Altadena’s Christmas Tree Lane Assn. depends on greater than 100 volunteers to put in its annual vacation gentle show and manage its free winter competition and lighting ceremony, scheduled for Dec. 6 this 12 months.
However with the neighborhood 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 can 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 giant branches that have been damaged by the fierce winds that fueled the hearth.
(Jeanette Marantos / Los Angeles Occasions)
That’s why this 12 months — the occasion’s a hundred and fifth anniversary — affiliation leaders are asking for volunteers to enroll forward of time, Wardlaw stated, 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 usually takes to place up the lights.
The affiliation began getting inquiries this summer time from folks round Southern California, stated 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 12 months.
One of many miracles of the hearth is that the cedars did survive, largely intact apart from just a few limbs that have 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 have been nonetheless on the bushes when the winds started in January, however a number of strings have been damaged. A lot of the affiliation’s gear 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 pupil 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 middle, Scott Wardlaw gives recommendation and encouragement.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Occasions)
Issues didn’t go so effectively 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 can be again this 12 months 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 front room sporting his private Santa Claus costume in 2023, about 13 months earlier than his dwelling and costume items have 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, have been all destroyed within the hearth, together with LaCasella’s handmade green-and-red felt elf sneakers and vest.
“We managed to depart the positioning with two vehicles, two laptops, our cat and the garments on our backs,” Vitale stated. “All our buildings, my [backyard] vineyard, my spouse’s studio in our outdated carriage home, my library with 10,000 volumes about structure and the historical past of California … all gone.”
LaCasella, a retired lawyer, stated she and her husband determined in opposition to rebuilding “as a result of we’re too outdated. I’m virtually 80 and I made a decision I couldn’t wait two years in some momentary location” till the home was rebuilt. However she’s nonetheless very concerned in her outdated neighborhood because the president of the senior middle, which was destroyed within the hearth.
She drives into Altadena just a few days per week to show artwork lessons and assist discover a new place for the seniors to fulfill till the middle might be rebuilt.
Vitale, a retired dwelling inspector and accessibility specialist for the state, is busy reassembling Santa costume components. He has performed Santa for years at numerous 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 have 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)
“So long as I can nonetheless stroll and discuss, and whether or not I dwell in La Verne or wherever, I’ll will at all times be their Santa till the Lord says, ‘Cling it up,’” Vitale stated. “It’s for the love of Altadena and the historical past behind Altadena. You see different [communities] the place folks aren’t speaking to one another they usually have partitions throughout, however that’s not what Altadena and Christmas Tree Lane are about. It’s about speaking to your neighbors and welcoming folks. There’s only a sense of delight you don’t see somewhere else, and I need to protect that historical past and that feeling.”
It’s arduous to pinpoint what makes Christmas Tree Lane’s bare-bone gentle show so in style. 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 feel the simplicity is what actually attracts folks,” Arevalo stated. “That and the custom. … We’re a historic landmark, and I feel folks simply love the small city really feel. Once you’re driving by way of, it looks like you’re out within the woods someplace, not in a metropolis. It simply 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 12 months was the twenty second lighting, then the 100-year anniversary in 2025 is shortly approaching.
Christmas Tree Lane attracts 1000’s of tourists yearly, who slowly drive for practically a mile beneath a quiet cover of large cedar branches and lights. “I feel the simplicity is what actually attracts folks,” stated volunteer coordinator Mikayla Arevalo.
(Los Angeles Occasions)
However creating that magic requires weeks of strenuous work, Arevalo stated. Volunteers usually begin stringing lights the second weekend of September, however the begin date hasn’t been set but this 12 months 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, normally by early November. The employees test and substitute the massive plastic bulbs on the lengthy strings of lights after which use pulleys and hoists to hold and generally muscle these lengthy strands of faceted lights onto the branches.
This 12 months, employees can even must assemble new 15-foot-strands of lights as a result of many have been damaged through the windstorm that fueled the Eaton hearth, Wardlaw stated. Volunteers must be not less than 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 obtained 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 12 months though their Altadena dwelling was destroyed within the Eaton hearth. They now dwell in Sierra Madre till their childhood dwelling might be rebuilt.
(Marcus Ubungen / For The Occasions)
Initially, they confirmed up simply to get their hours, Hannah stated. However they quickly got here to appreciate that the work they have been doing was persevering with a practice that they had liked as little children — and brought without any consideration, by no means realizing how many individuals it requires 12 months after 12 months to make it occur.
“Once you see 1000’s of individuals present up [for the lighting ceremony], it feels good to know you helped make it occur,” Hannah stated.
Tessa stated she was initially motivated to place in all these further hours for the problem of incomes the 200-hour volunteer medallion supplied at the highschool, however by the top, she stated, “We have been 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 identified — was considered one of some 6,000 destroyed within the Eaton hearth, so now the household is principally tenting out in a Sierra Madre residence till their home might be rebuilt. Warren, an astrophysicist, is performing because the subcontractor for his or her rebuilding undertaking, 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 stated she stayed in Sierra Madre to be his “boots on the bottom,” ensuring the assorted jobs are accomplished, whereas their daughters go to highschool at Pasadena Metropolis Faculty.
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 12 months.
(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 school credit she earned in highschool (“I like difficult myself,” she stated). Tessa desires a profession in legal 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 necessary than ever this 12 months, Tessa and Hannah stated, as a result of they understand the custom may have been misplaced together with so many different issues destroyed within the hearth.
Hannah stated considered one of her and her sister’s first ideas after the hearth was concerning the destiny of Christmas Tree Lane.
“I simply assume this neighborhood, Altadena, is so particular,” Hannah stated. “It’s like what Joni Mitchell says, ‘You don’t know what you may have till it’s gone.’ That’s why we’re so tight-knit, though we’ve been so dispersed. We all know what we had, and that’s why it’s so helpful to us.”
