It is billed as “the City of San Diego’s largest free holiday festival in beautiful Balboa Park.” Every year, on the first Friday and Saturday nights in December, hundreds of thousands of people gather in Balboa Park. This “family friendly event brings San Diegans together to enjoy the lights, the sounds, the attractions and of course, the amazing food.” There is so much to see and do that you cannot possibly do it all, but each year I try.
It is a colossal open house. Many of Balboa Parks museums open their doors free of charge to the public, to check out the exhibits and enjoy some holiday cheer.
The San Diego History Center had a breathtaking photo op in front of a spectacular 15-foot live poinsettia tree.
The San Diego Automotive Museum included a photo op with Santa seated in their 1909 Harvester, “all decked out for the holidays.”
I love visiting the San Diego Model Railroad Museum — especially its massive Toy Train Gallery layout, which was also decked out for the holidays.
The community really goes above and beyond when it comes to performers and free entertainment at “December Nights.”. The complete list is far too long to list here, but to give you an idea of the number and variety of performers on the various stages throughout Balboa Park, participants included Impact Dance Company, Flamenco Arana, Jam Diego, School of Rock San Diego, The Blennies, Honeytones, Musicians Club of San Diego, San Diego Taiko, Christi’s Advanced Dance, Makana Kai, Ballet Institute of San Diego, San Diego Cooperative Charter School, SeaWorld, eKlectic Dance Company, The Dancehouse, The Microphone Doctors, Lady J & the Soulful Knights, Super Tonic, San Diego Civic Dance Company, Raylin Cloggers, Mariea Antoinette, WorldBeat African Drum & Dance Ensemble, San Diego Korean Pungmul Institute, Bonita Vista High School’s The Music Machine & Sound Unlimited, Higher Authority, Back Pocket Whiskey Fellas, San Diego Christian Suzuki Strings, Heart of Praise, Flamenco Sur Dance Co., Ballet Folkorico El Tapatio de San Dieguito, Lets Dance for fun, Naruwan Taiko, Legendary Lion Dance Association, Belles, Sax Diego, Brendan Prout Band, Bonneville 7 with Rip Carson, Peninsula Singers, The Association of Professionals and Student Master Chorale, Raul Prieto Ramirez — San Diego Civic Organist, Marine Band San Diego, Martin Luther King Jr. Community Choir San Diego, San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus, Christmas Story Tree San Diego, San Diego Women’s Chorus, San Diego City Guard Band, The San Diego Chorus of Sweet Adelines International, House of Scotland Pipe Band, San Diego Junior Theater, Mariachi International San Diego, San Diego Humane Society, Don’t Try This at Home Show and San Diego Public Library Story Time.
This year’s “December Nights” was extra special for the historic, iconic Botanical Building, which reopened to the public on Friday, after being closed since January 2022 for a major renovation project.
As we learned from https://www.sandiego.gov/cip/projectinfo/BotanicalBuilding, “The Balboa Park Botanical Building was built in 1915 as part of the Panama-California Exposition and is one of only four structures that were designed to remain as permanent features in the park. Recognized as one of the largest wood lath structures in the world, the building was designed to showcase the importance of horticulture and is home to hundreds of plants, including rare, tropical and indigenous fauna.
A steady stream of visitors toured the building, iring the beautiful redwood on the walls and the amazing collection of plants.
After all that walking around, you’d surely be hungry. There was an incredible variety of food vendors all over Balboa Park, plus several of the International Houses (a group of 33 nations and cultural groups) prepared some of their nations’ ethnic cuisine — as well as presenting “traditional song, dance and instrumental performances.” For me, “December Nights” just would not be complete without delicious paella from the House of Spain.
For more information about “December Nights,” visit https://www.sandiego.gov/december-nights, and be sure to mark your calendar the first Friday and Saturday in December for next year’s “December Nights” in Balboa Park.
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