City readies holiday plans

Laguna Beach will kick off the holiday season Dec. 1 with a night of tradition and fun.

It’s the 50th annual “Hospitality Night” sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce.

Downtown will come alive with music and revelry, and businesses will stay open until 9:30 p.m.

The evening’s festivities will start at 5 p.m. with a concert by the Thurston Middle School Band in front of City Hall, 505 Forest Avenue.

Santa Claus will arrive in style — this year riding on a new Mini Cooper that will be raffled off. Then Santa, with the help of city officials, will light up the historic pepper tree in front of City Hall at 6 p.m.

Santa will then parade down Forest Ave. to his special house at the corner of Forest Avenue and Glenneyre Street, where he will spend the evening visiting with children — after picking the winner of the Mini Cooper.

The Presbyterian Church at 415 Forest Ave. will hold its annual open house, beginning at 5 p.m., with holiday tamales, cookies, hot cider and Christmas carol sing-alongs.

The church’s senior handbell choir will play at 5 p.m., followed by a community sing-along from 6 to 7 p.m.

The Showpros Group will capture the holiday spirit with multi-media projections of the activities throughout downtown on a huge screen suspended over Forest Avenue.

Music will be heard throughout downtown, including the Laguna High School Band, Community Band and strolling carolers from St. Catherine’s Catholic School.

The San Clemente Scots Pipe Band will march, drum and pipe their way up and down streets in downtown.

In addition to the Mini Cooper raffle, the chamber is also raffling a one-week trip for two to Fiji, including airfare and accomodations.

A maximum of 500 tickets will be sold for each item, with the Mini Cooper tickets costing $100 each and the Fiji trip tickets $50 each. One of each can be purchased for a total of $125.

For more information and to purchase raffle tickets, call the Chamber of Commerce (949) 494-1018, e-mail info@ lagunabeachchamber.org or visit www.lagunabeach chamber.org.