because of all that my dearest friend, Fr. Tom Hartman, taught me, I may, in fact, be a perfect stranger for Christmas. In full disclosure, I must say that I love Passover and Purim, Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot, Shavuot and Shabbat more than Christmas. I do love Christmas more than Hanukkah, because Hanukkah is just a poor ripoff of Christmas nowadays, and even in the old days, the Maccabees led the Hasmoneans, who were the most corrupt dynasty of Jewish priests in history.

From an 11-foot dinghy illuminated with flashing red and green lights to look like a Christmas tree to 70-foot yachts topped with saluting toy soldiers and dancing Santas, the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade set sail for its 101st year Wednesday night. Sail boats, electric boats and massive power yachts all adorned with strings of red, green and white Christmas lights crisscrossed Newport Harbor. Although it’s illegal for boats in the harbor to display Christmas lights, unless the vessel is a sanctioned entry in the parade, “the Harbor Patrol kind of looks the other way at this time of year,” parade emcee Mike Whitehead said.

The small-craft warnings should be lifted by the time you read my column, but be cautious if you plan to go boating this weekend. The weather system blowing through our area might produce rain that will wash debris down the rivers and storm drains directly into the ocean and the harbor. The first rain of the season, even if it is a slight sprinkle, can fill our waters with junk, technically called non-point source pollution. We have not had any rain in a long time, so think about all the debris that is just waiting to be washed down to sea level.

They called it “100 Years of Christmas Cheer.” Members and guests of the Center Stage Chapter of the Guilds supporting the Orange County Performing Arts Center came together to celebrate the holidays in grand style. The Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, Corona del Mar, welcomed the black-tie crowd for a holiday feast centered on a viewing of the spectacular Newport Harbor Christmas Boat Parade. The upbeat crowd braved the winter chill on the outside terrace of the yacht club singing holiday tunes as the boats passed by showing off their Christmas lights; some simple and others sensational.

For each of the past 15 years, Gay Wassall-Kelly has stood on the dock in front of her Balboa Peninsula home during the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade, wrapped from head to toe in Christmas lights and green tulle — a human Christmas tree of sorts. The outfit is rigged with 40 batteries to keep her Christmas cheer twinkling for the duration of the parade. “Now I’m down to double A’s,” she said Thursday. “LED lights help a lot.” Wassall-Kelly’s East Edgewater Avenue home also is illuminated with about 150 boxes worth of Christmas lights.

Are yours up? Mine aren’t. Soon though. Speaking of Christmas lights, I’ve gotten a couple of requests to reprise “The Complete Guide to Hanging Christmas Lights,” or “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” We may do that at some point, ideally before Dec. 25, but there are important new developments in the tiny little light department that cannot wait. Remember, patience is a virtue — you can’t always get what you want, but sometimes, you get what you need.