Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane Assn. depends on greater than 100 volunteers to put in its annual vacation gentle show and set up its free winter competition and lighting ceremony, scheduled for Dec. 6 this yr.
However with the group in ruins and greater than half of its volunteers displaced by the Eaton hearth in January, will the affiliation have sufficient helpers — and coronary heart — to get the job performed?
Really, says affiliation President Scott Wardlaw, the larger concern now could be whether or not the group will likely be deluged with volunteers when work begins this month hanging lengthy strands of lights on the large droopy limbs of the 135 deodar cedars that line both facet of Santa Rosa Avenue, a.ok.a. Christmas Tree Lane, for practically a mile.
The 135 deodar cedars lining each side of Santa Rosa Avenue, a.ok.a. Christmas Tree Lane, in Altadena survived just about intact after the Eaton hearth in January, apart from just a few massive branches that had been damaged by the fierce winds that fueled the hearth.
(Jeanette Marantos / Los Angeles Occasions)
That’s why this yr — the occasion’s a hundred and fifth anniversary — affiliation leaders are asking for volunteers to enroll forward of time, Wardlaw mentioned, to allow them to be certain that they’ve sufficient helpers and sufficient jobs for these helpers over the following 10 to 12 weekends it typically takes to place up the lights.
The affiliation began getting inquiries this summer season from individuals round Southern California, mentioned Mikayla Arevalo, the affiliation’s volunteer coordinator and communications director. Individuals wished to know if the bushes survived the hearth that destroyed greater than 9,400 buildings in Altadena and whether or not they may assist the favored winter competition and lighting ceremony return once more this yr.
One of many miracles of the hearth is that the cedars did survive, largely intact apart from just a few limbs that had been damaged within the fierce winds. Some residents credit score the large bushes for sheltering the properties beneath from the wind-driven embers that destroyed many different buildings.
The lights had been nonetheless on the bushes when the winds started in January, however a number of strings had been damaged. Many of the affiliation’s tools survived in storage bins regardless of their proximity to different buildings that burned.
In November 2024, Christmas Tree Lane volunteers Casty Fortich, from left, and Temple Metropolis Excessive Faculty scholar Endurance Cam attempt to swing strands of lights onto one of many large deodar cedars that line the highway, whereas volunteer Feli Hernandez, far proper, waits with one other strand. Within the heart, Scott Wardlaw affords recommendation and encouragement.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Occasions)
Issues didn’t go so nicely for Christmas Tree Lane’s longtime Santa, Jim Vitale. The 1905-era dwelling, the place he and his spouse, artist Dale LaCasella, had lived since 1993, burned together with all their belongings.
Regardless of the aftermath of the hearth, the longtime volunteers for the affiliation will likely be again this yr on the competition, though they now dwell 25 miles east in La Verne. Vitale and LaCasella began taking part in Santa and Mrs. Claus, respectively, for the winter competition about 15 years in the past.
Jim Vitale sits in his lounge carrying his private Santa Claus costume in 2023, about 13 months earlier than his dwelling and costume items had been destroyed within the Eaton hearth.
(Dale LaCasella)
Vitale’s elaborate Santa costume, together with his 130-year-old strand of brass sleigh bells and hand-carved belt, had been all destroyed within the hearth, together with LaCasella’s handmade green-and-red felt elf footwear and vest.
“We managed to leave the site with two cars, two laptops, our cat and the clothes on our backs,” Vitale mentioned. “All our buildings, my [backyard] winery, my wife’s studio in our old carriage house, my library with 10,000 volumes about architecture and the history of California … all gone.”
LaCasella, a retired lawyer, mentioned she and her husband determined towards rebuilding “because we’re too old. I’m almost 80 and I decided I couldn’t wait two years in some temporary location” till the home was rebuilt. However she’s nonetheless very concerned in her outdated group because the president of the senior heart, which was destroyed within the hearth.
She drives into Altadena just a few days per week to show artwork courses and assist discover a new place for the seniors to satisfy till the middle may be rebuilt.
Vitale, a retired dwelling inspector and accessibility specialist for the state, is busy reassembling Santa costume elements. He has performed Santa for years at varied places in Southern California, together with Riverside’s Mission Inn, however his daylong volunteer stint as Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane Santa is dearest to his coronary heart.
Jim Vitale and his spouse, Dale LaCasella, go to the barren stays of their Altadena entrance yard in August, seven months after their 1905 Craftsman dwelling and outbuildings had been destroyed by the Eaton hearth. They imagine they’re too outdated to rebuild, and now dwell in La Verne, 25 miles east.
(Marcus Ubungen / For The Occasions)
“As long as I can still walk and talk, and whether I live in La Verne or wherever, I’ll will always be their Santa until the Lord says, ‘Hang it up,’” Vitale mentioned. “It’s for the love of Altadena and the history behind Altadena. You see other [communities] where people aren’t talking to each other and they have walls all around, but that’s not what Altadena and Christmas Tree Lane are about. It’s about talking to your neighbors and welcoming people. There’s just a sense of pride you don’t see in other places, and I want to preserve that history and that feeling.”
It’s exhausting to pinpoint what makes Christmas Tree Lane’s bare-bone gentle show so fashionable. Guests received’t expertise any flashing lights, dancing elves or blaring carols. It’s only a quiet drive beneath a close to mile of stately cedars bedecked with strings of multicolor lights.
“I think the simplicity is what really draws people,” Arevalo mentioned. “That and the tradition. … We’re a historical landmark, and I think people just love the small town feel. When you’re driving through, it seems like you’re out in the woods somewhere, not in a city. It just feels magical.”
A classic postcard bearing a 1947 postmark, from Occasions author and columnist Patt Morrison’s assortment, tells the story of Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane. If that yr was the twenty second lighting, then the 100-year anniversary in 2025 is shortly approaching.
Christmas Tree Lane attracts hundreds of holiday makers yearly, who slowly drive for practically a mile beneath a quiet cover of large cedar branches and lights. “I think the simplicity is what really draws people,” mentioned volunteer coordinator Mikayla Arevalo.
(Los Angeles Occasions)
However creating that magic requires weeks of strenuous work, Arevalo mentioned. Volunteers usually begin stringing lights the second weekend of September, however the begin date hasn’t been set but this yr as a result of the affiliation remains to be making an attempt to finalize its required permits with the county.
Volunteers work each Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to midday till the work is completed, often by early November. The employees test and change the massive plastic bulbs on the lengthy strings of lights after which use pulleys and hoists to hold and typically muscle these lengthy strands of faceted lights onto the branches.
This yr, employees may also have to assemble new 15-foot-strands of lights as a result of many had been damaged in the course of the windstorm that fueled the Eaton hearth, Wardlaw mentioned. Volunteers should be a minimum of age 13 to assist. Many native highschool college students are common volunteers on the light-stringing classes and earn the 40 volunteer hours they should graduate.
That’s how Warren and Isabelle Skidmore’s household received concerned a few years in the past, when their daughters Hannah, 19, and Tessa, 17, began serving to as freshmen at John Muir Excessive Faculty. In the end, the women earned greater than 400 volunteer hours, primarily from engaged on Christmas Tree Lane.
Hannah Skidmore, 19, left, and her sister, Tessa, 17, have been devoted, longtime volunteers of Christmas Tree Lane and intend to proceed this yr though their Altadena dwelling was destroyed within the Eaton hearth. They now dwell in Sierra Madre till their childhood dwelling may be rebuilt.
(Marcus Ubungen / For The Occasions)
Initially, they confirmed up simply to get their hours, Hannah mentioned. However they quickly got here to appreciate that the work they had been doing was persevering with a convention they’d beloved as little children — and brought with no consideration, by no means realizing how many individuals it requires yr after yr to make it occur.
“When you see thousands of people show up [for the lighting ceremony], it feels good to know you helped make it happen,” Hannah mentioned.
Tessa mentioned she was initially motivated to place in all these additional hours for the problem of incomes the 200-hour volunteer medallion provided at the highschool, however by the tip, she mentioned, “We were doing it for the love of being on the lane.”
It’s not just like the Skidmores aren’t busy. Their dwelling — the one dwelling the women have ever recognized — was considered one of some 6,000 destroyed within the Eaton hearth, so now the household is principally tenting out in a Sierra Madre condominium till their home may be rebuilt. Warren, an astrophysicist, is performing because the subcontractor for his or her rebuilding venture, however he additionally accepted a brand new job in Hawaii proper after the hearth as deputy director of NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility on the College of Hawaii.
Warren comes dwelling to Altadena as many weekends as he can handle, however Isabelle mentioned she stayed in Sierra Madre to be his “boots on the ground,” ensuring the varied jobs are accomplished, whereas their daughters go to highschool at Pasadena Metropolis School.
Isabelle Skidmore, left, her husband, Warren, and their two daughters Hannah, 19, (within the tree) and Tessa, 17, have been longtime volunteers for Christmas Tree Lane and intend to proceed this yr.
(Marcus Ubungen / For The Occasions)
Tessa, who was the valedictorian at John Muir Excessive Faculty in June (see her speech right here beginning at 45:40), entered faculty as a sophomore due to all the faculty credit she earned in highschool (“I like challenging myself,” she mentioned). Tessa needs a profession in prison justice, and Hannah is an aspiring graphic artist and musician who performs bass in a neighborhood band, Exit 23.
Regardless of their schedules, discovering time to work on Christmas Tree Lane feels extra essential than ever this yr, Tessa and Hannah mentioned, as a result of they understand the custom may have been misplaced together with so many different issues destroyed within the hearth.
Hannah mentioned considered one of her and her sister’s first ideas after the hearth was concerning the destiny of Christmas Tree Lane.
“I just think this community, Altadena, is so special,” Hannah mentioned. “It’s like what Joni Mitchell says, ‘You don’t know what you have until it’s gone.’ That’s why we’re so tight-knit, even though we’ve been so dispersed. We know what we had, and that’s why it’s so valuable to us.”
