EDITORIAL - THE LAST WORD:A priceless Newport tradition

You’d think that after 98 years, the Christmas Boat Parade would lose a little bit of its magical luster and be just a mere twinkle in our memories. But just ask any local who has seen the boat parade — year after year after year — and they’ll tell you they can’t imagine Christmas in Newport Beach without it.

Ask any visitor or any child who first lays eyes on this spectacle and they’ll tell you they’ll never forget it.

Almost a century ago, when a gondolier named John Scarpa teamed up with Balboa Ferry founder Joseph Beek and started what was then called the Tournament of Lights, they could not have possibly fathomed what a tradition they had launched. But nowadays, the parade is a local institution that just cannot be matched.

It’s not just the 100 or so boats cruising the harbor decked out in the best of Christmas decorations, or the homes that ring the harbor, equally sparkling with holiday cheer.

No, the parade is big business.

Chamber President Richard Luehrs said trying to quantify the parade’s economic significance was too difficult to do.

“We found the impact the parade had on the local economy got up to the multimillions of dollars…. Once it got into the tens of millions of dollars, we stopped adding this up and just said it’s huge,” Luehrs told the Pilot.

We think we can sum it up though. That famous credit card commercial says it best: Priceless.