The Newport Beach Boat Parade is the premier Christmas event not only for Orange County and Los Angeles but Southern California. With over 100 years of history, the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade is viewed by over a million people each year. Newport Harbor comes alive with decorations for the boat parade. Homes, yachts, docks whole landscapes are transformed into a magical holiday experience. Newport Beach begins its holiday decorations after Thanksgiving and by the first of December the harbor is richly illuminated with thousands of lights and hundreds of themed estates.
Newport Beach Boat Parade began in 1907 with John Scarpa an Italian gondolier and Joseph Beek a developer and owner of the Balboa Ferry Line. The tradition began with John Scarpa taking a group of visitors from Pasadena across the bay in a gondola decorated with Japanese lanterns. A year later, on July 4, 1908, the first lighted boat parade took place.
As the name suggests the Newport Beach Boat Parade is centered on boats or probably a better term would be ships, well and boats and all sorts of other water craft. With over 200 plus entrants in the parade it has it all. The Newport Beach Boat Parade is about the homes and estates in full décor (in fact there is a separate contest just for this category called “The Ring Of Lights”), and the people participating in the parade (guests, musicians, spectators, boat owners, families, friends).
According to orangecounty.net; abc7.com. Source of photos: internet
